Family United (La gran familia Española)
49 films are making their World, International, North American, and U.S. Premieres at the upcoming 31st Miami International Film Festival (MIFF), opening next week. The Miami International Film Festival, a program of Miami Dade College’s MDCulture, will run March 7 to 16, 2014).
From this year’s lineup, MIFF will screen seven feature films and 17 short films making their World Premieres, three films will make their International Premieres, 12 films will make their North American Premieres, and six films will be screening for the first time in the U.S. There will also be three North American premiering short films and one U.S. premiering short film.
7 World Premiere Features
ASTEROID (ASTEROIDE) (Mexico, directed by Marcelo Tobar)
After seven years Cristina returns to her childhood home—left to her older brother, Mauricio, by their deceased parents. The siblings, now dysfunctional adults, struggle to find their footing and someone they can each count on.
DEFAULT (USA / Colombia, directed by Simon Brand)
Somali pirates led by Atlas (David Oyelowo), hijack a plane chartered by an American news crew in a tension-packed thriller centered around a deadly battle of wits.
ECTOTHERMS (USA, directed by Monica Peña)
An impression of Miami as it is lived, not imagined: a sultry city where family heritage, urban plight, and a unique landscape intersect to create a youth culture like no other in the world.
KID CANNABIS (USA, directed by John Stockwell)
True story of two Idaho border-dwellers who built a multimillion-dollar business by illegally running marijuana (that was legally purchased a few miles away in Canada) into the US, in this cross between Stand by Me and Scarface.
MATEO (Colombia / France, directed by Maria Gamboa)
At the impressionable age of 16, young Mateo faces a dilemma about the direction his life will take when his corrupt uncle asks him to infiltrate a local Barrancabermeja theatre group to uncover its members’ political activities.
MEMORIES OF THE DESERT (Romance Political) (Brazil / Chile, directed by Jorge Durán) Antônio, a 28-year-old novelist in Rio, hitchhikes to Chile’s Atacama desert to write an erotic tale, and inadvertently becomes “involved” in a murder.
ROB THE MOB (USA, directed by Raymond De Felitta)
Andy Garcia and director Raymond De Felitta (City Island) re-team in this Bonnie & Clyde-style crime caper, involving a cash-strapped couple from Queens who rob a succession of mafia social clubs to cover their debts. Also stars Ray Romano, Michael Pitt, Griffin Dunne, Frank Whaley and Burt Young. (World Festival Premiere)
17 World Premiere Short Films
“BLUE” (USA, directed by Justin Malone)
“CHERRY POP: THE STORY OF THE WORLD’S FANCIEST CAT” (USA, directed by Kareem Tabsch)
The Chicago Project X Fashion Outlets of Chicago (USA, directed by Bill Bilowit)
(11 individual short films: “DANIEL ARSHAM”, “BHAKTI BAXTER”, “JIM DRAIN”, “FRIENDSWITHYOU”, “CODY HUDSON”, “ALVARO ILIZARBE”, “ANDREW NIGON”, “KENTON PARKER”, “BERT RODRIGUEZ”, “JEN STARK” and “AUSTYN WEINER”)
“CHUB” (USA, directed by Samuel Albis)
“SHIRT OUT, GAME OVER!” (Switzerland, directed by Eric Paternot)
“STRIKE: THE GREATEST BOWLING STORY EVER TOLD” (USA, directed by Joey Daoud)
“UNICORN (UNICORNIO)” (Bolivia, directed by Rodrigo Bellott)
3 International Premiere Features
CITY OF GOD: 10 YEARS LATER (CIDADE DE DEUS: 10 ANOS DEPOIS) (Brazil, directed by Luciano Vidigal and Cavi Borges)
Ten years after the release of the Oscar-nominated City of God, this new documentary explores the positive and negative impact the 2002 film has had on the lives of those in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood.
FACK JU GÖHTE/SUCK ME SHAKESPEER (Germany, directed by Boar Dagtekin) Zeki, an ex-con who can barely spell, becomes a substitute teacher at Goethe High in order to drill a tunnel below the new gym built on the exact spot where stripper friend Charlie buried his loot.
GLOBAL PLAYER (GLOBAL PLAYER – WO WIR SIND ISCH VORNE) (Germany, directed by Hannes Stöhr)
A family-run textile machine company in a small southern German town is in trouble, and the heir to the business is forced to negotiate with Chinese entrepreneurs behind his caustic 90-year old father’s back, in this intelligent comedy.
12 North American Premiere Features
THE ART RUSH (France, directed by Marianne Lamour)
As the contemporary art market is dominated by speculative billionaire collectors, long-view professionals such as Don & Mera Rubell hold steady to a sense of artistic merit.
THE DEVIL’S VIOLINIST (DER TEUFELSGEIGER) (Germany / Italy / Austria, directed by Bernard Rose)
Notorious womanizer and 19th century violin virtuoso at the peak of his career, Niccolò Paganini (David Garrett) is lured to London by his business- savvy agent.
