‘Society of The Snow’ Wins Audience Award at 2023 Miami Film Festival GEMS

Miami, FL – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Miami Film Festival (MFF) announced that Society of the Snow is the winner of the Miami Film Festival GEMS 2023 Audience Award. Directed by J.A. Bayona, the film tells the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile that catastrophically crashes on a glacier in the heart of the Andes. Only 29 of the 45 passengers survived the crash and, finding themselves in one of the world’s toughest environments, they are forced to resort to extreme measures to stay alive. The film, distributed by Netflix, was a Centerpiece Screening at the Festival, and will be released on December 15.

Festival audiences chose Opening Night film Radical, written and directed by Christopher Zalla and starring Eugenio Derbez, as first runner-up. Derbez attended and was honored at the event with the GEMS Impact Award. The film is currently in select theaters. The second runner-up was American Fiction, another Centerpiece Screening, from director and writer Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, and Tracee Ellis Ross. The film will be distributed by Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios and released on December 15. All three films are major award season contenders.

Miami Film Festival GEMS’ four-day event from November 2-5 at MDC’s newly renovated Koubek Center and Silverspot Cinema, celebrated its 10^th year as the fall mid-season event celebrating prestige films and award contenders, and featured ten official submissions to the Best International Feature Film category for the Academy Awards. Winners of the Miami Film Festival GEMS Audience Award have received award recognition including last year’s winner The Whale, which went on to receive 3 Academy Award nominations and win for Brendan Fraser in the Best Actor category. Past Miami Film Festival GEMS Audience Award Winners including King Richard, Belfast, Sound of Metal, The Two Popes and Parasite, all went on to receive Academy Award nominations or wins.

Photos from Miami Film Festival GEMS are available here. Miami Dade College’s 41^stedition of the Miami Film Festival will be held April 5-14, 2024.

About Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival

Celebrating cinema in two annual events, Miami Film Festival GEMS (10th annual edition, November 2-5, 2023), and Miami Film Festival (41^st annual edition April 5-14, 2024), Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival is considered the preeminent film festival for showcasing Ibero-American cinema in the U.S., and a major launch pad for all international and documentary cinema. The annual Festival welcomes more than 45,000 audience members and more than 400 filmmakers, producers, talent and industry professionals. It is the only major festival housed within a college or university. In the last five years, the Festival has screened films from more than 60 countries, including 300 World, International, North American, U.S. and East Coast Premieres. Major sponsors of Miami Film Festival GEMS include Knight Foundation, Miami Downtown Development Authority, Miami-Dade County, and the State of Florida. The Festival also offers unparalleled educational opportunities to film students and the community at large. For more information, visit miamifilmfestival.com or call 305-237-FILM (3456).

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