Eight days, seven venues
Miami Film Festival GEMS runs 29 October to 5 November 2026. The festival started the showcase in 2014 as MIFFecito at MDC's Tower Theater Miami. The FAQ page runs the line "Over 40 of the Awards Season films".
The venues page lists seven screening rooms. Bill Cosford Cinema at 5030 Brunson Drive and Coral Gables Art Cinema at 260 Aragon Avenue sit in Coral Gables. Koubek Center at 2705 Southwest 3rd Street, Silverspot Cinema at 300 Southeast 3rd Street, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens at 3251 South Miami Avenue and MDC Wolfson at 300 Northeast 2nd Avenue sit in Miami. O Cinema at 1130 Washington Avenue sits in Miami Beach.
The venues page leaves the Tower off the list. The membership page carries the reason: Tower Theater Miami daily programming starts January 2027.
OpenStreetMap measures the spread. Coral Gables Art Cinema sits 4.68 miles from the Silverspot room and 8.22 miles from O Cinema. The seven rooms sit across three municipalities.
The published ladder
The ticketing page prints a general column and a member column. Opening Night Film, The Debut plus pre-reception, runs $55 general and $50 member. Closing Night Film, Club Kid, runs $25 and $22. Centerpieces run $20 and $17. A General Screening runs $16.50 and $14.50. Special Screenings run $25 to $82 general and $22 to $87 member. Variety A Conversation With runs $40 and $35.
A processing fee sits outside the ladder. The ticketing page states $2 to $10 per ticket and event. The FAQ states a $2+ fee with no exception.
Pick Six and Take Twelve cover General and Centerpiece screenings. They exclude the opening film, the closing film, retrospectives and Celebrity Conversations.
The member rate against the membership price
The member column carries the only discount printed on the ladder. Tiers run $65, $130, $265, $615, $1,165 and $2,500.
The gap on a General Screening is $2. A $65 Film Lover membership needs 33 general screenings to return its cost. The $265 Connoisseur tier needs 133 at the same gap. Opening night saves $5, so 13 opening night tickets cover the $65 tier.
The top of the Special Screenings band inverts. A member pays $87 where general admission is $82, which is $5 above the public price. At the $25 floor of the same band the member pays $22. Read the tier before treating membership as a saving.
The purchase flow adds a step. The FAQ describes logging into the member profile, selecting general admission and clicking "apply my member discount" at checkout. The membership page states that GEMS 2026 credentials have been mailed and that members joining or renewing from Wednesday 14 October collect them at the first screening. Those credentials control early entry at every venue.
Fees, rush lines and the clock
The FAQ sets the clock. Lines form about one hour before a program and the room opens about 30 minutes before. Late seating is not guaranteed. Empty seats go to the rush line about 15 minutes before the film at full price. All orders are final, and reissued tickets void the originals.
Parking varies by venue and the festival does not guarantee a space. One downtown garage covers the two rooms at 300 Southeast 3rd Street and 300 Northeast 2nd Avenue.
The FAQ still prints a public sale date of Wednesday, October 1. October 1, 2026 fell on a Thursday. The ticketing page states that tickets are on sale now.
Three hotel partners, no published rate
The Travel and Dining page names three hotel partners: JW Marriott Marquis Miami in Downtown Miami, W Miami, and 1 Hotel South Beach. It publishes no rate, no group code, no room type and no cut-off date for any of them.
Two sit near the downtown cluster. OpenStreetMap places the JW Marriott Marquis at 255 Biscayne Boulevard Way, 0.05 miles from the 300 Southeast 3rd Street room, and W Miami at 485 Brickell Avenue, 0.20 miles out. 1 Hotel South Beach sits 1.20 miles from O Cinema, 4.26 miles from the downtown room and 8.91 miles from the Coral Gables cinema.
Coral Gables holds a local set. Hotel Colonnade at 180 Aragon Avenue sits 0.10 miles from the Coral Gables cinema.
The stay the calendar supports
The run opens Thursday 29 October and closes Thursday 5 November. A stay covering both ends checks in on 29 October and checks out on 6 November, which is eight nights.
Two weekend nights fall inside the run: Friday 30 October and Saturday 31 October. The other six nights run Sunday through Thursday. Send one request for the six midweek nights and a second for the two weekend nights.
The acceptance tips page states that mid-week travel raises the chance a hotel accepts a lower offer. The ticket terms set the risk line. All orders are final and the rush line sells at full price. A room term with cancellation to 48 hours gives the buyer a way out when a screening sells out.
What goes into the request
Ask for one blended rate across the six midweek nights. Name Friday 30 October and Saturday 31 October in a separate request. Ask for a garage space inside the rate and for cancellation to 48 hours on the two middle nights.
The service scope needs one check before submission. The home page states that hotelhaggle covers 46 states and 103,857+ properties. The seller-of-travel help article, updated 3 July 2026, states that the service excludes CA, FL, HI, IA and WA, and that Florida requires seller-of-travel registration and a surety bond. Get the route confirmed in writing before submitting.
