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WE LOVE SHORT FILMS

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FILM AWARDS

We love shorts!

We are programming three nights of meaningful short films to screen at the Cosford Cinema, at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.

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A jury of international industry professionals will award cash prizes to the most engaging films.

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Winning films will screen for an audience at the 250-seat Cosford Cinema, Coral Gables

(Miami in early February is Beautiful - bring your shorts (pants).

We can screen up to 4k - DCP recommended but not required.

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Managed by film faculty at the University of Miami, the Shorts Miami International Film Festival celebrates it's third year. 

Be part of it!

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All films must be strictly under 20 minutes and finished in the 

last three years.

We accept - categories:

Narrative

Documentary

Made in Miami

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All films English (or English Subtitles)

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Awards & Prizes

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Best of the Festival prize of $2000

Best Narrative - $500
Best Documentary - $500

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Best of Miami Festival prizes:
Best made in Miami Documentary - $500
Best made in Miami Narrative Film - $500

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Jury

2024 SMIFF JURY

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Sope Aluko

Born in Nigeria, and also a dual citizen of the UK and US, Sope Aluko has had a passion for acting since a young age. She has made numerous appearances on television and in feature films including Identity Thief and Pitch Perfect 2.

Sope’s role of the ‘Shaman’ in the 2018 blockbuster hit, Black Panther, has been reprised in the sequel, Wakanda Forever. In the film, her character is the only one who speaks entirely in the South African language, Xhosa,

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Gio Benitez

Gio Benitez is co-anchor of “Good Morning America” Saturday and Sunday, and transportation correspondent for ABC News based in New York. He covers aviation, space, railroads and the auto industry across all ABC News programs and platforms, including “20/20,” “Good Morning America,” “Nightline,” “World News Tonight with David Muir,” ABC News Live and ABC News Radio. 

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Nestor Carbonell

Néstor Carbonell is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He came to prominence for his role as Luis Rivera in the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan. He is known for his roles as Richard Alpert in the ABC drama series Lost, Sheriff Alex Romero in the A&E drama series Bates Motel, and Yanko Flores in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show. Carbonell also starred as Mayor Anthony Garcia in Christopher Nolan's superhero films The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

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David Frankel

David Frankel’s work as a director includes The Devil Wears Prada, starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci; Marley & Me, starring Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston and Alan Arkin; The Big Year, starring Jack Black, Steve Martin and Wilson; Collateral Beauty, starring Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, and Michael Pena; Hope Springs, starring Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell.  He won an Academy Award for Best Short for his film, Dear Diary, and an Emmy for his direction of HBO’s Band of Brothers.  His other work for HBO includes the pilot for Entourage, several episodes of Sex and the City, and From the Earth to the Moon

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Jaie Laplante

Jaie Laplante is a Canadian-American screenwriter, actor and curator. Laplante's notable credits include co-screenwriter of Sugar, for which he received a nomination in the Best Adapted Screenplay category of the 2005 Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 25th Genie Awards, along with co-writers John Palmer and Todd Klinck. As an actor, he appeared in Frisk, directed by Todd Verow. Laplante served as executive director and chief curator of Miami International Film Festival from 2010 to 2022 and is currently the artistic director for DOC NYC.

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Phyllis McGrady

Former Senior Vice President of Early Morning, Primetime and News Program Development for ABC NEWS.  She was also Executive Producer of ABC’s Good Morning America, Primetime Live, Turning Point and the Barbara Walters Specials.  She oversaw the documentary unit at ABC NEWS and has won numerous Emmy, DuPont and Peabody awards.  

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Antonio Mora

Antonio Mora is the Frances L. Wolfson Chair in Communication at the University of Miami. A veteran television news anchor and correspondent, he worked as the news anchor for Good Morning America and as the host of Good Morning America Sunday, among many other national and local news shows. He's won a dozen national and local Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards and a national Edward R. Murrow Award. He was born in Cuba and grew up in Venezuela and the U.S.

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Karen Pittman

Karen Pittman is an award winning actress, who has starred on Broadway, in American television and cinema. She was born in Mississippi and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She received her Bachelor of Science in Voice and Opera at Northwestern University and a Masters of Fine Arts from NYU's Graduate Acting Program. Karen starred in the TONY nominated Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway play "Disgraced," and the critically acclaimed play "Pipeline," at Live at Lincoln Center.

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Byron Pitts

Byron Pitts is an journalist and author, working for ABC News as co-anchor for the network's late night news program, Nightline. Until March 2013, he served as a chief national correspondent for The CBS Evening News and contributed regularly to 60 Minutes.

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Ira Rosen

Ira Rosen has produced some of the most memorable, important and ground-breaking stories for 60 Minutes.  He has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including 24 national Emmy Awards, placing him in the top ten all-time news Emmy winners in broadcast history.

His report on who is responsible for the opioid epidemic, won more awards for 60 Minutes than any segment in the show’s 52 year history.

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Dennis Scholl

Dennis Scholl is an award-winning documentary filmmaker focusing on arts and culture. Most recently, he produced and directed The Last Resort with Kareem Tabsch. The film won the audience award at the Miami Jewish Film Festival and was an official selection of DOC NYC. The film will be released theatrically via indie distributors, Kino Lorber. He is the executive producer of over a dozen films with the Miami-based Borscht Film Collective, including six short films that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and Yearbook, the winner of the 2014 Animated Short category at Sundance. 
 

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Programing Team

Ed Talavera

Konstantia Kontaxis

Jessica Virguez

Tom Musca

Rafal Sokolowsky

Shane Kinsler

Ben Zuiderweg

Chrisitna Lane

Rechna Varma

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