Miami 2007

"Red Road" by Andrea Arnold

Nicole Guillemet who directed the Festival successfully in the last years and made it one of the most interesting events in the US, is leaving; Patrick de Bokay succeeds her, "a film industry professional with more than 30 years of experience", as the Miami Dade College (which organizes the event) announced. Nicole Guillemet's last edition brought the best films of the season to Miami, with a traditional focus on Latin American cinemas, and with a tribute to Luc Besson. Also, documentaries and animation were included in the rich and diverse selection.

The Critics' Prize went to Andrea Arnold's Red Road (which had its premiere in Cannes 2006, and had already won the FIPRESCI Prize in Reykjavik last autumn). "Although several of the alternative films demonstrated merit and promise," writes our jury, "none came close to the formal elegance, bold originality, powerful emotion and trenchant social commentary of Red Road. For a first film, it was renmarkably ambitious and close to flawless."

Miami International Film Festival, March 2-11, 2007, www.miamifilmfestival.com
Details of the Prize

Reports

Rear Window on the Gritty Streets of Glasgow. Red Road, writes Sheila Johnston, "centres on Jackie (Kate Dickie), a lonely and withdrawn CCTV operator who spends her days and nights before a vast bank of monitors trained on some of the city's meanest streets, liaising with the police to combat crime. She's a high-tech version of James Stewart's character in Rear Window — part voyeur, part guardian angel — operating in a thoroughly 21st century Big Brother world in which 24-hour public surveillance has become a fine art." Sheila Johnston's review
Women are Hot at the Miami International Film Festival. Women dominate the screens of the Miami International Film Festival. Five of the 13 films in competition are directed by women, and nearly all the films deal with the role and image of women in society today. Read Peter Keough
We Are Here — Immigration Matters at the Miami International Film Festival. In a city where 50% of the population is of Latin American origin, it’s no wonder that many of the films in the Miami International Film Festival deal with the issue of immigration — not only in the United States, but in Europe also. Josefina Sartora reports.

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