Tonight’s FilmGate Miami festival presents comedy

FilmGate Miami is a non-profit organization that has the longest-running monthly short film festival in Florida honoring regional creativity, variety, and local culture. 

Co-Founder Jose Jacho, who oversees FilmGate says that recommending monthly festivals was a must in order to promote the event.

“I knew that Miami had three to five major events daily to compete against not including nightclubs, beaches, or sports,” said Jacho. “I proposed in order to make FilmGate stick out we must have monthly festivals celebrating films made in the region.” 

For 12 years, their experimental film nights and criterion collection film nights have gained great success. Within the last ten years, they decided to form an actual non-profit film organization based in Miami.

On the fourth Wednesday of each month, they hold screenings of different genres of short films such as documentaries, music videos, and web series that take 15 minutes or less and are produced in Florida or by a resident. 

During April, which is comedy month, the festival celebrates directors and their funniest short films. Handpicked producers such as TL Westgate, Felipe Castilla, Michael Carey, Andres Monsalva, Harris Sebastian, John Forier, Alejandro Avila, and returning filmmaker Tyler Council attending the celebration for the sixth time were chosen. They will have their short films played on the big screen at the Silverspot Cinema in Downtown Miami.

After the end of the screening, the event includes a rapid Q&A, an awards ceremony for the featured directors, and renowned Percolator networking gathering. This helps filmmakers interact with Florida’s film community in person and present their project ideas to see if they are the possible next emerging talent. 

The event is on April 26 and lasts from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tickets start at $15 online at Eventbrite and $20 at the door. Each ticket comes with its own bag of popcorn given at the concession stand. 

For more information on upcoming short film genres, filmmaking classes, or even if you want to submit a short film of your own go-to filmgate.miami.

Maria Raymondi is a senior majoring in digital journalism. After her studies she hopes to further pursue her career with writing articles about criminal events for newspapers, magazines, and other media.