Tricks and Santiago Lead Miami’s Film Awards

The Miami International Film Festival has concluded its 25th edition with recognition for films including Tricks and the Brazilian documentary Santiago. João Moreira Salles’s documentary won its competition, while the audience awards highlighted a different group of titles across the festival’s sections.

Those audience selections included Bliss, La Zona and Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane That Crashed in the Mountains. The list makes clear that a festival’s final picture is assembled from several kinds of judgment. Jury prizes and audience votes can draw attention to different films without one invalidating the other.

For local viewers, the results provide a manageable route through a program too large for most people to see in full. Documentary, world cinema and Ibero-American filmmaking each retain a place in that route. The anniversary edition closes with a collection of titles to pursue, and with the useful reminder that Miami’s film culture can be organized around discovery as well as the arrival of familiar stars.