The Best Movies You Can Only See in Miami in September

While the fall film festival season kicks into high gear abroad, those of us who can't make it to Venice and Toronto can still enjoy great cinema here in Miami. The NVision Latino Film & Music Festival is bringing movies and music from Latin America to downtown Miami, including work from auteurs such as Sebastian Lelio. Animation fans can look forward to a Ghibli-inspired film from Pakistan, a live-scored horror cartoon from Slovakia, and some weird and wonderful indie shorts curated by Don Hertzfeldt. Coral Gables Art Cinema's Kurosawa retrospective also concludes this month with one of the director's finest films. Here are the best films to see in Miami in September. 

Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike! at O Cinema South Beach

Reminding us all how Labor Day got its name, the Miami Democratic Socialists of America are sponsoring a screening of Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 propaganda film Strike! on 16mm. This first feature from the legendary and influential filmmaker, who would change the grammar of movies forever with his next film, Battleship Potemkin, follows a group of factory workers in Tsarist Russia who go on strike after the death of a coworker accused of theft, demanding higher wages and better working conditions. With its innovative, rapid-fire editing style and experimental juxtapositions of story footage with shots of animals and other motifs, Eisenstein took early cinema into bold new directions. If you're wary of silent film, Strike! is a great example of how entertaining and insightful even a hundred-year-old movie can be. 6 p.m. Monday, September 1, at O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; o-cinema.org. RSVP at bit.ly/miamidsastrike.

The Bloody Lady at Coral Gables Art Cinema

Here's a really interesting event combining film and music: Coral Gables Art Cinema and Ad Hoc Cinema will host a screening of the 1980 animated film The Bloody Lady, with a live score by alternative musician Claire Rousay. Never heard of the movie? That's probably because it was locked behind the Iron Curtain for many years. It may sound surprising, but the Eastern Bloc produced tons of creative animation, and Slovak director Viktor Kubal was among the most celebrated. While he's best known for beloved children's shorts, his feature The Bloody Lady is far from child's play. The historical horror movie follows the exploits of Elizabeth Báthory, a Hungarian noblewoman who is said to have murdered and tortured hundreds of girls and even bathed in virginal blood. Rousay, meanwhile, is known for her inventive "emo ambient" record Sentiment, combining autotuned teen angst with sound collage. 8 p.m. Wednesday, September 3, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249. Tickets cost $20 via gablescinema.com.

Don Hertzfeldt’s Animation Mixtape at O Cinema South Beach

We've covered experimental animator Don Hertzfeldt in this column before — the stick-figure maestro's great film It's Such a Beautiful Day played in Miami a year ago. Now he's back, only this time he's showing off a whole smorgasbord of wild and inventive animation from a variety of indie artists. Animation Mixtape features an animated introduction from Hertzfeldt and a rare, unseen short from legendary underground animator Bill Bickford, along with several other weird and wonderful 'toons. You'll have two chances to see the show, first at O Cinema on September 4 and again at Coral Gables Art Cinema from September 19 to 21. 7 p.m. Thursday, September 4, at O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; o-cinema.org. Tickets cost $10 to $12.50.

Sinners at Cosford Cinema

In case you missed it in theaters earlier this year — and if you did, oh boy did you miss out — Sinners is "travelin'" back to Miami. UM's Cosford Cinema will show the blues-country vampire thriller for free on Wednesday, September 3, and Saturday, September 6. Rooftop Cinema Club in South Beach will also show the film on Saturday, September 20.

Our Take: Considering the state of Hollywood in 2025, it's hard to believe something like Sinners even got made, let alone that it became the most successful original film in years. It took director Ryan Coogler making two Black Panther movies and the Rocky franchise spin-off Creed for Warner Bros. to finally trust him enough to gamble on a vampires-vs-gangsters musical horror showdown flick set in a Mississippi Delta juke joint. Sinners ultimately succeeds not just because it's entertaining, but because it feels ruthlessly authentic. Coogler breathes painstaking detail into his setting, depicting a vivid and complicated slice of America with vivid precision. From Michael B. Jordan playing twin gangsters to Delroy Lindo as a grizzled harmonica player, the entire cast excels, and not just at acting: Newcomer Miles Caton steals the show with an outstanding manifestation of the blues, connecting the genre to a timeline of music that spans the past and future of Black creativity and beyond. 9 p.m. Wednesday, September 3, and 8 p.m. Saturday, September 6 at Cosford Cinema, 5030 Brunson Dr., Memorial Building Ste. 225, Coral Gables; 305-284-9838; cosfordcinema.com. Admission is free.

The Glassworker at Savor Cinema

More and more countries around the world are getting into the animation game. For proof, look no further than this lovely film from Pakistan. Produced by Karachi-based Mano Animation Studio and directed by Usman Riaz, the Studio Ghibli-inspired The Glassworker screens at Fort Lauderdale's Savor Cinema starting Friday, September 5. It will screen at AMC Sunset Place and AMC Aventura. The film contains some scenes of wartime violence, which may be frightening for small children.

