CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD GLAMOUR KICKS OFF MIFF 2014

l to r: actors Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Jared Gilman, director Michael Radford, MIFF executive director Jaie Laplante; packed house at Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts

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Day One Wrap: The 2014 Miami International Film Festival, a program of Miami Dade College’s MDCulture, kicked off it’s 31st year with the CineDwnTwn Red Carpet Gala of Elsa & Fred by filmmaker extraordinaire Michael Radford (Il Postino: The Postman, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Merchant of Venice).

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l to r: MIFF publcist Jessica Wade Pfeffer welcomes Miami Dade College President Eduardo J. Padrón, Anne Hathaway; spotlight on director Michael Radford

The evening’s Red carpet was ablaze classic Hollywood glamour, including director Michael Radford, actors Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Jared Gilman, Oswaldo Rios, Jonathan Demme, and Anne Hathaway.

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l to r: Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer; Jaie Laplante, Emma Tweed, Michael Radford, and Eduardo J. Padrón
nside Olympia Theater, the Festival’s executive director, Jaie Laplante, welcomed the packed house of cinephiles to Opening Night and thanked the Festival’s longtime corporate sponsors, including The Knight Foundation, American Airlines, Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs, Comcast, Miami Beach VCA and Lexus.

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l to r: actor Jared Gilman; director Jonathan Demme, Eduardo J. Padrón and actor Anne Hathaway; actor Oswaldo Cruz
The audience was charmed by the wise-cracking Shirley MacLaine, brilliant & debonair Christopher Plummer (Oscar winners both) and the wise-beyond-his-years Jared Gilman (Moonrise Kingdom) who shared a few tales of shooting Elsa & Fred on location in Louisiana, including MacLaine’s quip “I’ve had love affairs in New Orleans.”.

Just across the street from the Olympia Theater, the Patron 3-D Opening Night Party, at Miami’s historic Alfred I. Dupont Building, opened it’s doors to a stream of partygoers. The space was miraculously transformed into a stylish playground with a sumptuous selection of food stations from the finest local restaurants and an endless flow of Tequila Patrón specialty cocktails and Stella Artois (original & cidre). Over 2,000 guests mingled among filmmakers, VIPs, and two bare-chested hunks sporting Papi underwear (handing out Papi underwear gift bags), as others recorded their popcorn exploding wild sides in a clever 3-D motion picture Patrón photo booth.

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