14TH ANNUAL KEY WEST FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FULL LINEUP
Festival to open with Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen crowd-pleasing romantic comedy ETERNITY and close with Oscar Best Picture frontrunner HAMNET, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley.
Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Winner, SENTIMENTAL VALUE, to serve as Centerpiece Film
Special work in-progress screening of film about celebrated local artist, Eric Anfinson
Key West, FL – October 13, 2025: The 14th Annual Key West Film Festival kicks off on November 12, 2025, led by the Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen feel good film ETERNITY, which has been wowing audiences since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year. Closing the festival will be the current frontrunner for Best Picture, HAMNET, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley and directed by Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao (Nomadland). Serving as the Centerpiece Film is another of the leading films for Best Picture, Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prix Winner SENTIMENTAL VALUE, which has also been gathering momentum for a Best Actress nomination for Renate Reinsve. As is tradition at the festival, leading critics from across the country will be on hand to present and discuss these and other films in the lineup. This year’s visiting critics include Bilge Ebiri of Vulture.com, Addie Morfoot of Variety, and David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter.
As previously announced, Golden Key Award honorees this year include renowned stage, screen and television star Billy Connolly, who will be honored alongside a 20th Anniversary screening of the burst your seams laughing film THE ARISTOCRATS, and Academy Award-winning Costume Designer Deborah L. Scott, appearing at the festival prior to the release of her latest work, AVATAR 3. This is the 10th annual award for Costume Design – the only such annual award given the to form in the world – and past honorees include multiple Academy Award winners and nominees.
The foreign language category this year boasts many of the top contenders for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Feature, including Paolo Sorrentino’s LA GRAZIA which premiered at Venice, Hlynur Pálmason’s THE LOVE THAT REMAINS, Iceland’s official selection for the Oscar, and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s THE SECRET AGENT from Brazil, which is also being mentioned as a contender for Best Picture. Korea’s official selection, NO OTHER CHOICE, from Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Decision to Leave) rounds out the award heavy section. KWFF previously showcased Filho’s Bacurao in 2021, as well as Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God, which took home the Golden Conch for Best International film at the 2022 edition of the Festival.
Leading the Documentary section is the Documentary Spotlight title CANCELLED: THE PAULA DEEN STORY, the latest film from Miami-based director Billy Corben. Corben will appear at the festival for a Q&A, as he has for four of his previous films. Celebrity chef Paul Menta, a frequent collaborator of Deen’s, will host a special cooking class prior to the screenings (featuring a LOT of butter, of course). Also appearing at the festival is Emmy Award-Winning director Ondi Timoner, with both her latest feature, ALL GOD’S CHILDREN and her new short film which just premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, ALL THE WALLS CAME DOWN. The Miami born director returns to the festival after previously winning awards for Last Flight Home in 2022 and Mapplethorpe in 2018, making her the only filmmaker to win Golden Conch awards in two different categories at the festival. Other titles include Academy Award-Nominee Robert Stone’s latest film, STARMAN, about pioneering NASA engineer Gentry Lee and his quest to prove we are not alone in the universe; Ivy Meeropol – also a two time attendee of the festival – brings her latest film, ASK E. JEAN, which premiered at Telluride and lets E. Jean Carroll tell her story; Emmy Award-Winning filmmaker Cody Sheehy’s THE LAST DIVE, about a former Hells Angel who later in life, goes back to the sea to find the manta ray he would swim with as a younger man; and Chadden Hunter’s THE RAFTSMEN, about an improbable journey 50 years ago across the Pacific Ocean by 12 men using boats only made out of primitive material.
Embracing the community that helped build Key West, the festival puts a special focus on LGBTQIA+ programming. Leading the pack is Academy Award nominee Sam Pollard and Daniel Junge’s I WAS BORN THIS WAY, about the reverend Carl Bean and the song that let a community express its pride. IT’S DOROTHY, from Jeffrey McHale, shows us the many lives and dreams that Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz inspired. Elliot Tuttle’s BLUE FILM, which took audiences by storm after its controversial debut at the Edinburgh Film Festival, makes its way to Key West as the relationship of a former student and his teacher brings new meaning to both of their lives.
A new section of programming is included in the festival this year called FLORIDOCS. Culled from hundreds of submissions of Florida based films and filmmakers, these three films show the incredible stories being told by Florida filmmakers. Making its World Premiere at the festival is Rob Hoovis’s OUTLAWS OF THE EVERGLADES. Featuring interviews from both Carl Hiaasen and Tim Chapman, the film tells the story of regular fishermen who turned to a life of crime after areas of the Everglades were barred for them. Also making its World Premiere is Miami-based Gaspar Gonzales’s SUMMER OF 83, about arguably the greatest College World Series ever featuring players including Roger Clemens, Dave Magadan, Barry Larkin and more. And what’s Florida without a little snake hunt? Xander Robin’s SXSW-premiering documentary THE PYTHON HUNT follows the annual state-sponsored python hunt across Florida which attracts visitors from around the world. But is it more spectacle than an actual effort to eliminate this dangerous predator?
Also featured at the festival will be a special work-in-progress screening ERIC ANFINSON: A PORTRAIT, PART 1, directed by three time KWFF alumni Cassidy Rast and Odin Wadleigh. The documentary explores his formative years & young adulthood in the Midwest and highlights the life-changing event that eventually led him to finding his artistic calling on the island of Key West.
Per annual tradition, the festival’s final screening will be an outdoor music themed film, this time celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the release of outlaw country documentary HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS, featuring the music of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle and more.
The short film lineup is loaded with festival laurels and some starpower, to boot. Selections include SXSW Grand Jury Winner RETIREMENT PLAN, starring Domnhall Gleeson, Palm Springs Shortfest hit comedy BDAY PRIVATE DICK, led by Nick Thune and John C. Reilly, and festival winners LITTLE REBELS CINEMA CLUB and JANE AUSTEN’S PERIOD DRAMA.
“This year will bring festival goers one of our most prestigious and entertaining short film lineups yet,” Director of Short Film Programming Mike McNamara declared. “There will be a whole lot of comedy, a little bit of drama, and a whole lot of Florida, of course.” One of those Florida-made highlights will be the world premiere of MILE ZEROS, a comedy fully filmed and produced in Key West.
This year’s program was selected from a record number of more than 1,000 submissions from over 50 countries.