Our Take: Drawing heavy inspiration from the works of Hayao Miyazaki, particularly Howl's Moving Castle and The Wind Rises, The Glassworker takes place in a seaside town in an unnamed country somewhere between West and East. In the shadow of a terrible war, Vincent (Sacha Dhawan), an apprentice in his father's glass workshop and a prodigious talent himself, makes an unlikely friend in Alliz (Anjli Mohindra), a star violinist and the daughter of a local colonel whom his pacifist father resents. As their friendship deepens into something more, the two find themselves drawn apart by the bitter divisions of class and conflict, yet in the end, artistry survives as war consumes the warriors. Reportedly the first hand-drawn film ever made in Pakistan, the film's highly detailed backgrounds and fluid animation are impressive for a production with a comparatively limited budget and resources — it's not Ghibli-level, but not much else is either. Pakistani cultural details, meanwhile, seamlessly slip into the film's steampunk-fantasy setting: Characters drink chai, wear shalwar kameez along with Western attire, and encounter magical djinn. Its anti-war message, meanwhile, is sadly relevant amid current real-life conflicts. Friday, September 5 through Sunday, September 7 at Savor Cinema, 503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale; 954-525-3456; fliff.com/savorcinema. Tickets cost $10 to $12.

High and Low at Coral Gables Art Cinema

It's time to bid farewell to Hot Samurai Summer with a film that's arguably Akira Kurosawa's greatest achievement. Recently remixed by Spike Lee as Highest 2 Lowest, the Japanese master's 1963 original High and Low will serve as the grand finale for Coral Gables Art Cinema's director retrospective on Friday, September 5.

Our Take: High and Low is, put simply, a perfect movie. It's Kurosawa at the peak of his powers, Toshiro Mifune at the pinnacle of his screen stardom, and one of the most well-told crime stories the cinema has ever seen. Mifune stars as Gondo, a ruthless businessman planning a hostile takeover of his company when his son is suddenly kidnapped. Then, another twist: The kidnapper got the wrong kid, taking his chauffeur's son instead. A sweat-inducing night ensues in Gondo's hilltop home as he anxiously debates the situation with police and confidants: Is he willing to ruin himself by paying the ransom and saving another man's child? From there, the film descends into the slums of Yokohama as the police, led by Inspector Tokura (future Kurosawa leading man Tatsuya Nakadai), track down the kidnapper in a series of incredible setpieces, from a speeding Shinkansen train to a bustling nightclub. With its gritty contemporary setting and atypically understated performance from typically ferocious Mifune, the film struggled for Western recognition among Kurosawa's samurai movies. Now we know better: With its peerless direction, expert procedural plotting, and a disturbingly profound epilogue that serves as a potent meditation on class and the nature of crime, High and Low is not simply one of the greatest crime movies of all time — I consider it one of the five best films ever made. 10 p.m. Friday, September 5, and 2:15 p.m. Sunday, September 7, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75 via gablescinema.com.

NVision Latino Film & Music Festival at Silverspot Cinema Downtown

New to Miami this year, NVision is a festival focused on Latino film and music — a perfect fit for this city. Taking over Silverspot Cinema Downtown for two days this month, the event features films from across the Latin world, opening with the new movie from A Fantastic Woman director Sebastian Lelio, La Ola, and closing with a music documentary following Mexican superstar Kenia Os. Both Lelio and Os will participate in Q&As. Other selections include the San Sebastián-awarded horror film The Wailing and the Chilean coming-of-age film Cuerpo Celeste. Local creatives may also want to take note of the panels covering film financing, scoring, sports media, and other topics. Friday and Saturday, September 5 and 6, at Silverspot Cinema Downtown, 300 SE Third St. #100, Miami. Passes cost $49.99 to $129.99 via nvisionfestival.com.

Rebel Without A Cause at Coral Gables Art Cinema

James Dean is one of Hollywood's most influential stars — and one of its most tragic. The method actor starred in three acclaimed films before dying in a car accident in 1955. In honor of the 70th anniversary of his most famous films, Coral Gables Art Cinema will show all three of Dean's screen appearances this month, starting with East of Eden on Saturday, September 6, and concluding with Giant on Saturday, September 20. Rebel Without A Cause, however, is the must-see here. Nicolas Ray's 1955 melodrama shocked the nation with its depiction of moral decay, ennui, and psychological breakdown among middle-class suburban teens. It's a familiar subject now, but in the '50s, the concept of the "teenager" was fairly new. Dean, who had studied at the Actor's Studio under Lee Strasberg, infused his character Jim Stark with a sense of realism that sets him far apart from the rest of the cast; mumbling, omitting lines and setting a new paradigm for film acting in the process. 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday, September 13 at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.

AV Club: Silent Cinema Scored at Miami Beach Regional Library

In partnership with the Moving Image Alliance, AV Club is putting on a special edition at the Miami Beach Regional Library, showing a series of 16mm experimental silent films from the MDPL collection with a live score by local musicians Edward Bobb and Brom Lee. Along with three films by legendary photo artist Man Ray, AV Club is also premiering Miami-based filmmaker Barron Sherer's new film, Sketch No. 1, Fire Station No. 9, which will become the first new 16mm film acquired by the library in more than 30 years. 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 24, at the Miami Beach Regional Library, 227 22nd St., Miami Beach; 305-535-4219; mdpls.org. Admission is free.