Miami locals know too well the confusing mix of love and hate they feel toward the city where they live. Chris Molina's debut feature, Fallen Fruit, captures those contradictions beautifully. Named Miami New Times' Best Film Director in 2022, Molina follows a 20-something going through a quarter-life crisis when an impending hurricane forces him to evaluate his life. The only thing more Miami than its synopsis is Fallen Fruit's production. Supported by a 2023 Oolite Arts Cinematic Arts Residency, this micro-budget feature is the product of local filmmakers and local love. Not only does the character rediscover the unique charms of the Magic City, but the film is a fantastic showcase of our filmmaking community. After three sold-out screenings at the Miami Film Festival and OUTshine Film Festival, Fallen Fruit is poised to show everyone the real Miami.

With her 2024 documentary Razing Liberty Square, director Katja Esson zooms in on the complex and devastating consequences of climate gentrification in Liberty City, a historically Black, under-resourced Miami neighborhood. She captures the entirety of a $300 million mixed-income development project in Liberty Square, previously the oldest segregated public housing project in the U.S. Located eight miles inland from the beach and on a ridge twelve feet above sea level, it's become a very attractive plot of land for wealthy developers. Razing Liberty Square is a fierce investigation into the disproportionate effects of climate change on Black communities. The film highlights the struggles of community members who face demolition, displacement, and rightful distrust in their local government.

From her work at the Third Horizon Film Festival and producing the award-winning short film T, Monica Sorelle has been a filmmaker on the rise. The Miami-born Haitian-American hit a new peak in her career with the release of her first feature, Mountains. Sorelle is again securing much-deserved awards and acclaim, including a Someone to Watch Award from the Independent Spirit Awards. Tapped-in Miamians already had an eye on Sorelle and her work, but now a wider audience can discover her immense talents. After an impressive festival tour, Mountains finally made its Miami debut at the Miami Film Festival, where it earned the Made in MIA Feature Film Award. The specificity of Sorelle's exploration of displacement and alienation as it relates to the diasporic experience in Miami is a marvel. Fortunately, this gifted artist is sharing that story with the rest of the world through film.

Though you might think a day job narrating true crime podcasts like Sacred Scandal or Cold Case Files, highlighting the worst of humanity, might shake the sense of humor right out of you, it's only fueled comedian Paula Barros' hilarity. Also known as Pauley McPaulerson, Barros doubles audiences over at events all around town, whether it's when she's hosting at Hotel Greystone on South Beach and Arlo Wynwood, or gracing the stage at the Villain Theater. While most crowd-working comedians in Miami have made insult comedy a bit of a blood sport, Barros takes a more empathetic approach to confronting her audience. With style and class, she splits sides without the need for the sharp weapons of her podcast subjects. Instead, she comes armed with well-timed punchlines.

Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami founder Pedro Pablo Peña has offered safe haven more than once to dancers fleeing Cuba. He himself arrived in Miami on the 1980 Mariel boatlift. In fact, his company's season finale at the Fillmore Miami Beach this year featured four Cuban dancers who left the National Ballet of Cuba while visiting Puerto Rico. When Peña formed his company in 2006, it was to preserve the style of Cuban ballet outside the island. His openness to deserters seeking a better life in the U.S. has been a great gain for Miami audiences. And many go on to work with the country's top ballet companies. Peña's company also draws in dancers from other countries around the world for the celebrated International Ballet Festival of Miami.

Sisters Tanya and Natasha Bravo are the founding forces behind the magical Juggerknot Theatre Company. Year after year, production after production, the team delivers one helluva unique theater experience. Known for their immersive shows, Juggerknot knows how to engage and entertain an audience. Their latest production, Conjuring the King, is a raw, communal journey and one-woman show that follows the story of an Elvis Presley fan-club president. Taking care of business and takeovers are kind of their thing. The company put on exciting productions that took over motels (Miami Motel Stories) and even a house in Little Havana (The Blues Opera). We're sure the Bravo sisters will continue to find creative ways to stay fresh and engaging.

This absurdist, experimental troupe's odd name was inspired by the title of a Google image of southwest Florida's Lakewood Ranch. Founded by three FIU theater grads during the height of the pandemic, LakehouseranchDotPNG found a surprisingly eager audience while working out of a second-floor rented space in Kendall. The group is committed to showcasing new work, much of which is written by the company's local resident playwrights. This season, they're abandoning Kendall for Miami Lakes, but they aren't straying from their commitment to innovative big-thinking: season three includes a horror play about creeper vines in West Virginia and a couple on the hunt for a cryptid known as Mothman.

Larger-than-life acting coach Violet Tcherkin is Miami's only accredited instructor of the Chubbuck technique. It's a 21st-century evolution of the widely studied Stanislavski method, which countless Hollywood A-listers have used to hone their craft. Tcherkin's students swear not only by her prowess as a world-class instructor of thespians but also by her empathy and insights into the human condition. While she helps her students prepare for the rigorous and highly competitive acting industry, she also offers them what some call a life-changing journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

Easily going from glam to gritty, Miami actress Lela Elam is nothing if not convincing. As Morgan Wright in Zoetic Stage's Clark Gable Slept Here, she originated the role of the Hollywood diva pissed to be called away from the Golden Globes to help clean up a murder mess. Elam seamlessly juggled multiple roles in the Actors' Playhouse production of A Rock Sails By. And she killed it as no-nonsense Coach Odessa Hicks in this season's The Girls of Summer with M Ensemble Company. The role, which hearkened the 1992 classic film A League of Their Own, had the actress leading a team of Black female baseball players in the '40s. Her range and convincing portrayals make it pretty clear that as an actress, Elam is herself in a league of her own.

Elijah Word has finesse. He can transform an iconic role that audiences have seen over and over again. Characters ingrained in our psyche are re-created entirely when he plays them on stage. Superstar Eddie Murphy defined James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls, but when Word played the role in Broward Stage Door's Carbonell-winning production, there wasn't an ounce of Murphy in the character. Likewise, there was not even a nod to Broadway's legendary Billy Porter when Word played the drag artiste Lola in Slow Burn's Kinky Boots. But where he truly proved his knack for originality was in Zoetic Stage's Cabaret. His master of ceremonies was born anew — a love child of a contestant in RuPaul's Drag Race and torch singer Billie Holiday.