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Billboard Women in Music 2025
The 42nd edition of the Miami Film Festival returns in 2025 with a lineup that features a particularly robust showcase of local films and debut features, as well as a murderers’ row of high-profile honorees. In total, 198 titles will play at the festival from April 3-13 across a mix of narrative, documentary, feature and short film categories.
The festival, held by Miami Dade College, opens with the comedy “Meet the Barbarians” by Julie Delpy (one of this year’s Impact Award recipients). The closing night film is Daniel Minahan’s “On Swift Horses,” a 1950s drama starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi.
The festival embraces an international slate — films from more than 45 countries are included — but there’s also a focus on bolstering local talent, whose work festival leadership say is especially prominent in this year’s programming.
“I’m pretty positive, it’s a record number of local stories in the festival,” says James Woolley, Miami Film Festival’s executive director.
The festival features two categories dedicated to South Florida-centered films: the Made in MIA Award competition for features, and a Made in MIA Short Film Award.
With nine films competing in the feature slot, the festival has the “largest amount of films we’ve ever had in the Made in MIA category since its inception,” says Lauren Cohen, director of programming. They include Herschel Faber’s “Ethan Bloom,” which Cohen describes as “a real love letter to Miami,” a “coming of age story” about a teenager juggling Jewish family traditions and a nascent interest in Catholicism.
There’s also 15 films in the local short category, including “Boat People” by Al’Ikens Plancher, “Blue Mirror” by Angela Rio and “Night Train Last Stop” by Gina Margillo. Cohen says the festival’s local film blocks “always are our first to sell out.”
“Our city loves to see local filmmakers, local cast and crews using our city in recognizable locations,” Cohen says.
Cohen says another highlight is Xander Robin’s documentary “The Python Hunt,” about a contest initiative to eliminate invasive pythons in the Everglades. Another environmental-themed film is Dudley Alexis’ “Edge of Hope,” about the devastating impact of climate change on Miami.
The festival additionally welcomes a number of other celebrity honorees to acknowledge their film and television accomplishments. Specifically, the Precious Gem Awards go to Paul Feig and Melanie Lynskey. Meanwhile, alongside Delpy, Mark Duplass and Roger Ross Williams will also receive Impact Awards. Billy Zane will be given the Art of Light Award.
Cohen also looks forward to showcasing first-time filmmakers: “This is by far our most packed Jordan Ressler First Feature Award category year ever. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a year with such strong debut features before.”
Among those debuts are “An Autumn Summer” by Jared Isaac, a “comfortable, cozy, nostalgic film,” Cohen says, as well as “Magic Hour” by Jacqueline Christy, an ode to “the magic of filmmaking” and “the ability to chase your dreams at any age.”
Within the short films, Cohen spotlighted “RAT!” by Neal Suresh Mulani — a “satirical look at internet culture and mob mentality” — and Mickey Duzyj’s “Confessions of a Jumbotron Addict,” a documentary involving animation. Julia Aks and Steve Pinder’s award-winning “Jane Austen’s Period Drama” also tells a comedic, “very original” story about a woman of Jane Austen’s time describing menstruation, Cohen says.
In recent years, the festival has tried to expand its programming with more conversations with talent and through its footprint in the area. “Now we take place on Miami Beach. We take place in downtown Miami. We take place in Coral Gables, in Little Havana,” Cohen says. “We really are stretching our legs that way and making sure that people from all different areas of Miami can find a theater that works for them.”
