Eternity starring Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen will open the 14th Key West Film Festival set to run November 12 – 16, 2025.
Serving as the Centerpiece Film is Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prix Winner Sentimental Value, and closing the festival is Hamnet, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley and directed by Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao (Nomadland).
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.
The foreign language category this year boasts submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Feature, including Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, Hlynur Pálmason’s The Love That Remains, Iceland’s official selection for the Oscar, and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent from Brazil, Korea’s official selection, and No Other Choice, from Park Chan-wook.
Leading the Documentary lineup is the Documentary Spotlight title Canceled: The Paula Deen Story from Miami-based director Billy Corben; and Emmy Award-Winning director Ondi Timoner, with both her latest feature, All God’s Children along with her new short film All the Walls Came Down, which just premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Other titles include 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 brings her latest film, Ask E. Jean, which lets E. Jean Carroll tell her story; 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.
The festival puts a special focus on LGBTQIA+ programming with 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; and Elliot Tuttle’s Blue Film on 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 showing 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 documentary The Python Hunt follows the annual state-sponsored python hunt across Florida which attracts visitors from around the world.
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.
Continuing 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 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.
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