MIAMI -- (SPW) --

Miami Dade College’s (MDC) acclaimed Miami Film Festival and IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals, today unveiled 25 finalists in the Festival’s IMDbPro Short Film Competition. The 25 finalists were selected by a programming committee of filmmakers, cinephiles and film industry professionals in Miami and internationally, under the direction of the Festival’s Director of Programming, and will all screen at the Festival and compete for the Grand Jury selection of the best short film of the year, to be presented at the Festival’s Awards Night Gala on March 17. The Short Film Competition Grand Jury will include IMDb Founder and CEO Col Needham and others to be announced, and the winning filmmaker will receive a $2,500 cash prize.

The internationally renowned Miami Film Festival, which celebrates its 35th anniversary edition this year, will take place March 9 – 18, 2018 at venues across Miami. Tickets go on sale to members of the Miami Film Society on February 9, 2018 and the general public on February 16, 2018 at miamifilmfestival.com or 1-844-565-6433 (MIFF).

“We congratulate the finalists of the IMDbPro Short Film Competition and are pleased that all submissions were exclusively received and processed via the IMDbPro Withoutabox service, which connects filmmakers and film festivals,” said Matt Kumin, Head of IMDbPro. “This short film competition is one of the many ways we help filmmakers get discovered by a global audience and advance their careers.”

“The short film is an art form unto itself,” said Miami Film Festival director Jaie Laplante. “Life comes at us in short bursts, and these 25 wonderful films expertly capture the brief sensations of insight we are momentarily afforded in the enormous volume of information that crowds our lives.”

Highlights among the 25 finalists of the Festival’s 2018 IMDbPro Short Film Competition include:

• Adrián Cárdenas, a Cuban-American writer/director from Miami and former Major League baseball player for the Chicago Cubs, will present his NYU Tisch School of the Arts master’s thesis film, “Canoe Poems.”

• Six new animated shorts will compete from the National Film Board of Canada, this category’s defending champion. The 2017 Miami Film Festival’s Best Short-winning film was the NFB’s “The Head Vanishes,” by Franck Dion.

• Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei and Oscar-nominee Minnie Driver star in Jocelyn Stamat ’s unusual sci-fi/horror entry, “Laboratory Conditions.”

• Three-time and currently Oscar-nominated makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji’s work in the physical transformation of 2018 Oscar nominee Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour is profiled in “The Human Face.”

• Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel returns to the competition for a third consecutive time with the BAFTA-nominated “A Drowning Man,” first presented as a Palme d’Or candidate at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

• Miami-born Michael Arcos will present his eclectic “This My Favorite Mural” and Miami-educated Sara Werner will present “The Things They Left Behind,” based on a story by Stephen King.

The complete list of 25 films in the Festival’s IMDbPro Short Film Competition are:

1. BROKEN HILL (Australia, 2017), directed by Peter Drew.

2. THE CANNONBALL WOMAN (Canada, France, Switzerland, 2017), directed by Albertine Zullo, David Toutevoix.

3. CANOE POEMS (USA, 2017), directed by Adrián Cárdenas.

4. DEYZANGEROO (Canada, 2017), directed by Ehsan Gharib.

5. A DROWNING MAN (Denmark, Greece, UK 2017), directed by Mahdi Fleifel.

6. EMMY (Canada, 2018), directed by Hannah Cheesman.

7. THE FISHERMAN (Cuba, 2017), directed by Ana A. Alpizar.

8. (FOOL TIME) JOB (France, 2017), directed by Gilles Cuvelier.

