Events: Film

Empire

Saturday, Feb 21, 2026 at 1:30 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director, Producers: Brittnay Therese Dawson, Which is one of our Featured Documentary Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

What began as one man's tribute to his late father became a cultural force that reshaped South Florida's cigar scene. Empire follows the journey of a modest lounge as it transforms into a hidden world of sophistication, ritual, and belonging a place where people from every walk of life come together to find community and connection, all forged through the leaf. At its core, the film is an invitation to slow down and rediscover the quiet art of conversation in an increasingly disconnected world.

SPECIAL GUESTS: Brittnay Therese Dawson and others from Empire

Saffron Robe

Saturday, Feb 21, 2026 at 11:30 AM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director Jane Centofante, Which is one of our Featured Buddhism/Spiritual Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Preserving a sacred path to change the destiny of a new generation.

Saffron Robe is a feature documentary that follows a revered Buddhist abbot in the remote northern region of Laos, as he navigates the challenges of a sacred life under a communist regime.

SPECIAL GUEST: Jane Centofante.

The Roots

Saturday, Feb 21, 2026 at 3:00 PM - English

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USA Premier / Spain / 2024 / English / 90 min / Thriller

Director: Omar Bermudez; Writer: Luis Manuel Lopez Roman, Juan Velarde; Producer: Jose Magan

A man attempts to escape his tragic past by finding work at an olive press in a remote village. He soon discovers that the ghosts following him are not the only ones lurking in the shadows.

Director Biography - After more than ten years as a postproduction coordinator and film editor and several years working as a director for English agencies, Omar Bermudez made his debut as a film director with The Roots, a psychological thriller about how people can go on while he fights with his ghosts of the past. This project was a huge challenge due to the complexity of the shooting: 10 days and an international cast with big actors such as Paz de la Huerta, Agnes Bruckner and Owen Roe.

Words of War

Saturday, Feb 21, 2026 at 4:45 PM - English

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In A World Silenced by Fear, Her Truth was Unstoppable.

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya risked everything to speak the truth. As an unflinching, independent voice for the Russian people, her fearless reporting exposed injustice, brutality, and corruption placing her life in constant danger. Though she was ultimately silenced, her voice endures. Anna Politkovskaya's legacy lives on as a powerful testament to the courage of journalism and a stark reminder of the deadly risks faced by those who refuse to look away. Her story demands vigilance, reminding us that the right to report the truth must be defended at any cost.

California Scenario

Sunday, Feb 22, 2026 at 6:30 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director James Takata. Which is one of our Feature Drama Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

When single parents Jacob and Laura separately bring their struggling children to Noguchi's sculpture garden to grapple with shared family legacies of survival, they discover the possibility of building something new together... one day.

California Scenario

Sunday, Feb 22, 2026 at 6:30 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director James Takata. Which is one of our Feature Drama Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

When single parents Jacob and Laura separately bring their struggling children to Noguchi's sculpture garden to grapple with shared family legacies of survival, they discover the possibility of building something new together... one day.

Land of the Mustaches

Sunday, Feb 22, 2026 at 2:00 PM - English

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SPECIAL GUEST: Rutanya Alda

For the children and women of all wars, it never leaves.

Land of the Mustaches is an autobiographical story of a young girl growing up in the Displaced Persons refugee camps with her mother and grandmother after World War Two left them starving and stateless, and her father’s disappearance into Stalin’s notorious Gulag labor camps in Siberia with only what he was wearing the day he was abducted two hard paths that parallel each other until they finally merge into one story: The ultimate celebration of resilience and the human spirit.

My Underground Mother

Sunday, Feb 22, 2026 at 12:00 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director. Producer, Writer: Marisa Fox at this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. SPECIAL GUESTS: Marisa Fox.

