The Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) celebrated the closing of its 30th festival by reflecting on 138 films from 41 countries during its annual Awards Night Ceremony at the Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. Produced and presented by Miami Dade College (MDC), MIFF honored films in such competition categories as Knight Ibero-American Competition, Jordan Alexander Ressler Screenwriting Award, Knight Documentary Competition, Lexus Ibero-American Opera Prima Competition, University of Miami Shorts Competition and a new prize, Miami Future Cinema Critics Award.
“What a great way to usher in the next 30 years of film magic. We are just getting started as we celebrate the milestone of the festival’s first three decades,” Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, president of Miami Dade College, said. “This gem of a festival will continue soaring to new heights and take its rightful place alongside the very best film festivals in the world, as we train the next generation of filmmakers at MDC.”
MIFF’s Executive Director, Jaie Laplante, said this year’s edition “was even more successful than we could have ever dreamed…we can’t help but look forward to 2014.”
The 2013 MIFF Winners include:
Knight Ibero-American Competition: The Knight Grand Jury Prize was awarded to ‘So Much Water (Tanta agua).’ Directors Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge will receive $15,000.
The Grand Jury Best Performance was given to the cast of ‘A Gun in Each Hand (Una pistola en cada mano),’ which was helmed by Cèsc Gay (Spain). The filmmaker will receive $5,000.
The Grand Jury Best Director was presented to Ana Piterbarg of ‘Everybody Has a Plan (Todos tenemos un plan)’ (Spain/Argentina /Germany). The filmmaker will receive $5,000.
The Jordan Alexander Ressler Screenwriting Award was awarded to Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge for ‘So Much Water (Tanta agua)’ (Uruguay/Mexico/Netherlands), who will receive $5,000.
The Knight Documentary Competition Knight Grand Jury Prize was given to ‘Gideon’s Army’ by Dawn Porter (USA), who will receive $10,000.
The jury for the Lexus Ibero-American Opera Prima Competition selected two films to tie as winners, including ‘Ø Solo’ by Guillermo Rocamora (Uruguay/Argentina/Netherlands/France), who will receive $2,500. ‘Ø The Swimming Pool (La piscina),’ by Carlos Machado Quintela (Cuba/Venezuela), will also receive $2,500. The jury also gave special recognition to ‘Villegas, by Gonzalo Tobal’ (Argentina/Netherlands/France).
The University Of Miami Shorts Competition featured the University of Miami Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film. The award was presented to ‘Anna and Jerome’ by Mélanie Delloye (France), who will receive $2,500.
The Miami Future Cinema Critics Award was presented to ‘Beijing Flickers (You-Zhong)’ by Zhang Yuan of China.
The above award winning films joined completion winners in other categories, which were announced earlier at the MIFF. On Sunday, March 3, ‘All About the Feathers (Por las plumas)’ by Neto Villalobos was awarded the $10,000 Miami Encuentros prize, sponsored by EGEDA, and it was also awarded the 6 Sales representation contract. On Thursday, February 28th, at a pre-event kick off to the Festival, ‘CANT’ by Sam Shaib won the Cinemaslam Grand Prize, which included $500 from FilmFlorida, an artisan award from Miami-based Artist Robert McKnight, custom one-year download membership to VideoBlocks, one complete set of footage video (57 DVDs) courtesy of Footage Firm and all-access pass to the Festival.