Miami Film Festival 2020 Highlights Sundance Winners, Acclaimed Filmmakers, and Local Talent

The 37th edition of Miami Dade College's Miami Film Festival returns to downtown Miami with more than 125 feature films, documentaries, and short films from 30 countries, screening March 6-15.

This year's edition opens with The Burnt Orange Heresy (pictured), directed by Giuseppe Capotondi and starring Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Debicki, and Claes Bang. It's the fifth screen adaptation of the late Miami noir novelist Charles Willeford; the festival will also screen a 35mm print of another Willeford adaptation, George Armitage's Miami Blues, starring Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh, to mark the film's 30th anniversary.

The festival closes with Cristina Constantini and Kareem Tabsch's documentary Mucho Mucho Amor, about the late Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado, a flamboyant figure who charmed many with his televised horoscopes. It debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix.

The festival will also feature several films that won prizes at Sundance: Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss' Boys State (U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize); Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht's Crip Camp (U.S. Documentary Audience Award); Garrett Bradley's Time (U.S. Documentary Best Director Prize); Angel Manuel Soto's Charm City Kings (U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Emsemble Cast); Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, and Eli Despress' The Fight (U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize for Social Impact Filmmaking). 

Other notable fest selections include Jonathan Jakubowicz's Resistance (starring Jesse Eisenberg as mime Marcel Marceau), Louise Archambault's And the Birds Rained Down, Pablo Larrain's Ema, Jayro Bustamante's La Llorona, Dominik Moll's Only the Animals, Juan Jose Campanella's The Weasels Tale, Alice Winocur's Proxima, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson's Synchronic, Alejandro Amenabar's While at War, and Armando Ianucci's The Personal History of David Copperfield.

Guests at this year's festival include actress Amy Ryan, who will receive the Precious Gem Award; the festival will screen her latest film, Liz Garbus' Lost Girls. Also, as part of the Knight Heroes program focusing on emerging talent from South Florida, directors Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar), Stella Meghie (Everything, Everything; The Photograph), and Lulu Wang (The Farewell) will appear together to discuss their careers.

For more information and tickets, visit the festival's website.