Medusa by Anita Rocha da Silveira
The Miami Film Festival has announced its lineup for this year's hybrid event, taking place from March 4 to 13 in its namesake Florida city. As in past years, the 2022 edition of the festival will present a substantial selection of titles by U.S. Latinx and Latin American directors across its competitive and non-competitive section; over forty, to be exact. Panamanian director Abner Benaim’s critically-acclaimed latest feature Plaza Catedral is set to be the closing night film.
The Latin American and Caribbean titles competing for the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award are The Box by Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas; The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future by Chilean director Francisca Alegría; Drunken Birds by Serbian-Canadian director Ivan Grbovic on a Mexican cartel worker who runs afoul of his boss and migrates to Canada; Freda by Haitian director Gessica Généus; and Medusa by Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira.
Other competitions include the Knight Made in MIA Award, supported by the Knight Foundation, which will award a prize of $30,000 to the first place winner. Out of seventeen films in the category, seven are by Miami-based Latinx filmmakers, including the short films Are You Down? by Cuban-born director Juan Luis Matos and Dennis Scholl; Cariño by Mexican-born director Fernanda Lamuño; In Beauty it is Unfinished by American director of Greek and Mexican descent, Greko Sklavounos; Little Havana by Rainy by Cuban-born director Hector David Rosales; Madame Pipi by Haitian-American director Rachelle Salnave; and Un Pequeño Corte by Latinx director Mariana Serrano; and feature film South Beach Shark Club: Legends and Lore of the South Florida Shark Hunters by Cuban-American director Robert Requejo Ramos.
Seven Latin American films will be competing for the HBO Ibero-American Film Award, including Amalgama by Mexican director Carlos Cuarón; Carajita by Argentine directors Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra Guardiola; Estación Catorce by Uruguayan-Mexican director Diana Cardozo; The Lost Children of Jarabacoa by Cuban-Spanish director Rolando Díaz; Parsley / Perejil by Dominican director José María Cabral; and Plaza Catedral by Panamanian director Abner Benaim.
Premiering at this year’s festival are Beba by U.S. Latinx director Rebeca Huntt; Camila Comes Out Tonight by Argentine director Inés Barrionuevo; A Film About Couples by Dominican duo Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada; and Lo Invisible by Ecuadorian director Javier Andrade.
The Miami Film Festival has also announced a substantial program of Latin American films playing out of competition, including Dominican director Andrés Farías’ debut feature film Candela; Cuban-American director Hugo Pérez’s documentary Omara; and the short film The Bones by Chilean directorial duo Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña.
To view the complete lineup, visit miamifilmfestival.com.