"You think you know your mother until you don't," says filmmaker Marisa Fox. Tamar was a New York doctor's wife who claimed she fled her native Poland on the cusp of World War II and was never a Holocaust "victim." Twenty years after her death, Fox, now a journalist and mother, learns Tamar had a secret identity and chases down leads that span the globe, uncovering a story of Nazi trafficking and a defiant band of sisters in a women's forced labor camp. Dogged research, extraordinary archival imagery and staggeringly candid interviews reveal a portrait of a woman who dared to be the hero of her own story, transforming herself from Nazi slave to freedom fighter, from refugee to spy and saboteur, ultimately reinventing herself as a matriarch in America. A real-life story of a daughter coming to terms with a woman who went to extraordinary lengths not to be defined by trauma.

Sell Out

Sunday, Feb 22, 2026 at 8:30 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Directors, Writers: Nick Ashy Holden and Josh Ashy Holden, Which is one of our Feature Drama Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

A neurotic novelist can't tell if his biggest problem is the blank page, his Southern family or his best friends off the rails political campaign.

SPECIAL GUESTS: Nick Ashy Holden

Director Statement
We are thrilled about this film. It is a passion project made from love, and we designed the shoot so we could make it the way we wanted, with plenty of time on set, which allowed us to explore the characters and find material we loved. We are proud of the film and believe it's a very timely story about not only what it means to sell out today, but also about what it means to be true to yourself.

A Book of Freedom: The Confessions of Francisco Menéndez

Monday, Feb 23, 2026 at 4:00 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this Free screening from the African American Research Library. Which is one of our Feature Documentary’s in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Autisto

Monday, Feb 23, 2026 at 8:30 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director Jerome Cohen–Olivar; Producers: Zhor Rose Fassi-Fihri.. Which is one of our Feature Mystery Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Descent – Into the Blue

Monday, Feb 23, 2026 at 5:15 PM - English

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Nominated for Two Suncoast Emmys for Best Director & Best Original Screenplay: Descent.

Into the Blue is a powerful and impactful documentary narrated by Peter Coyote, showcasing the best of the human spirit the fight to save our ocean's ecosystem and critically endangered coral reefs. The film's inspiration was the original symphony Terra Nostra, musically portraying the story of climate change. The documentary features stunning 6K underwater cinematography, researchers and volunteers who tirelessly strive to reverse the damage and preserve our vital coral reefs. DESCENT is cinematic, uniquely featuring poetry written and recited by young students, inspired by our oceans. The opening Starfish parable sets the theme that we all can make a small difference.

Sharks

Monday, Feb 23, 2026 at 6:30 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director, Writer: Elias Holgersson, Which is one of our Feature Crime Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

A thief on the verge of self-ruin gets his life thrown upside down when his paths cross with a professional organization. 'Sharks' is a black-and-white neo-noir drama-thriller about a man on the margins of society who becomes ensnared in a criminal underworld. What begins as petty theft spirals into a deadly moral unraveling.

SPECIAL GUESTS: Elias Holgersson.

Aftershocks

Tuesday, Feb 24, 2026 at 5:30 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director Jerome Cohen–Olivar; Producers: Zhor Rose Fassi-Fihri.. Which is one of our Feature Mystery Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

A Walk Along the Borne

Wednesday, Feb 25, 2026 at 5:30 PM - English

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East Coast Premiere / Spain / 2024 / Spanish w/English subtitles / 112 min / Comedy, Drama

Director, Writer: Nick Igea; Writer: Elio Quiroga, Zebina Guerra; Producers: Nick Igea, Elisa Saldana.

The students taking a film course, in a small city, have the dream of one day making movies. Their teacher, somebody who once sailed and wrecked that same objective years before, doesn't want to get involved in their dreams and illusions so that they does not end up like the failure he feels that he has become.

If You Should Leave Before Me

Thursday, Feb 26, 2026 at 8:45 PM - English

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SPECIAL GUESTS: J. Markus Anderson, B. Robert Anderson; Christopher Pegut, Guests may not appear at all screenngs.

