MDC’S MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL GEMS 2022 STORY ANGLES
- Save Tower Theater: It’s more important now than ever before to support Miami Dade College’s Tower Theater by showing up to this year’s GEMS festival.
- Opening & Closing Night Films: The Festival will open with Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and will close with Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. Paul Dano, The Fabelmans star, will receive the Precious GEMS Award virtually.
- Two Centerpiece Screenings: the ensemble drama Women Talking and redemption-driven Brendan Fraser drama, The Whale. The Whale is being touted as a triumphant return to the big-screen for Fraser who received a six-minute standing ovation at the London Film Festival for his role in this movie.
- How MDC’s Miami Film Festival Programs Its Films: Speak with Nick Calzada (Interim Executive Director and Senior Programmer) and/or Lauren Cohen (Director of Programming) to learn about how they select films to be featured at GEMS.
- Most Countries in a GEMS Lineup: MDC’s Miami Film Festival GEMS 2022 will feature films from 14 countries, the most ever in a GEMS lineup.
- Seven films being presented as Special Presentations in the GEMS 2022 selection are official submissions to the 95th Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category, having received acclaim at Cannes, Berlin and other world film festivals. Fun Fact: Countries must submit their film of choice in order for the film to be considered for the award. The seven films are:
- Close (Belgium) – This film was universally loved at the Caan Film Festival
- Saint Omer (France)
- Holy Spider (Denmark) **A feminist movie; the director of this film came with signs to a film festival in solidarity of Iran.
- The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
- Alcarràs (Spain – Catalonia) – The director for this film was previously at GEMS
- Corsage (Austria)
- Decision to Leave (Korea)
- Three Films Won Audience Choice Awards at the Toronto Film Festival: Miami Film Festival GEMS will screen three of the top-placing films from the Toronto Film Festival that received the audience choice awards. These three films are:
- The Fabelmans, closing night film based on Steven Spielberg’s life
- Women Talking
- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
- Local Angles: Billy Corbin’s God Forbid: The Sex Scandal that Brought Down a Dynasty, a revealing documentary about Giancarlo Granda, former pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Hotel, who shares the intimate details of his seven-year relationship with a charming older woman, Becki Falwell, and her husband, the Evangelical Trump stalwart Jerry Falwell Jr. This film will be featured at the GEMS preview night on Oct. 27 (limited press seats); The Inspection with Gabrielle Union; while Gabrielle Union is unable to attend GEMS, her co-star Raúl Castillo will be at GEMS to personally receive the Art of Light Award and will attend a screening of The Inspection.
- Feminist Movies: She Said about two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story which led to the #MeToo movement; Alice Darling, Women Talking, and Corsage
- Arts Movie: All the Beauty & the Bloodshed, a documentary about photographer Nan Goldin’s battle against the notorious big-pharma Sackler family
- First-time Feature Film Directors in GEMS Lineup:
- Alice, Darling, starring Anna Kendrick and directed by Mary Nighy
- The Inspection
- The Quiet Girl
- Saint Omer
- Second-time Feature Film Directors in GEMS Lineup:
- Close
- The Son
Alcarràs
- Some of the biggest stars and filmmakers in the world have graced the screens and red carpets of the Miami Film Festival from Sofia Loren, Antonio Banderas, Anne Hathaway, Danny Glover, Shirley MacLaine, Spike Lee, Pedro Almodóvar, and Andy Garcia.
