The Miami Short Film Festival is marking a milestone 25th edition this fall, with organizers announcing a lineup that spans three venues across South Florida. Festival organizers have described the event as South Florida’s original short film showcase, and this year’s program brings curated screenings, filmmaker Q&As and networking opportunities built around short films, including Deering Estate titles longer than 20 minutes such as First Summer at 30 minutes.
According to WLRN, the festival runs November 13 through 16, 2026, with screenings taking place at O Cinema South Beach, Silverspot Cinema Downtown Miami and the Deering Estate Visitor Center. That overall window is not settled across every listing, though: the Deering Estate also cites a November 13-16 run across those same three venues, while a separate listing from cultureowl.com pins the 25th edition specifically to November 14-15 at Silverspot Cinema. Festival organizers said the event spotlights innovative voices and connects audiences with independent cinema in an intimate and dynamic setting, per WLRN’s reporting.
Deering Estate Hosts Two Nights of Screenings
The Deering Estate will host two special screening nights on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15, with 7 p.m. cocktail receptions and featured short films scheduled for 8 p.m. The Deering Estate’s own event listing details Screening #5, scheduled for Saturday, November 14, featuring The Oracle, directed by JJ Adler, alongside La luna que amamos como a un hermano, Papillon and First Summer. Screening #9, scheduled for Sunday, November 15, includes Big Bad Yucky Monster, directed by Nicole Lipp, A Wolf in the Suburbs, Asphalt, ¡Que Suene La Banda! and MA – MA.
Those Deering Estate screenings will take place indoors at the Visitor Center theater, the estate’s listing notes. Attendees can find free parking in the Visitor Center lot, located on SW 168th Street just west of 72nd Avenue — a detail WLRN also included in its coverage of the lineup announcement.
Tickets and the Festival's Broader Mission
General admission tickets for the festival cost $20, while student, senior and military tickets run $16 and are available online only, according to WLRN’s report. Over at Silverspot Cinema Downtown Miami, located at 300 Southeast 3rd Street, cultureowl.com’s listing indicates the venue will offer three screenings per day during its portion of the festival.
The festival’s own mission statement, posted on miamishortfilmfestival.com, describes an event that is international in scope, aiming to bring exposure to the world’s best independent up-and-coming filmmakers. The site also says the festival is focused on motivating directors, screenwriters, actors and producers to make films and share them with fellow filmmakers and industry professionals — language that lines up with organizers’ description, relayed by WLRN, of three days of curated screenings, filmmaker Q&As, special events and networking opportunities centered on short films.
A Quarter-Century of South Florida Short Films
The 2026 edition aims to spotlight innovative voices and connect audiences with independent cinema. The festival’s own website also notes that a video presented on the final day of last year’s 24th edition announced the winners in each competition category, underscoring that the event has built a recurring annual rhythm leading up to this year’s 25th anniversary. For context, Miami-Dade County’s government previously announced the festival’s 21st annual edition for November 11 through 13, 2022, pointing to a history that now stretches back well over two decades.
With the Deering Estate’s two screening nights locked in for November 14 and 15, and additional programming expected at O Cinema South Beach and Silverspot Cinema Downtown Miami, organizers appear set to close out the festival’s 25th year with the same mix of local discovery and international short film talent that has defined the event since its earlier years.
