Miami Film Festival Appoints New Executive Director

For James Woolley, attending film festivals has always been a family tradition.

When he was six, he went to the Sydney Film Festival in Australia with his grandparents.

Back then, one ticket secured a seat to 50 films for the two-week celebration. Woolley’s family purchased a handful and took turns going to screenings. 

Three decades later, a single ticket no longer grants access to all the films at a festival, online tickets have replaced physical ones and Woolley is now 38.

But the seed planted by his family has fostered his fondness for films—a passion he is bringing to Miami Dade College.

Woolley started as the executive director of the Miami Film Festival on Oct. 2. Jaie Laplante, who led the festival for 12 years, relinquished that role last summer.

He wants to continue the momentum the festival has garnered in the past 40 years.

“We want to have more audiences discover these movies that we love. We want to have even more filmmakers, actors and writers come out and give talks and presentations to the audience here,” Woolley said. “And we want our own local filmmaking community [to] feel like this film festival is their home festival where they can always screen their films.”

Prior to his current position, he served as executive director for Frameline, the largest and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world based in San Francisco, California, from August of 2019 to September of 2023. 

Woolley started his career as an office administrator for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 2009 after graduating from Macquarie University with a bachelor’s in arts, entertainment and media management in 2007.

One year later, he began working in ticketing for festivals throughout Australia, including Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

His life came full circle in February of 2013, when he took a job as the customer relations manager at the Sydney Film Festival—the place that sparked his love for cinema. Three years later, he became the head of marketing.  

The Aussie, who said film festivals feed his addiction “to the rush of events,” also served as the manager for the Mardi Gras Film Festival for four years and as a selection panelist for Flickerfest, a short film festival based in Sydney, for nine years.

“As a seasoned leader of international film festivals, James Woolley immediately stood out among a large and impressive candidate pool,” said María Carla Chicuén, the executive director of cultural affairs at MDC.  

His first project will be leading the 10th edition of GEMS, MFF’s precursor celebration, featuring 26 filmmakers from 14 countries, including Japan, Germany, Mexico and Finland. 

Opening night will feature Radical, a drama based on a true story about a teacher in a crime-ridden Mexican town who uses an innovative teaching method to reach his students.

Other films include The Boy and the Heron by Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation set in World War II about a teenage boy’s relocation from Tokyo after his mom’s death, and The Settlers by Chilean director Felipe Galvez Haberle, a drama that follows three horsemen as they journey from Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean. 

The weekend closes with The Holdovers, a comedy directed by Alexander Payne about a New England professor who gets stuck babysitting students on campus during Christmas break and forms a bond with a pupil and the school’s head cook.

Screenings will be held at MDC’s newly renovated Koubek Memorial Center movie theater in Little Havana and the SilverSpot Cinema in Downtown Miami from Nov. 2 through Nov. 5. 

Woolley hopes programming like GEMS will ensure the MFF continues to build a loyal audience and attract the best actors, directors and filmmakers. 

“What I love is a place that’s full of potential and [the] Miami Film Festival is full of potential.” Woolley said. “I think there’s nothing but bright futures for us. We can’t wait [for] the films that we love to be seen by even more people.”

For more information on the MFF, GEMS Lineup or tickets, visit https://miamifilmfestival.com/ 

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