Organizers of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival 34th edition, scheduled for March 3 – 12, 2017, announced today the projects selected for this year’s MIAMI ENCUENTROS, presented by John S. & James L. Knight Foundation.
Miami Encuentros, now in its 14th year, is a program of the Festival’s Industry Center, VeoMiami. Miami Encuentros consists of a selection of feature films produced partially or entirely by Ibero-american-based production companies currently in post-production stage. The projects are workshopped with industry professionals and a jury will grant one project with a $10,000 cash prize in completion financing, courtesy of the Knight Foundation.
This year’s program is curated by Brazilian-born, Miami-based Sandro Fiorin, who co-founded Latin American-specialty sales agent FiGa Films with his late partner, Cuban-American Alex Garcia.
“I am honored to introduce four new projects in the world cinema arena, none of them seen anywhere before,” said Fiorin on this year’s selection. “All remarkable in their own way, they represent what is happening at this moment in Latin America. The freshness and attitude are palpable, though the similarities and politics are buried deep inside each story. A total reflection of our times here in the US and elsewhere.”
Additional prizes to be awarded with be a DCP Mastering Service package valued at $5,000 presented by Madrid’s Aracne Digital Services; and a poster design service valued at $5,000 presented by Buenos Aires’ Boogieman Media.
The four projects selected for Miami Encuentros 2017 are:
• Tigre (Argentina), directed by Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra Guardiola, produced by Pucará Cine.
• Eugenia (Bolivia), directed by Martin Boulocq, produced by CQ Films.
• Camocim (Brazil), directed by Quentin Delaroche, produced by Ponte Produções.
• Los debiles (Mexico), directed by Raul Rico and Eduardo Giralt Brun, produced by Mendicante.
The Festival also announced this year’s Miami Encuentros jury. The members of the jury will be:
Dana Keith
Dana Keith is founder and director of the Miami Beach Film Society and Cinematheque. He has degrees in film and fine art from University of California, Santa Barbara, and lived in Europe for ten years obtaining the base of a collection, which is now the MBC Archive of memorabilia, considered one of the finest collections of its type in the world.
Molly O’Keefe
Molly O’Keefe is the Director of Scripted Programs at the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI). At TFI she is point on six scripted funds, the TFI Network Market, the Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program and spearheaded the first Sloan Series workshop. Prior to joining TFI, Molly was the Director of Development and Production at Sundance Productions where she developed series for CNN, FX, HBO, Ovation, EPIX, Sony and Paramount. During her time at Sundance she produced Isabella Rosselini’s Green Porno Live which premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival and then on the Ovation network. Before returning to New York, she worked for Ben Stiller’s Los-Angeles-based Red Hour Films and produced Roger Kumble’s critically acclaimed play Girls Talk starring Brooke Shields and Constance Zimmer in West Hollywood. She’s a graduate of Emerson College.
Diana Sanchez
Diana Sánchez is IFF Panama’s artistic director and since the year 2002, the well-known Ibero-American film curator at the Toronto International Film Festival. With a Masters’ Degree in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto, Sánchez has promoted Ibero-American cinema in many latitudes. She created Miami’s Encuentros program in 2003 in collaboration with the Festival, and programmed it for many years afterwards, stepping down from her role as programmer of Miami Encuentros in 2015.
Access to Miami Encuentros screenings are restricted to registered Industry guests only. The screenings will run within the Festival dates, from March 6-7, 2017, at a new venue – the beautiful Faena Hotel Miami Beach, hosted by Faena Arts.