King Richard starring and produced by Will Smith and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, is the winner of the MIAMI GEMS 2021 Audience Award. The film served as the Centerpiece screening for the Miami Film Festival’s annual fall event which took place from November 4-10 at MDC’s Tower Theater Miami.

Festival audiences chose a pair of documentaries as runners-up. Julia, directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West, was first runner-up, and the second runner-up was Denmark’s animated Oscar submission candidate Flee, directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen. All three films are major award contenders.

Past winners of the MIAMI GEMS Audience Award have received award recognition including last year’s winners Sound of Metal, which received two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound, and The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, which received an Emmy award. In 2019, winner The Two Popes went on to receive three Academy Award nominations while first runner-up Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Highlights of the MIAMI GEMS 2021 Festival included the US premiere of Leyla Bouzid’s Semaine de la Critique breakout hit A Tale of Love and Desire; opening night selection Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers; and the acclaimed Belfast, written and directed by Kenneth Branagh.

The 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival will be held March 4-13, 2022