Miami Film Festival seeks a new director - again

For the fourth time in eight years, the Miami International Film Festival is looking for a director.

Patrick de Bokay, who took over the festival from Nicole Guillemet last year, has been shown the door by Miami-Dade College for unspecified reasons. School officials declined to comment on the decision not to renew De Bokay's annual contract, but I'd bet this year's attendance of 74,000 - which bested last year's figure of 70,000, but with 40 more movies in the lineup - had something to do with it.

No one at the school is talking, and I haven't been able to reach de Bokay on the phone, but I've also heard that de Bokay wasn't the best fit with MDC staff. Whatever the reasons, they were big enough to seem insurmountable to school officials, since they chose to let de Bokay go instead of giving him another year.

This means another long "international search" for a director is about to begin, even though it is obvious - at least to me - that MDC should be looking to hire someone from Miami, who understands the city like a local and who has been around long enough to have a sense of where this festival has been. Or they could just try calling Nat Chediak and see what he's up to.

Here, from a statement MDC sent via e-mail, is the requirements for the job, in case you're thinking about applying:

The college seeks a candidate who can continue taking the Festival to a higher level among the world’s top film events with extensive experience in film programming, fundraising and marketing. Excellent budgetary, communications, creative, and consensus-building skills are also a must.

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