Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival unveiled its lineup for the 12th Miami Film Festival GEMS, which unspools Oct. 29-Nov. 5. Kicking off the fest is Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” — Park will be in attendance to receive the Precious Gems Master Award.
Three other Precious Gem Award honorees are Lucy Liu, who will be honored at a screening of her drama “Rosemead,” “Clueless” costume designer Mona May, who will be in attendance at a 30th anniversary screening of the comedy classic and “Dead Man’s Wire” director Gus Van Sant, who will be awarded at a screening of his latest drama.
The festival’s star power continues with the Dylan O’Brien (star of fest film “Twinless”), who will receive with the Vanguard Award, and Ethan Hawke, who will be honored with the Variety Virtuoso Award.
The festival closes with Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” and includes Centerpeiece screenings of “Belén,” “Hamnet,” “Jay Kelly,” “Nuremberg,” “Sentimental Value” and “The Secret Agent.
“The 12th edition of GEMS brings together some of the most anticipated films of the season alongside daring new discoveries,” said Lauren Cohen, director of programming. “With 40 prestige titles, this is the largest GEMS lineup we have brought to our Miami audience to date. To be able to celebrate the work of incredible storytellers such as Noah Baumbach, Park Chan-wook, Guillermo del Toro, Paolo Sorrentino, Jafar Panahi, Luca Guadagnino, Rian Johnson, Richard Linklater, Gus Van Sant, and Chloé Zhao all in one lineup captures the richness and diversity of world cinema today. Beyond having the work of some of film world’s most established auteurs, we have 24 countries featured as well as 10 international official submissions to the 2026 Academy Awards. It is truly an astonishing year for cinema, and that’s really reflected in our program.”
The festival will also be screening “Canceled: The Paula Deen Story” with acclaimed Miami director and fest regular Billy Corben in attendance.
The festival also welcomes V-ME Media and DirecTV as a sponsor of Miami Film Festival GEMS’ Spanish-language content, which this includes “A Poet” (Colombia), “Belen” (Argentina), “Deaf” (Spain), “Sirat” (Spain) and Michel Franco’s majority English-language film “Dreams” (Mexico).
Other high-profile films screening at the fest includes Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague,” David Michôd’s “Christy,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Bradley Cooper’s “Is This Thing On?,” Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” and Amy Wang’s “Slanted.”
“Audiences can expect GEMS 2025 to be one of our most memorable editions yet,” said James Woolley, festival executive. “As we continue to cement our place on the fall awards circuit, we are beyond thrilled to honor visionary filmmaker Park Chan Wook, trailblazing artist Lucy Liu and innovative costume designer Mona May along with Ethan Hawke, Dylan O’Brien and Gus Van Sant for their incredible contributions to the entertainment industry.”
For more information about the festival, visit miamifilmfestival.com.
