Miami, Aug. 20, 2019 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Miami Film Festival announced today that Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory will open its fall season festival extension, Miami Film Festival GEMS 2019, Oct. 10 – 13, at MDC’s Tower Theater Miami.
“Miami Film Festival’s long history with Almodóvar extends more than 35 years to when his third feature, Dark Habits, premiered at our first edition in 1984,” said Miami Film Festival director Jaie Laplante. “Pain and Glory is Almodóvar’s most personal film to date and his special history with Miami Film Festival makes it the perfect introduction to our fall showcase of films that will dominate conversations in the upcoming award season.”
Pain and Glory follows Salvador Mallo (played by Antonio Banderas, who won Best Actor at Cannes Film Festival for this role), a Spanish film director in his 60s who is invited by the Madrid Cinematheque for a retrospective screening of one of his earliest films, Sabor. The invitation triggers a series of remembrances, reacquaintances and re-evaluations of his childhood, his first adult love, his discovery of cinema, and his relationship with his deceased mother (played in her younger years by Penélope Cruz, and later years by Julieta Serrano).
“Although fictional, many aspects of Pain and Glory have parallels to aspects of Almodóvar’s life that he has shared in interviews over his storied career, and devoted fans will clearly see this film as a look back at his first stirrings as an artist and his life as a filmmaker,” added Laplante.
In keeping with Pain and Glory’s spirit of “looking back”, the Festival has created a parallel program of retrospective screenings of key works from Almodóvar’s career, leading Miami audiences through their own remembrances and reconsiderations of Almodóvar’s journey up to Pain and Glory. The retrospective program begins Aug. 27 at the Tower Theater Miami and will include films that represent all four decades of Almodóvar’s work, including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, High Heels, Talk to Her and Broken Embraces.
The GEMS Opening Night event on October 10 will transform the Tower Theater Miami into “Casa Almodóvar” with a gallery exhibit of classic Almodóvar film posters, images in vignettes, and a post-screening gala party, Sabor de Almodóvar, sponsored by Estrella Damm.
The Sabor de Almodóvar party will consist exclusively of Spanish foods and beverages, and feature characters from Almodóvar films at the Estrella Damm photo station, where partygoers can enjoy an Estrella Damm, brewed in Barcelona with 100 percent natural ingredients, or an Inedit Damm, the malt and wheat beer crafted by the world-renowned chef Ferran Adrià. A Marqués de Riscal station will feature a fine selection of wines from the famous “City of Wine” in Spain’s Rioja region. Delicious Spanish classics toplined by offerings from Pairings by Tomás Cuadrado, with Jamon Serrano, croquetas, escabeche, a delicious Spanish churro dessert station, and much more will power the post-screening Pain and Glory conversations of GEMS Opening Night attendees.
The GEMS 2019 screening of Pain and Glory is partially sponsored by Viendomovies.
Tickets for the GEMS 2019 Opening Night Event are available now, $25 for the Pain and Glory premiere screening, or $50 for the Pain and Glory screening + Sabor de Almodóvar post-screening party, available at www.miamifilmfestival.com. Discounts are available for Miami Film Society members
About Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival
Celebrating cinema in two annual events, Miami Film Festival GEMS, October 10-13, 2019 and its 37th annual edition March 6 – 15, 2020, Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival is considered the preeminent film festival for showcasing Ibero-American cinema in the U.S., and a major launch pad for all international and documentary cinema. The annual Festival attracts more than 60,000 audience members and more than 400 filmmakers, producers, talent and industry professionals. It is the only major festival housed within a college or university. In the last five years, the Festival has screened films from more than 60 countries, including 300 World, International, North American, U.S. and East Coast Premieres. Miami Film Festival’s special focus on Ibero-American cinema has made the Festival a natural gateway for the discovery of new talent from this diverse territory. The Festival also offers unparalleled educational opportunities to film students and the community at large. Major sponsors of the 2019-20 Festival season include Knight Foundation, Estrella Damm, American Airlines, Telemundo and Miami-Dade County. For more information, visit miamifilmfestival.com or call 305-237-FILM (3456).
AboutViendoMovies
ViendoMovies is a Pay TV channel that broadcasts contemporary, exclusive originally produced in Spanish-language films, 24 hours a day with no commercial breaks, in a premium, culturally relevant on air look. ViendoMovies is produced in the US for the Hispanic and Puerto Rico markets and is part of SOMOSTV LLC. For more information please visit us at www.viendomovies.com and www.somostv.net.
MDC’s Miami Film Festival Media Relations Contacts:
NEW YORK / LOS ANGELES / TRADE
Steven Wilson, Scenario PR | 310-497-4951 | steven.wilson@scenariopr.com