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From April 9 to April 19, for the 43rd time, the Miami Film Festival will once again entertain us on the screens for which films are designed to be watched. Expecting 45,000 attendees and 300 industry professionals, this year’s festival will feature more than 100 films from 40 countries, plus world premieres, award winners, and local tributes.
There are topics that are both uncomfortably difficult to address and daily rage‑bait fodder—Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Gaza, drag shows, DEI, guns, LGBTQ issues, Islamophobia, antisemitism, corruption, freedom of speech and more. Filmmakers often tackle these things with more honesty and courage than politicians ever will. And no matter how hard certain leaders in Tallahassee or Washington try to police thought, taste or curriculum, they have never managed to silence people who see the world differently—something the Miami Film Festival has never shied away from.
The fear of censorship is real. Free societies cannot behave like oligarchies, one‑party states or dictatorships. Liberty, justice, freedom and grace are values we claim to cherish; they only survive if we defend them. Only love has ever had a chance at conquering hate.
As a boy, I watched Lawrence of Arabia in my massive small‑town theater. Miami, even more than that place, has always had its own cinematic heartbeat. I remember watching films at the Tower Theater in Little Havana, where the popcorn smelled like history and the audience talked back to the screen with more passion than any critic. That place taught half the city how to fall in love with movies. It’s impossible to sit in a theater today—any theater—without feeling the echo of those nights. Get ready, though—the Tower will soon reverberate again.
One thing everyone agrees on is that we all love movies. My all‑time favorite moment is the kissing montage in Cinema Paradiso, when a successful director discovers a hidden reel containing dozens of romantic scenes censored decades earlier by a village priest.
Overwhelmed by delight and memory, he weeps—recalling how one man’s idea of ‘the rules’ shaped everyone else’s experience of art. That was then, and here we are again.
Sitting in a grand old theater with a bucket of popcorn may resonate more with older patrons than with the gazillion influencers upon whom every business, fashion show, art festival, concert and restaurant now imagines it depends. I’m routinely asked how many followers I have, and I answer the way our governments do: I make something up.
Meanwhile, armies of 20‑something content creators descend on restaurants, praising dishes they barely understand, misspelling the name of the place, and gripping chopsticks like they’re choking up on a Louisville Slugger. It’s performance, not appreciation, and it makes the quiet honesty of a dark theater feel even more precious.
But I digress. The Miami Film Festival, no matter who covers it, has become increasingly praiseworthy. Executive Director James Woolley and programming guru Lauren Cohen have found a formula that consistently delivers a cornucopia of selections in a kaleidoscope of cultural color (how pretentious of me). They’ve discovered the secret sauce—and they love it.
Miami changes fast—too fast—but the festival remains one of the few places where we slow down long enough to hear each other. Having experienced the program reveal just hours before writing this, I apologize for the lack of specific recommendations. Watch the trailers, choose boldly, and let the films remind you why stories still matter.
Find all info here: https://miamifilmfestival.com/
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