Belén directed by Dolores Fonzi, which screened as a Centerpiece film, has won the Audience Award at Miami Film Festival GEMS 2025.
Based on a true story, Belén chronicles the harrowing case of Julieta, a young woman falsely accused of infanticide, and Soledad Deza (Dolores Fonzi), the fearless lawyer who takes on the highly controversial, explosive case.
Another Centerpiece title, Nuremberg directed by James Vanderbilt, won first runner-up. Nuremberg starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon, follows the story of the Allied prosecutors, led by the unyielding Robert H. Jackson, as they seek justice for the atrocities of the Holocaust. As the Nuremberg trials begin, a U.S. Army psychiatrist becomes locked in a tense psychological duel with former Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.
The second runner-up was a tie between Rick Gomez’s She Dances and Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake.
She Dances stars Steve Zahn alongside his real-life daughter Audrey Zahn, and follows a father and daughter as they attempt to repair their relationship and reconcile a shared tragedy against the backdrop of the “Young Miss Southeast Regional Dance Finals.” The film also co-stars Ethan Hawke, who was honored at the Festival with the Variety Virtuoso Award.
The President’s Cake follows 9-year old Lamia who has been selected to prepare a cake to celebrate the President of Iran’s birthday. In a landscape of fear and scarcity, where basic ingredients are nearly impossible to find, Lamia sets out on a determined journey throughout the big city in search of eggs, flour, and sugar.
The audience picked Canceled: The Paula Deen Story directed by Billy Corben as the first-ever Documentary Audience Award Winner. The film revisits the meteoric rise and sudden downfall of one of America’s most iconic celebrity chefs. Paula Deen built a Southern culinary empire becoming a beloved TV personality. But in 2013, her admission to using a racial slur in the past ignited a media firestorm.
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