9. THE FULL STORY (UK, 2017), directed by Daisy Jacobs.

10. HOLY HILL (Dominican Republic, 2017), directed by Rodney Llaverias.

11. THE HUMAN FACE (USA, 2017), directed by Aline Pimentel.

12. LABORATORY CONDITIONS (USA, 2017), directed by Jocelyn Stamat.

13. LOS COMANDOS (USA, 2017), directed by Joshua Bennett, Juliana Schatz.

14. MANIVALD (Canada, Croatia, Estonia 2017), directed by Chintis Lundgren.

15. MI DULCINEA (Cuba, 2017), directed by Max Barbakow.

16. MOTHER (Spain, 2017), directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

17. MY TREASURE (El Salvador, 2017), directed by Michael Flores.

18. MY YIDDISH PAPI (Canada, 2017), directed by Éléonore Goldberg.

19. NO TRAFFIC NO MORE (Canada, 2017), directed by Julie Roy

20. SKIN FOR SKIN (Canada, 2017), directed by Kevin D. A. Kurytnik, Carol Beecher.

21. THE TESLA WORLD LIGHT (Canada, 2017), directed by Matthew Rankin.

22. THE THINGS THEY LEFT BEHIND (USA, 2017), directed by Sara Werner.

23. THIS MY FAVORITE MURAL (USA, Honduras, Costa Rica, 2017), directed by Michael Arcos.

24. TO GO (Uruguay, 2018), directed by Ilan Rosenfeld.

25. UNFINISHED, 2017 (MIXED MEDIA) (USA, 2018), directed by Rafael Salazar Moreno.

The Grand Jury selection for the IMDbPro Short Film Award and $2,500 cash prize will be presented at the Festival’s Awards Night Gala on March 17, at the Olympia Theater and The Historic Alfred I. Dupont Building in downtown Miami, as part of the Festival’s CINEDWNTWN GALA series sponsored by Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA). Tickets for the Awards Night Gala are already on sale via 1-844-565-6433 (MIFF) or miamifilmfestival.com.

The Canadian short films in this section are presented with the support of Telefilm Canada, and all French-language shorts are additionally presented by TV5 Monde. The screening of “Mother” is made possible with the support of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E.

For membership opportunities or more information, visit miamifilmfestival.com or call 305-237-FILM (3456). Miami Film Festival is the only major film festival event housed within a college or university.

About Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival
Celebrating cinema in two annual events, Miami GEMS Festival in October and its 35th annual edition March 9 – 18, 2018, 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 more than 60,000 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. Miami Film Festival’s special focus on Ibero-American cinema has made the Festival a natural gateway for the discovery of new talent from this diverse territory. The Festival also offers unparalleled educational opportunities to film students and the community at large. Major sponsors of the 2017-18 Festival season include Knight Foundation, American Airlines and Miami-Dade County. For more information, visit miamifilmfestival.com or call 305-237-FILM (3456).

About IMDbPro and Withoutabox
IMDbPro (www.imdbpro.com ) is the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals. This membership-based service includes comprehensive information and tools that are designed to help entertainment industry professionals achieve success throughout all stages of their career. IMDbPro offers members the following: detailed contact and representation information; tools to manage and showcase their IMDb profile, including the ability to select their primary images and the credits they are best “known for”; exclusive STARmeter and MOVIEmeter rankings that are determined by page views on IMDb; a casting service to post breakdowns and apply to roles; the IMDbPro app for iPhone and more. IMDbPro is owned and operated by IMDb, the #1 movie website in the world. Additionally, IMDb owns and operates Withoutabox ( https://www.withoutabox.com/), the premier submission service for film festivals and filmmakers.

About Telefilm Canada—Inspired by talent. Viewed everywhere.
Created in 1967, Telefilm is dedicated to the cultural, commercial and industrial success of Canada’s audiovisual industry. Through its various funding and promotion programs, Telefilm supports dynamic companies and creative talent here at home and around the world. Telefilm also makes recommendations regarding the certification of audiovisual treaty coproductions to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund and the Talent Fund, a private donation initiative. Visit telefilm.ca and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/telefilm_canada and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/telefilmcanada.

About TV5Monde
TV5MONDE is the global French language entertainment network, broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without commercial interruptions. TV5MONDE USA is a premium pay-tv channel reaching 1.5 million viewers in the U.S. American viewers enjoy a wealth of high quality French language programming, subtitled in English, including up to 300 classic, recent and never-before-seen in the U.S. French language films per year, around the clock newscasts live from Paris, the latest series and TV dramas, premium documentaries, cultural programs and international sports coverage.

MySHOOT Profiles