Nearly four years after the City of Miami discontinued Miami Dade College’s management of the Tower Theater—prompting locals to gather at its gates in protest—the College will be taking over the venue once again on Nov. 1.
“We’re very happy that the city and the college have reached an agreement on a long-term lease, and we’re excited to be embarking on a period of renovation of the building,” said James Woolley, executive director of the Miami Film Festival.
Located in the heart of Calle Ocho, the art deco cinema has served as a cultural landmark for a century. It was one of the first theaters to offer Spanish subtitles for Cuban exiles in the 1960s and has been the home of the Miami Film Festival for more than 20 years.
The College managed the city-owned venue from 2002 until 2023, when Miami terminated the lease agreement.
“[It’s] a cultural sin when you interrupt something that is working. There wasn’t any reason to stop it,” said Alejandro Ríos who often collaborated on projects with the theater while working at the MDC for 26 years before retiring in 2018.
Ríos looks forward to presenting two projects he cares about intimately, the Cuban Film Series and Spotlight on Cuba, at the Tower Theater.
The new lease contract, championed by City of Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins and District 3 Commissioner Rolando Escalona, will last 10 years with an option to renew it.
Alberto Sigarroa, former MFF director of partnerships and development, will lead the theater’s next chapter as the new director, overseeing its day-to-day operations.
“I’m very excited about my role as director of Tower Theater,” Sigarroa said. “I love the venue. I have memories watching movies there before it was even a thought that I could work there.”
After taking over the theater, the college will modernize equipment, install new projectors, screens and sound system while also preserving the historic look of the building.
The theater will not only serve as a cinema, it will be a mixed arts space for theater, poetry, art gallery exhibitions and live performances of all kinds, according to Woolley.
“We want our theater to feel like the home for local filmmakers,” Sigarroa said. “We want to play all their movies. We want to make sure they feel special, whether it be for industry networking events, screening their film for their team, or maybe a theatrical run that they’ve made.”
On Dec. 10, MDC will host a public block party at Domino Park with food, music and vendors to commemorate the theater’s 100th anniversary, allowing families and friends to get a first look at the renovated venue.
Tickets will be released that day for programming that starts in January of 2027.
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