Day 8: A big, long day for shorts…even more directors breeze into South Beach…Andy Garcia brings 250 family and friends to the Gusman Center for City Island and his Ocean Drive bash is the night’s hottest ticket in town…

In the film world, it’s all about who you know and who knows you, so never miss a chance to mingle. There wasn’t an empty seat at the Eastman Kodak-sponsored luncheon for filmmakers, Encuentros program participants and industry execs at Novecento’s Lincoln Road outpost, where they imbibed the best of Italy over new business. The REEL Education Seminar “Pitching in the Big Leagues” offered new and veteran filmmakers a chance to polish their story-script-TV-show-idea pitching skills (in 20 seconds or less!) to a slate of honchos who make dreams come true: Carlos Carreras of Paradigm Talent, Michael Dagnery of MTV Latin America, Samantha Horley of The Salt. Company, and Nick Spicer of XYZ Films. And the Festival’s final Happy Hour gathering, sponsored by Poder 360º magazine, the National Resources Defense Council and the Americas Business Council at the Royal Palm Hotel attracted dozens of directors, producers, jurors, special guests, seminar participants and assorted industry execs.

The long and “short” of it: Friday afternoon was heaven for short film fanatics, with back-to-back screenings of the 13 offerings of Shorts Competitions I and II at Regal Cinemas South Beach, including appearances by Hipster Job directors Thomas de Napoli and Jack Tomas; Summer Runners producer Agustina Chiarino; and, Nor a Trot, or a Canter director Helvécio Marins, Jr. On the features front, a few more filmmakers arrived in town to promote their films: brothers-in-arms Josh and Benny Safdie for their out-of-competition, ode-to-fatherhood Daddy Longlegs; Pedro Gonzaález-Rubio for the Mexican father-and-son love story To the Sea (Alamar), a selection of the Ibero-American Competition; Henrique Goldman for the Cinema 360º non-competition selection of the British/Brazilian mistaken-identity terrorist drama Jean Charles; and producer Loris Omedes for director Manuel Huerga’s Son & Moon (Diario de un astronauta), a selection of the DOX Competition and Encuentros program success story.

All in the family: Oscar nominee (The Godfather: Part III), Emmy nominee (For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story) and all-around local-boy-made-good Andy Garcia, who attended FIU and Miami Dade College and worked as an entry-level staffer for the very first MIFF 27 years ago while he struggled to get acting jobs (including episodes of ¿Que pasa, U.S.A? and Archie Bunker’s Place), brought his latest effort, the family drama City Island, co-starring Golden Globe and Emmy winner Julianna Margulies (ER, The Good Wife), to the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts for a sold-out screening—thanks, in part, to the 250-plus members of his local extended family and many friends who bought tickets! The night was a family affair in more ways than one: Real-life daughter and budding actress Dominik joined Dad in the family business in City Island, playing his college dropout-turned-stripper offspring. For the Red Carpet (which moved inside the Gusman, due to rain), Proud Papa paraded the rest of la familia in front of the media throngs, including younger daughter Alessandra and el chiquito Andrés, Jr., and shared the spotlight with director Raymond De Felitta. A longtime Friend of MIFF, Garcia stopped by last year with Cachao: Uno Más and in recent years debuted Modigliani and The Lost City for Miami audiences. Sure to be a MIFF 2011 selection: The recently wrapped, filmed-in-Miami urban drama Magic City Memoirs, produced by Andy and starring Dominik.

Post-screening, the party proceeded to Garcia’s VIP-only City Island bash, hosted by Ocean Drive magazine and sponsored by Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, DonQ Rum and Stella Artois. Newly minted Ocean Drive editor-in-chief (and longtime nightlife aficionado) Suzy Buckley, publisher Courtland Lantaff, and most of the part-time Key Biscayner’s 250 family and friends packed into the VIP section of the elite Conrad Hotel on Brickell Avenue for the fête.

That’s a wrap!

by Dana Ballestero, Daily Wrap Editor

VIEW DAILY WRAP Day 9: Saturday, March 13, 2010