Every April, Miami turns into something a little different. The beaches and the bass-heavy nightlife stay, but for eleven days the city also becomes a genuinely global film destination — drawing filmmakers, critics, and cinephiles from around the world to screens scattered across Little Havana, South Beach, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, and Downtown. That window opens April 9 and runs through April 19, when the 43rd edition of the Miami Film Festival takes over the city.
This year’s festival will screen over 160 narratives, documentaries, and short films from 45 countries worldwide, including 40 world premieres, 2 international premieres, 11 North American premieres, 5 U.S. premieres, 23 East Coast premieres, and 63 Florida premieres. For a city that has spent decades building its identity as a crossroads of Latin American, Caribbean, and American culture, the scope feels right.
Opening and Closing Nights
The festival opens with Tuner — a movie about a young piano tuner played by Leo Woodall, who turns to a life of crime, picking locks with his mentor, played by Dustin Hoffman — screening April 9 at the Olympia Theater. The film is the narrative directorial debut of Oscar-winner Daniel Roher, whose documentary Navalny won the Academy Award in 2023. Moving from documentary into narrative feature is a significant artistic leap, and Miami gets to be where it lands first.
The festival closes with Power Ballad, starring Paul Rudd as a washed-up wedding singer who teams up with a fading boy band star played by Nick Jonas. The film comes from Irish filmmaker John Carney, whose Once and Sing Street established him as one of the sharper voices working in music-centered cinema. A Paul Rudd comedy wrapping a film festival that opened with a crime-adjacent piano drama — that tonal range is very Miami.
Centerpiece Films and High-Profile Directors
Between opening and closing, the 2026 program reads like a snapshot of where global cinema is right now. Centerpiece selections include The Christophers, directed by Steven Soderbergh, and Poetic License, the directorial debut of Maude Apatow. Soderbergh’s presence alone signals that the festival is operating at a level where serious directors take the platform seriously.
Also among the notable world premieres are documentary The Hollywood Rabbi, directed by Jon Kean, and Madwoman’s Game, directed by Zach Zamboni and executive produced by Keanu Reeves. On the television side, Peacock’s new South Florida-set series M.I.A. makes its premiere — a film festival screening a show set in Miami, for Miami audiences, is the kind of full-circle moment that feels earned.
Director of Programming Lauren Cohen summed it up: “This year’s lineup reflects an extraordinary moment for Miami Film Festival, featuring films from celebrated filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola, Gregg Araki, and John Carney, alongside bold new discoveries from around the world. With films from 45 countries and our largest-ever Made-in-MIA program, it’s a lineup that feels both truly global and authentically rooted in Miami’s filmmaking community.”
The Honorees
This year’s honorees list blends film and television figures who will be on hand for tributes and onstage conversations. Adam Scott is set to receive a Vanguard Award for his work in Hokum, and Matt Bomer will pick up a Vanguard honor of his own and sit down for a live taping of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Bob Odenkirk, Danielle Brooks, and Lili Reinhart are also named as award recipients. Sesame Street alum Sonia Manzano will be presented with the Impact Award following a screening of Street Smart: Lessons From a TV Icon.
The Special Events That Make This Edition Distinctly Miami
Where the 2026 program earns its character is in the special events, each of which reflects something specific about this city and its relationship to culture.
The U.S. premiere of Milly: Queen of Merengue screens at the Miami Beach Bandshell, with director Leticia Tonos Paniagua and legendary Dominican singer Milly Quezada in attendance. Merengue’s roots in the Dominican Republic have deep resonance in Miami’s Caribbean diaspora communities, and placing that premiere at an outdoor venue on the beach gives it exactly the setting it deserves.
Whiplash will screen with accompaniment from an 18-piece jazz band conducted by composer Justin Hurwitz at the Adrienne Arsht Center on April 15 — a live concert experience layered on top of one of the more intense films of the past decade. And a 25th anniversary screening of The Princess Diaries takes place at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, an outdoor setting that turns a beloved film into something closer to a communal event.
John Waters’ 80th birthday celebration is set for the Arsht Center, where the filmmaker is scheduled to attend a radical comedy-revival show. Waters has been a cinematic provocateur for decades, and Miami — a city that has always understood camp, queer culture, and the value of a good spectacle — is a fitting place to mark the occasion.
The Tower Theater at 100: A Little Havana Homecoming
The most culturally resonant storyline of the entire 2026 edition unfolds in Little Havana. This year’s program represents a significant homecoming: the festival will once again host screenings at the historic Tower Theater in Little Havana, an Art Deco gem celebrating its 100th anniversary. The Tower was the first Miami theater to add Spanish subtitles in 1960, becoming a cultural lifeline for Cuban refugees and Miami’s Spanish-speaking community.
Built in 1926 and opened as a Wometco cinema, the Tower Theater’s exterior was developed in an Art Deco style with a prominent 40-foot steel tower that quickly became a neighborhood landmark. Operated by Miami Dade College for many of its 100 years, the building is now operated by the City of Miami.
The theater sits on Calle Ocho, one of the city’s most alive corridors, surrounded by Domino Park, Ball & Chain, and Azucar Ice Cream. Seeing a film at Tower during the festival is not just a cinema experience — it is an immersion in the neighborhood’s ongoing cultural life. And this year, with a centennial to mark, that meaning carries additional weight.
The festival closes its run at another Miami landmark with deep history. The grand finale of the festival takes place at the newly renovated Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College, a building that served as the processing center for Cuban exiles arriving in Miami in the 1960s, earning the nickname “Ellis Island of the South.”
Where to See Films and What to Know
Screenings and activities take place at more than 10 cultural and historic landmarks across Greater Miami and Miami Beach. Beyond the Tower Theater, 2026 MFF venues include the Olympia Theater, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the Silverspot Cinema in Downtown Miami; the O Cinema South Beach and New World Symphony in South Beach; and Coral Gables Art Cinema and Bill Cosford Cinema in Coral Gables; Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Coconut Grove; and the Koubek Center in Little Havana.
General screenings run around $16.50, with special screenings priced at $25 to $30. Packages of six screenings offer savings, and discounts are available for students, seniors, and military members.
Miami Film Festival has always been the city’s annual proof of concept — that a city known globally for its beaches and its nightlife also sustains a serious, diverse, culturally anchored creative life. The 43rd edition makes that case across 45 countries, 11 days, and a century of cinema history on Calle Ocho.
