Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Miami Film Festival, opened on Friday, March 9, at the Olympia Theate, with Charlize Theron's starring role in Jason Reitman's "Tully." The festival continues this week with plenty more world premieres and parties.
On Friday, March 16, the Festival will give its Precious Gem - Icon Award to French actress Isabelle Huppert, recent Oscar nominee for "Elle" and the most nominated actress in César Award history – a total of 16 nominations from France’s Academy – winning twice. She has also twice won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, in a career that has seen her work with some of the greatest directors of contemporary times. Huppert will be honored on Friday, March 16 at the Olympia Theater.
“Isabelle Huppert has made profound contributions to cinema over the course of her illustrious career,” Laplante said. “With her recent performances in Things to Come and Elle, as well as Souvenir and Claire’s Camera, both of which we will be screening in conjunction with her Festival appearance, Ms. Huppert reaches ever-new pinnacles that continually astonish us, and add to her iconic status.”
In all, the Festival will present 148 feature narratives, documentaries and short films of all genres, from 50 different countries, including three countries being represented in the Festival’s Official Selection for the first time– Benin, Georgia and Swaziland. The 35th edition of the Festival runs March 9 - 18.
(See the Complete Program Here: 2018.miamifilmfestival.com/program/; Download the complete program in PDF: Download Complete Catalogue)
Thirty-eight of the films are directed or co-directed by women filmmakers. The Festival will wrap up with an Awards Night Gala on Saturday, March 17, screening at Olympia Theater of the International premiere of Curro Velázquez’s smash hit Spanish comedy "Holy Goalie (Que baje Dios y lo vea)", with star Alain Hernández in attendance. All Olympia Theater screenings are part of the Festival’s CINEDWNTWN GALA series, sponsored by Miami Downtown Development Authority. A KORBEL Awards Night Party at The Historic Alfred I. Dupont Building will follow the Awards Night ceremony and screening.
Ethan Hawke in "First Reformed"
Academy Award winning filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist") and revered American screenwriter and director Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver," "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters," "Affliction") will attend the Festival for Marquee presentations of their newest films. The Festival’s Marquee series features screenings accompanied by on-stage conversations with major film personalities of the moment, discussing their career and sharing an exciting new work. Hazanavicius will present "Godard Mon Amour," his serio-comic look at Jean-Luc Godard’s love affair with the actress Anne Wiazemsky during the shooting of his classic films "La Chinoise" and "Weekend." Schrader will present "First Reformed," a dramatic thriller starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried and Cedric The Entertainer. They join (previously announced) Mateo Gil and Jean-Marc Barr in the Marquee section.
The Festival’s specialty programmers are Carl Spence, Thom Powers, Kiva Reardon, Lauren Cohen and Diana Cadavid. Michelle F. Solomon, editor of miamiartzine.com, and Ruben Rosario, film critic for miamiartzine.com are part of the jury selection committee for the festival's Rene Rodriguez Award.
Individual tickets for all Festival events are on sale. Festival members have the opportunity for pre-buy. For more information, visit miamifilmfestival.com or call 1-844-565-6433 (MIFF) or 305-237-FILM (3456).
