By Sue Arrowsmith, Miami Dade College

Dubbed the finest state-of-the-art theater in the South in 1926, the Tower Theater is now Miami’s premier art cinema and continues to serve as a historic and cultural gathering place. In fact, USA Today named it one of the “10 great places to see a movie in splendor.” Under the direction Miami Dade College’s Cultural Affairs Department, the theater presents a variety of independent, foreign and Spanish-subtitled films, as well as art exhibitions, live performances, free educational lectures, and more.

This week, the theater is celebrating Italian cinema. The featured films include We Have a Pope (Habemus papam), written and directed by renowned Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti. The film humorously recreates Vatican City and ponders a scenario in which a newly elected pope finds he’s unable to shoulder the weight of that responsibility. An official selection at the latest Cannes Film Festival, We Have a Pope was voted the top film of 2011 by the influential French magazine Cahiers du Cinema.

The showcase will also present the acclaimed The Salt of Life (Gianni e le donne) by Gianni di Lorenzo, the writer, director and star of 2010’s surprise summer hit Mid-August Lunch. Set in Trastevere, one of the most popular neighborhoods in Rome, this sparkling comedy has been one of the most recent New York Times Critics’ picks.

Two of the films in the selection include roles by the brilliant Italian actress Margherita Buy, who plays a small part as the wife of the Pope’s psycho-analyst in We Have a Pope, and the leading role as a middle-aged single woman caught up in her younger sister’s impending nuptials in the delightful Italian-style comedy: Weddings and Other Disasters (Matrimoni e altri disastri).

The selection ends with the extraordinary Belgian-French-Italian co-production The Kid with a Bike (Le gamin au vélo), the new masterpiece from the internationally recognized Dardenne brothers, an indisputable pearl at the recently concluded Miami International Film Festival, Golden Globe nominee as Best Foreign Language Film and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Tickets are $8 for the general public; $7 for MDC students and staff, seniors, and Miami Film Society members; $6 for Tower Theater patrons with valid 5-ticket package.

For movie times and to purchase tickets in advance, please visit www.mdc.edu/tower. Free parking is available behind the theater.