The Miami Film Festival will feature a new category inspired by the success of “Moonlight,” a low-budget local production that won three Oscars this year, including Best Picture, organizers said today.
The “Made in MIA” prize, with a cash prize of $ 10,000 and funded by the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, will be open to any film presented in the official sections of the festival and that an important part of Its content has been made in South Florida.
The other condition is that the film is for the Florida community a show of pride, emotion or faith, in general terms.
The new prize was announced today coinciding with the opening of the deadline for submitting nominations for the official selection of both the GEMS exhibition, which will take place from October 12 to 15, and the 35th edition of the festival, which will take place from 9 to March 18, 2018.
“With the international success of Oscar-nominated Moonlight, we’ve seen like never before how stories from South Florida can have a global impact,” said Jaie Laplante, director of the Miami Film Festival today, an initiative of Miami Dade College.
Festival organizers hope the new Made in MIA award will continue to draw attention to the strength and charm of South Florida stories and inspire filmmakers to keep fighting to tell those stories, Laplante said.
According to Victoria Rogers, vice president for the art of the Knight Foundation, independent filmmakers in this region have found “their moment” after many years of hard work, and this award could help generate “more ideas” around the Community of South Florida, its identity and its diversity.
“Moonlight,” directed by Barry Jenkins and written by Tarel Alvin McCraney, came as a surprise in the last edition of the Oscars, winning the award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Best Adapted Screenplay .
