Miami Film Festival Gems could be Tower’s swansong

Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival plans to go ahead with its ninth annual Miami Film Festival Gems at the Tower Theater in Little Havana, which could be the theater’s last in-person film festival ever.

Running from Nov. 3-10, feature films from 13 nations are set to headline the festival, which will be the most ever in a Gems lineup.

While the Gems Festival will take place at the historic Tower Theater at 1508 SW Eighth St., Miami Dade College (MDC) is currently searching for alternatives after 20 years of operating the art cinema. In a Sept. 19 memo, the city’s Department of Real Estate and Asset Management notified the college that it will terminate its contract.

Miami Dade College was seeking to renew its lease for an additional five years, but instead, the college’s operating contract agreement will run its course and expire Jan. 2, 2023.

“We’ve done an exceptional job for 20 years operating this theater and we’d love to continue to do it,” MDC’s Tower Theater Interim Executive Director Nicolas Calzada told Miami Today last week. “We are hoping that the community continues to rally and this decision gets rescinded.”

The 2022 festival will open with Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Two centerpiece screenings, which are the ensemble drama Women Talking and redemption-driven Brendan Fraser drama The Whale, will lead to the closing night feature of Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans.

Among the personal honorees at Gems 2022 is Raúl Castillo, who will receive the Art of Light Award and will attend a screening of The Inspection, where he stars as the sympathetic superior. The Art of Light Award is presented to cinematic artists whose exemplary work shines new wonders on the continuing evolution of motion pictures. Past acting recipients include Andra Day and Aldis Hodge.

“Over the years, Miami Film Festival Gems has evolved into one of the country’s premiere fall festivals, where Miami cinephiles can come to the historic Tower Theater Miami and, in the course of a week, see all of the most acclaimed films of the year and surefire Oscar contenders before anyone else has had a chance to see them,” Mr. Calzada said. “This year’s extraordinary lineup is no exception. Miami’s film-loving community is in for a huge treat.”

Along with the Miami Film Festival, the annual festival welcomes more than 45,000 audience members and more than 400 filmmakers, producers, talent and industry professionals. In the last five years, the festival has screened films from more than 60 countries, including 300 world, international, North American, US and East Coast premieres.

Major sponsors of Miami Film Festival Gems include Knight Foundation, American Airlines, Telemundo, NBC, Estrella Damm and Miami-Dade County. The festival also offers educational opportunities to film students and the community at large.

“This year, our audience can expect a full week of film from some of cinema’s greatest auteurs and most promising newcomers alike,” said Lauren Cohen, Gems Festival’s director of programming. “This is an opportunity for Miami moviegoers to be the first to see the most significant films of the year the way they were meant to be seen at our beloved home Tower Theater Miami.”