GEMS brings film festival standouts and awards-season contenders to Miami

Penélope Cruz in a scene from “La Bola Negra,” Spain’s Oscar submission, which is part of the 13th edition of Miami Film Festival GEMS, and screens at Bill Cosford Cinema on Sunday, Nov. 1. The festival opens on Thursday, Oct. 29  (Photo courtesy of MDC’s Miami Film Festival)

In “The Debut,” Julianne Moore plays a housewife who gets a small role in a community theater musical and becomes a zealous method actor. At the Telluride Film Festival, the audience stood in a rare mid-film ovation during the movie’s world premiere. The film opens the Miami Film Festival GEMS on Thursday, Oct. 29.

Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky,” which tells the story of Sylvester Stallone’s struggle to write and get the movie “Rocky” made, is also in the GEMS lineup, along with “The Gallerist,” which has an A-list cast, including Natalie Portman and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and is set during Art Basel Miami. While the story is rooted in Miami’s art world, it was filmed in Paris.

“La Bola Negra,” starring Penélope Cruz, is Spain’s Oscar submission after directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi shared the Best Director award at Cannes, and is shown at GEMS on Sunday, Nov. 1. The directors known as Los Javis and “La Bola Negra” star Guitarricadelafuente will receive the Variety Virtuoso Award at a separate event at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, at MDC Wolfson.

Natalie Portman, and Jenna Ortega in “The Gallerist,” a dark comedy with Art Basel Miami as its backdrop but filmed in Paris. (Photo courtesy of MDC’s Miami Film Festival.)

GEMS, the Miami Film Festival’s fall showcase, has a different selection process from the festival’s spring edition. While the spring edition accepts submissions, “GEMS is purely curation,” says Director of Programming Lauren Cohen, with films that have premiered at major festivals such as Toronto, Telluride, Berlin, Cannes and Venice.

“If you come to GEMS and spend the week with us, at Academy Awards time, you will have seen some of the top contenders and movies that we think are going to sweep,” she says.

The festival, which runs Thursday, Oct. 29 through Thursday, Nov. 5, is “a one-stop shop for everything award season,” Cohen says.

She notes that GEMS programmed “The Whale” before its Venice premiere, when the only image available was a dark still of Brendan Fraser and there was no poster or trailer. The film screened at GEMS in November 2022, about two months after its Venice premiere and before its U.S. theatrical release in early December of 2022. Cohen said she told audiences she believed Fraser would win the Academy Award for best actor. He did.

That’s exactly what GEMS is meant to offer, she says: the chance to discover a film before awards-season buzz makes it familiar. Now in its 13th year, the festival brings 50 films to South Florida, selected from major festivals around the world and chosen, she says, because they deserve audiences’ attention.

“When we pick a film for GEMS, it’s because we think it is a major standout that people need to take notice of.”

Lauren Cohen, director of programming for the Miami Film Festival, speaks at the festival’s 2026 lineup reveal at the Freedom Tower on Oct. 6. (Photo courtesy of MDC’s Miami Film Festival)

One film Cohen especially wants audiences to discover is “Mouse,” the latest feature from Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, the Chicago-based filmmaking duo behind “Saint Frances” and “Ghostlight.” The coming-of-age drama is set in 2002, when best friends Minnie and Callie are preparing for their senior year of high school. After their friendship is upended, Minnie grows close to Callie’s mother, Helen, in a relationship shaped by grief and the search for connection.

The story has a personal starting point for O’Sullivan, who wrote the screenplay. A close friend of hers was killed in a car accident when O’Sullivan was in high school. She also wanted to set the film in the Arkansas hometown where she grew up, a place she rarely saw depicted on screen.

The year 2002 gives the characters room to move through the world without the constant presence of social media, says O’Sullivan.

“When someone wanted to find out what was happening, you had to take action. You had to walk out your door, walk down the street, knock on your friend’s door or call,” says Thompson.

The film’s central relationship is more complicated than a bond between a grieving teenager and a grieving parent. O’Sullivan was interested in what might happen when Helen, who has lost her daughter, and Minnie, who is unhappy at home, begin to fill parts of each other’s lives.

Katherine Mallen Kupferer, left, and Chloe Coleman play best friends in “Mouse.” (Photo courtesy of MDC’s Miami Film Festival)

“Neither of them knows what they’re doing with grief. With grief, none of us do, and it’s very interesting to me the way people cope. And it’s only in hindsight that then they can point back to it and say, ‘Oh, that’s what was going on there,’” O’Sullivan says.

“Mouse” marks yet another Miami festival appearance for O’Sullivan and Thompson. Their previous feature, “Ghostlight,” screened at the 2024 Miami Film Festival, with two showings. Actress Katherine Mallen Kupferer, who was in “Ghostlight,” returns in “Mouse.”

“She’s an incredible actor, and we loved working with her. Her instincts are so phenomenal, and we just believed everything she did in ‘Ghostlight,’” O’Sullivan says.

“Mouse” screens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3 at Silverspot Cinema, with a question-and-answer segment with the filmmakers after the screening, giving local audiences a chance to see the film ahead of its U.S. release on Friday, Nov. 6.

“Alex and Kelly are indie filmmakers in the truest sense. We’ve followed their work since 2019 and have presented each of their feature film collaborations – ‘Saint Frances,’ ‘Ghostlight,’ and this year’s ‘Mouse.’ Their film is a hidden gem in the lineup,” Cohen says.

The filmmakers are receiving this year’s GEMS’ Art of Light Award.

Kelly O’Sullivan, left, and Alex Thompson co-directed “Mouse.” O’Sullivan also wrote the screenplay. (Photo courtesy of MDC’s Miami Film Festival)

Cohen explains that the Art of Light Award honors “incredible artists who really expand our view of the art form.” It recognizes artists past the early stages of their careers who are doing something different and provoking a strong positive response, she says.

The Art of Light Award is one of several special awards GEMS is presenting.

“We have a partnership with Variety. . . to honor those who we think exhibited exemplary performances and work this year.”

John Turturro will receive the Variety Creative Vanguard Award during a conversation about his career and “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.”

John Turturro stars in “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” which screens on GEMS opening night, Thursday, Oct. 29. The actor will also receive the Variety Creative Vanguard Award at the 2026 Miami Film Festival GEMS. (Photo courtesy of MDC’s Miami Film Festival)

She singled out the new film, which screens on GEMS opening night on Thursday, Oct. 29, as “the rare movie that really gives him his due and makes him the main focal point.”

The conversation and award are scheduled for Monday, Nov. 2, with Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh talking to Turturro about the film and his more than 40-year career.

“It’s rare to see him in a true leading role,” she said. “I think people are just going to fall in love with him.”

WHAT: 13th GEMS 2026 Miami Film Festival

WHERE: Bill Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami,  5030 Brunson Drive, Coral Gables; Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; MDC’s Koubek Center, 2705 SW 3rd St., Miami; O Cinema, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, Silverspot Cinema Miami, 300 S.E. 3rd St.,  Miami; MDC’s Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Miami, and Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. 3251 South Miami Ave., Miami.

WHEN: Various times beginning Thursday, Oct. 29 through Thursday, Nov. 5.

COST: Prices vary by event. General admission for screenings is $19.05 ($16.50 plus a $2.55 service fee). Opening night film, “The Debut,” $58.72 ($55  plus a $3.72 service fee), includes a pre-party; closing night film, “Club Kid,” general admission, $27.81 ($25 plus a $2.81 service fee)

INFORMATION: Download a digital program guide here. Information at (305) 237-3456  and miamifilmfestival.com/festival/gems/

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