Don’t miss out: Your essential guide to South Florida film festivals this season

As part of our 2025 Guide to the Arts in PRIME Magazine, entertainment writer Phillip Valys offers his Critic’s Picks for the best film festivals coming up in South Florida. Want to see the full Guide? Go to SunSentinel.com/prime.

OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival

Oct. 16-23 at Regal Dania Pointe in Dania Beach and Fort Lauderdale venues including NSU Art Museum, Savor Cinema and Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Fort Lauderdale; and Oct. 24-26 at multiple theaters in Miami. 877-766-8156 or OUTshineFilm.com.

The 17th edition of stereotype-defying indie movies, documentaries and riotously fun after-parties is still chiseling its lineup as of this writing, but already there are unmissable highlights. One is “Blue Moon,” director Richard Linklater’s (“Dazed and Confused,” “Boyhood”) comedy-drama starring Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart of Rodgers & Hart, the iconic American songbook dyad who found success until Hart’s alcoholism drove Rodgers to seek a new collaborator in Oscar Hammerstein II. Others include “Boy George and Culture Club,” a documentary about the 1980s British band; and a 25th anniversary screening of “Psycho Beach Party,” a comedy-horror sendup of 1960s beach movies, that will be paired with a Psycho Beach Bash on Oct. 22 at Savor Cinema. Introduced last year, OUTshine has combined its fall edition by offering films (virtual and in-person), panel discussion and parties in Fort Lauderdale first before wrapping in Miami with three more days of screenings.

GEMS 2025

Oct. 29-Nov. 5 at Miami Dade College’s Tower Theater Miami. 305-237-3456 or MiamiFilmFestival.com.

There’s nothing mini about the momentum behind this mini-showcase running up to the larger, older and more prestigious Miami Film Festival (whose 43rd edition returns April 9-19, 2026). It’s expanding from five to eight days this year and expects to be double-stuffed with buzzy Oscar heavyweights and sleepers already drawing early attention on the foreign and indie-film circuits. Don’t believe the hype? Know that future Oscar contenders “The Brutalist” and “I’m Still Here” screened in the Magic City last year ahead of awards-season buzz, all of which makes GEMS — if nothing else — an acceptable excuse to go all movie hipster on people. This year’s schedule is TBA, but as always, expect appearances from filmmakers, seminars and post-screening parties.

The Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival

Jan. 25-Feb. 5 at Cohen Pavilion at Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach. Sasiff.org.

At 3 years old, Sun & Stars is the toddler on South Florida’s festival circuit but it has already mustered a mature bill of programming under the steady hand of its artistic director, Barbara Scharres (formerly with the Gene Siskel Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago). Some thought-provoking screenings from its 2025 edition included director Kazuya Shiraishi’s “Bushido,” a fleet-footed and stylish throwback to samurai period dramas; “The Kiss,” a historical drama set in pre-World War I Denmark; the documentary “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story”; and the comedy “Bad Shabbos,” starring Kyra Sedgwick and Method Man as an interfaith engaged couple whose Shabbat dinner is thrown into turmoil with an unexpected death. Sun & Stars hasn’t yet announced its 2026 slate of films and foreign fare, but expect it to be no less ambitious than its previous outings.

Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival

Feb. 20-28 at Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale, Cinema Paradiso Hollywood and other Broward County venues. 954-525-3456 or FLIFF.com.

After the departure of longtime director Gregory von Hausch in 2024, the county’s longest-running festival briefly found itself a leaderless organization and postponed its fall 2025 festival until February 2026. Now with a new showrunner in Hal Axler, who also manages the nonprofit Broward County Film Society, the festival has managed to pivot and rebound, even despite recent state cuts to arts and culture funding. The bash marks its 40th edition in 2026 but hasn’t yet announced its programming slate as of this writing, but it should include many celebrities (2024’s event featured actor Ray Romano and HGTV host Ty Pennington) along with 100-plus feature-length films, shorts and documentaries, many of them world and U.S. premieres, at multiple venues from Fort Lauderdale to Hollywood.

Popcorn Frights Film Festival

August 2026 at Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale and Cinema Paradiso Hollywood. PopcornFrights.com.

In case you haven’t heard, this horror-palooza screened 184 movies in the first eight months of 2025, not only snatching the crown for Broward County’s biggest film festival but, arguably, its most creative one. That’s because the scaremongers behind it, Igor Shteyrenberg and Marc Ferman, refuse to confine their horror bash to the dead heat of August, instead throwing screenings all year long, often for free, including sneak previews of first-run features. As in past years, their recently concluded summer festival was a bloody sold-out showcase of Florida-grown indies and nostalgic classics, with appearances from scream queens Barbara Crampton (“Re-Animator”) and Linnea Quigley (“The Return of the Living Dead”) and icon Lloyd Kaufman (“The Toxic Avenger”). There were also screenings of John Carpenter classic “The Fog” with faux “fog” pumped into the theater, as well as the 1989 slasher “Nightmare Beach,” shown at night on Fort Lauderdale beach, just a frisbee toss from its filming location. Can’t wait until next August? The festival is plotting a “Nightmare Weekend” (dates TBD) trove of screenings around Halloween.

Originally Published: October 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM EDT