Miami Short Film Festival

On Saturday, November 19th the Miami Short Film Festival (MsFF) concluded it’s 15th edition with its final screenings and awards presentation. Audiences spent the week at Cinepolis Cocowalk and Miami Beach Cinematheque enjoying a collection of over 100+ films from around the world.

A distinguished panel of filmmakers, film critics, and film curators judged film and awarded 15 categories including Best Cell Short, Best Webisode, Best Experimental, Best Documentary, Best Animation, Best Local Film, Best Short Short as well as Best Narrative in Drama and Comedy. The winners were varied and well received by audiences. Best Cell Short went to the gorgeously photographed THIS MOMENT by director Sven D. and Best Webisode to Bolivian filmmaker Jose Villegas for RENECO, FABIO and GACELA. The diverse categories of Experimental, Animation, and Documentary saw winners in SOPHIE: A STORY OF DISCOVERY by David Todd McCarty, PEARL by Patrick Osborne, and STARRING AUSTIN PENDELTON by directors’ Gene Gallerano and David H. Holmes, respectively. The unique category of Best Short Short, a film under 4 minutes, went to ADOLESCENCE by Javier Blanco from Mexico.

Prompted by an a strong collection of LGBTQ films this year, the festival awarded it’s first LGBTQ award to A MIRACLE OF HANUKKAH shot entirely on a cell phone. Polish filmmaker Adi Spektor, now based in LA, was on hand to accept his award. Likewise, the Audience Award winner went to filmmaker Isabelle Karhu for her familial film POJAT, translated to SONS, who journeyed from Finland for this years festival. Aside from international winners, Best Local film went to OCD by Alexander Beregovoy and Melissa Espinoza for their romantic tale.

In addition, the film TEN YEARS by Ryan Firpo received the Director's Choice Award and STUTTERER, the 2016 Oscar winner for Best Live Action Short, by Benjamin Cleary was honored with the 2016 Jury Award.

Finally, the best narrative films were divided between comedy and drama. Both audience favorites, the Dutch film by Rick Lenzing STEP 8 won in drama and the Canadian film 3-WAY (NOT CALLING) by Molly McGlynn won in the comedy category. was split between a comedy and drama, both audience favorites,

Following the awards night, filmmakers and the MsFF audience celebrated at the closing night party. The evening and the entire festival was a great success due to the work of our wonderful staff, terrific community and audience. A special thank you to our sponsors for their continued support.

This year's festival is made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, the City of Miami Beach Department of Tourism and Cultural Development, Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Miami Beach Mayor and City Commissioners and the following sponsors:

Stella Artois, The Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Miami, The Coconut Grove Business Improvement District, Cocowalk, Cinepolis Theaters, Miami Beach Cinematheque, Creative 20/20, Landa & Associates, Guaoo Printing and more, Apollo Payroll-HR- Insurance, Elite Music Studio, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The following are our Media Sponsors: Withoutabox, Film Freeway, Time Out, Yelp, MAG, Coconut Grove Grape Vine, New Times, Film Miami, Soul of Miami, WLRN, Caracol Radio, Beach Channel, Production Hub, Tropicult and many more.

For more information, please contact info@miamishortfillmfestival.com.