ELSA & FRED (USA, directed by Michael Radford)
Elsa (Shirley MacLaine), a vivacious retiree in New Orleans gets straight-laced widower, Fred (Christopher Plummer), as an unwanted next-door neighbor—until he ultimately surrenders to her bold and beautiful madness—and the two soon discover it’s never too late to fulfill a lifetime fantasy, in this rousing re-make of hit Spanish-Argentine film by Il Postino director, Michael Radford. Also stars Marcia Gay Harden, George Segal, Chris Noth.
FAMILY UNITED (La gran familia Española) (Spain, directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo)
Ephraim’s wedding day coincides with Spain’s appearance in the 2010 World Soccer Championship finals, and nothing goes as planned in this touching comedy, nominated for 12 Goya Awards.
IN DARKNESS WE FALL (LA CUEVA) (Spain, directed by Alfredo Montero)
Five friends go on a cave-exploring Mediterranean holiday but get lost in a myriad of passageways, resulting in a diabolic quest for survival.
LOS POSIBLES (Argentina, directed by Santiago Mitre & Juan Onofri Barbato)
In a rhapsody of toughened bodies and torn emotions, a group of teenagers seeking refuge from hardship perform in an experimental fusion of film and dance that stretches the boundaries of visual kinetics.
THE MAN OF THE CROWD (O HOMEM DAS MULTIDÕES) (Brazil, directed by Marcelo Gomes and Cao Guimarães)
Both Juvenal and Margo live in a state of isolation, despite residing in a bustling urban center. Each manages to find comfort in peculiar ways, in this adaption of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story, updated to contemporary Belo Horizonte.
NATURAL SCIENCES (CIENCIAS NATURALES) (Argentina, directed by Matias Lucchesi)
Twelve-year-old Lila enlists her boarding school teacher as a companion on an emotional journey to track down the biological father she has never known.
SÉPTIMO (Spain / Argentina, directed by Patxi Amexcua)
Tense kidnapping thriller exposing Buenos Aires’ criminal underbelly. Ricardo Darín and Belen Rueda masterfully portray divorcing couple Sebastian and Delia, as their children disappear on the most important day of Sebastian’s legal career.
SERRAT & SABINA: TWO FOR THE ROAD (SERRAT Y SABINA: EL SIMBOLO Y EL CUATE) (Spain, directed by Francesc Relea)
Two celebrated Spanish singer/songwriters—generational icon Joan Manuel Serrat, exiled in Mexico under Franco’s dictatorship, and Joaquín Sabina, whose poetry and rebelliousness seduced audiences by the thousands—embark on a final tour together.
THREE MANY WEDDINGS (TRES BODAS DE MÁS) (Spain, directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera)
A fresh, hilarious comedy from the director of Ghost Graduation (MIFF 2013). Three ex-boyfriends invite Ruth (Inma Cuesta) to their weddings, all in one month; the only person Ruth can convince to be her date is the sexy new intern.
WE ALL WANT WHAT’S BEST FOR HER (TOTS VOLEM EL MILLOR PER A ELLA) (Spain, directed by Mar Coll)
A car crash leaves Geni (Nora Navas, Black Bread) disillusioned with her domestic and professional world in Catalonia, causing her to re-think everything she thought she wanted from life.
3 North American Premiere Short Films
“GRACE (GRAÇA)” (Brazil, directed by Anna Clara Peltier)
“SKIN” (France, directed by Cédric Prévost)
“XENOS” (United Kingdom / Greece / Denmark, directed by Mahdi Fleifel)
6 U.S Premiere Features
ALL ABOUT THE FEATHERS (POR LAS PLUMAS) (Costa Rica, directed by Neto Villalobos)
A loner security guard buys a fighting rooster so he can enter illegal cockfights. Chalo’s feathered pal attracts an assortment of oddball characters in this insightful comedy of fate and friendship.
BRASSERIE ROMANTIQUE (BRASSERIE ROMANTIEK) (Belgium, directed by Joël Vanhoebrouck)
Anticipation is high in Pascaline and Angelo’s renowned restaurant for Valentine’s Day, but tension soon rises in the kitchen when Pascaline’s ex-lover of 20 years ago walks in for dinner.
CRISTO REY (CRISTO REY) (Dominican Republic, directed by Leticia Tonos)
In a slum barrio of Santo Domingo, a mixed race Haitian-Dominican teen guards the local kingpin’s beautiful young sister, in a retelling of the Romeo & Juliet tragedy.
HERE’S THE DEAL (SOMOS GENTE HONRADA) (Spain, directed by Alejandro Marzoa)
Two middle-aged family men, hit hard by Spain’s economic crisis, stumble upon a hefty stash of cocaine while out fishing, but are conflicted and clueless on how to get rid of the haul in this Galician black comedy.
I’LL FOLLOW YOU DOWN (Canada, directed by Richie Mehta)
Erol (Haley Joel Osment, now 25) struggles to keep his mother (Gillian Anderson) on an even keel after his father vanishes into thin air.
STOCKHOLM (ESTOCOLMO) (Spain, directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
A hot-blooded Spaniard wanders the romantic late-night streets of Madrid to woo a pretty yet reluctant girl into his bed. But love’s mor
1 U.S Premiere Short Film
“A BIG DEAL (特殊交易)” (China, directed by Yoyo Yao)
A 10-year-old boy, lonely for his mother who is always working, hires a prostitute to fill in for her when she can’t come to Parent Day at school.