Leadership
The year-round directors who keep the festival sailing.
2 members · tap the card to read bios
Key West Film Festival · Since 2012
Island-made, people-powered
KWFF is a year-round volunteer army of programmers, students, critics, and locals who turn Key West into a five-day cinema town every November. Founded in 2012, we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit rooted in the Conch Republic’s art, history, and community.
The year-round directors who keep the festival sailing.
2 members · tap the card to read bios
KWFF strives to showcase the best of Florida filmmaking talent while highlighting visiting filmmakers and industry leaders through discussions and workshops, with access to some of the biggest names in the film business.
The festival also supports the next generation of local student filmmakers with scholarships and other key awards. The Festival's Critics’ Focus program, enhanced with the juried Critics’ Prize, together with the Costume Design Focus, marks the Key West Film Festival as a vital stop on the awards season’s fall festival circuit — with programs designed to support film criticism and craft while giving audiences greater context through public conversations guided by expert voices.
“Key publications represented in KWFF’s Critics’ Focus program include the Los Angeles Times, Vulture, Rolling Stone, Indiewire, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, TimeOut NY, and Roger Ebert.
— Critics’ Focus Program



Founders, leadership, programmers, and the year-round jury of advisors who shape the KWFF lineup — filter to browse each group.
A film festival on a two-by-four-mile island only works one way: together.
Key West has always taken care of its artists. For fourteen years this town has given KWFF its theaters, its living rooms, its afternoons off and its endless opinions about the movies — and we love it right back.

Each November the festival presents the Golden Key to artists whose work has shaped the screen — from lifetime achievement to costume design and documentary filmmaking. Tap any honoree for their full citation, selected work and photographs from the night.








Honorees, critics, filmmakers and a whole lot of islanders — photographs from across our history.