Mark and Joshua, a long-term couple, discover a mysterious door hidden in their wardrobe. In this new realm, they encounter an elderly couple who have recently passed away and seek guidance to move on. Meanwhile, Joshua, who is already deceased, fears that his own door may never appear. As more doors materialize, and more souls receive the help they need to move on, a troubling truth emerges: Mark has secretly concealed Joshua's door out of his deep-seated fear of losing him forever. This shocking betrayal shatters Joshua, plunging him into the haunting realm of lost souls. Now, Mark must confront his grief and face the unknown with courage, while recovering the enduring spirit of Joshua.

Telepathic Letters

Friday, Feb 27, 2026 at 9:15 PM - English

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Florida Premiere / Portugal / 2024 / English / 71 min / AI, Horror, Literature

Director; Edgar Pera: Writer; Fernando Pessoa, Howard Philips Lovecraft; Producer: Rodrigo Areias.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Fernando Pessoa were among the most influential writers of the first half of the twentieth century. Although they lived during the same period, Pessoa and Lovecraft never knew each other. Even so, there is a striking complementarity between their lives and their works.

Telepathic Letters is a film whose images were created exclusively through artificial intelligence. The film establishes a dialogue between the authors' letters, essays, poems, and works of fiction, imagining a correspondence between the two writers constructed entirely from their own texts. This exchange gives rise to a new universe of artistic and literary possibilities, merging Pessoa's Sensationism with Lovecraft's Weird Realism.

Complicated

Saturday, Feb 28, 2026 at 3:00 PM - English

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SPECIAL GUESTS: Andrew Abrahams.

In a time when the failures of healthcare in America are coming under scrutiny, COMPLICATED tells the poignant story of kids with complicated illness suffering at the margins of mainstream medicine and their parents who risk losing them if they go too far to help: a shocking look at a hidden epidemic in pediatric care when complex disease, lack of research, and the limits of child protection collide.

Guy Harvey: The Documentary

Saturday, Feb 28, 2026 from 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM - English

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The documentary explores how one man transformed his artistic gift into a global movement for ocean awareness. From painting marlin and sharks in the Caribbean to launching the Guy Harvey Foundation, Dr. Guy Harvey's journey intertwines art, adventure, and environmental activism in a breathtaking exploration of passion and purpose. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with cast and crew, and a celebratory meet and greet event with Dr. Harvey will take place immediately after.

The documentary follows Dr. Guy Harvey's transformation from an inquisitive boy into a prominent advocate for ocean conservation. Growing up in Jamaica and trained as a marine biologist, he dedicated his life to the creatures that first ignited his imagination, capturing their beauty and power in striking artwork of ocean life that has become just as iconic. However, beneath the surface of his paintings lies a more profound narrative, one of commitment, discipline, and a lifelong mission to safeguard the waters that have given him purpose. What started as childhood sketches of blue marlins evolved into a global initiative where art, science and conservation intertwine. This film explores that journey, presenting a portrait of a man. Directed by Emmy Award-winning director and producer Nick Nanton, the film has been selected to close out the prestigious Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF). The screening will be followed by a Q&A with cast and crew, and a celebratory meet and greet event with Dr. Harvey will take place immediately after.

To watch the trailer, visit View Video.

To purchase tickets, visit website.

News Without A Newsroom

Saturday, Feb 28, 2026 at 1:00 PM - English

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Please come and enjoy this screening from Director. Producer: Oana Martisca; Editor: Lance Walker. Which is one of our Featured Current Event Films in this years 40th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Truth is disappearing. Who's telling the story?

In a world where the truth feels increasingly elusive, "News Without a Newsroom" examines the profound transformation of journalism, capturing its enduring power and its precarious future. Through rich personal stories, vivid archival footage, and a deep exploration of how newsrooms have evolved, this documentary paints a layered portrait of a critical institution at a crossroads.

SPECIAL GUESTS: Oana Martisca, Ser Lance Walker (Editor), Luis Alacan (composer)