‘Dheepan’ and ‘Queen of Thursdays’ win big at Miami International Film Festival
Dheepan, a drama about Sri Lankan refugees trying to build a new life in Paris, won the Grand Jury Prize in the Knight Competition at the 2016 Miami International Film Festival. The award includes a $30,000 cash award provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The Lexus Audience Award for Best Feature Film, voted on by festival audiences, was a tie between Spain’s Spy Time, the James Bond spoof directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera, and The Companion, a drama set in 1980s Havana during the AIDS epidemic, directed by Cuban filmmaker Pavel Giroud. Logan Sandler’s Tracks, about an amateur skateboarder faced with a dilemma on the day of a championship tournament, won Best Short Film.
Other winners at this year’s festival, which were announced Saturday at the Olympia Theater:
▪ Paulina (La patota), a drama about a woman’s fateful decision to abandon her PhD studies and become a schoolteacher, won the Lexus Ibero-American Feature Film Grand Jury prize ($10,000). It was directed by Santiago Mitre.
▪ Queen of Thursdays, a documentary about Rosario Suárez, the former prima ballerina of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba who fled to Miami, won the Knight Documentary Achievement Award ($10,000).
▪ The Lobster, a droll allegorical comedy about a near-future where people are required to find a romantic person or be turned into an animal, snagged the Knight Competition Best Director prize for Yorgos Lanthimos ($5,000).
▪ Mountains May Depart, the story of a young woman from a Chinese village who must choose between two suitors, won the Knight Competition Best Performance award for its star Zhao Tao ($5,000).
▪ From Afar (Desde allá), writer-director Lorenzo Vigas’ tale of a lonely middle-aged man who pays younger men to spend time with him, won the Jordan Alexander Ressler Screenwriting Award ($5,000).
The Miami International Film Festival, which is presented by Miami Dade College, concludes Sunday with screenings at various venues around Miami.
Rene Rodriguez: 305-376-3611, @ReneMiamiHerald
This story was originally published March 12, 2016 at 7:32 PM with the headline "‘Dheepan’ and ‘Queen of Thursdays’ win big at Miami International Film Festival."