Key West Film Festival “Critics Focus” Program to Tap Top Critics

David Fear of Rolling Stone and Amy Nicholson of MTV News to Curate Films; Attending Critics to award First Annual Critics’ Prize

Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea to Screen at Festival

Burt Reynolds to Receive Career Achievement Award

September 22, New York, NY — The Key West Film Festival announced today its second annual Critics Focus program, to be lead by David Fear, Senior Film/TV Editor of Rolling Stone and Amy Nicholson, Chief Film Critic of MTV. Attending critics at this year’s festival will serve as the jury for the first annual Key West Film Festival Critic’s Prize. The Festival will also present Burt Reynolds with a Career Achievement Award, accompanied by a special screening of the acclaimed documentary The Bandit, a CMT Original from filmmaker Jesse Moss (The Overnighters). The festival runs from November 16-20.

As part of the Critics Focus program, Fear has curated Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea to be presented at the 2016 Key West Film Festival, featuring a conversation by David and Amy Nicholson after the film. Nicholson will curate the other Centerpiece film, to be announced next month. Other participating film critics and journalists attending the festival this year include Eric Kohn, Chief Film Critic of Indiewire, who serves on the festival’s advisory board, Ann Hornaday, Chief Film Critic of The Washington Post, Steve Dollar, film critic, journalist and freelance contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bright Ideas magazine, Filmmaker and other publications, Shirrel Rhoades, local film critic for The Key West Citizen, Eugene Hernandez, Deputy Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Co-Publisher of Film Comment and Brian Brooks co-producer of Special Events of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, journalist at Deadline.com and co-producer of SeriesFest.

Attending film critics will exchange views and critical analysis of this year’s films with the festival audience at the beloved and dynamic mid-festival event, the Porch Chat, and will serve on the jury for the first annual Key West Film Festival Critics’ Prize. Participating critics at the Key West Film Festival will lead audience discussions with filmmakers and talent amidst the legendary tropical setting that defines Key West, pulsing with creative ideas and passion for cinema and culture.   Hernandez and Brooks will curate a special programming section of LGBT films, entitled One Key West, with details to be announced in October. The Critics Focus program, now enhanced with the juried Critics’ Prize, marks the Key West Film Festival as a vital stop on the fall festival circuit, and is designed to support film criticism while giving audiences greater context and perspective around films through public conversations guided by expert voices.

This year, the festival will honor Burt Reynolds with a Career Achievement Award, accompanied by a special screening of the documentary The Bandit, about the 70s superstar, his best friend and stunt-double Hal Needham, and the making of their unlikely smash-hit Smokey & The Bandit.

The Key West Film Festival will also award the second annual Brett Ratner Florida Film Scholarship. The festival runs in Key West, Florida from November 16 to 20.

Program Director Michael Tuckman states, “We couldn’t be more honored to have David and Amy join us this year to continue our Critics’ Focus program‎, which gave audience last year a whole world of insight into the films they just saw. Adding the Critics’ Prize was a natural progression and gives true arbiters of cinema a voice in recognizing excellence in film. And words just can’t express our excitement in bestowing an honor to the legendary Burt Reynolds, and the unique mark he has made on American popular culture.”

Nicholson comments, “One of my favorite things as a critic is watching a movie I love with an audience who’s seeing it for the first time. How fun for Dave and I to be the second round of critics invited to do just that as part of Key West’s Critics Focus program. We’re excited to bring Kenneth Lonergan’s cold and beautiful Oscar® contender to the southernmost film festival in America. I bet it will play as great there as it did at Sundance in the snow — the true test of a movie that travels.”

The Key West Film Festival’s Brett Ratner Florida Film Scholarship continues in its second year, with a $5000 scholarship awarded to a Florida student filmmaker, chosen from six participating Florida colleges and universities. Born and raised in Miami Beach, Ratner is one of Florida’s most cherished filmmakers, and personally presented the award last year to the winning student at a special ceremony at the Festival. The scholarship is designed to put a spotlight on aspiring Florida filmmakers, giving their unique local vision and heritage a national stage.

The Key West Film Festival aspires to highlight the work of accomplished Floridian artists such as Brett Ratner, a native of Miami Beach, and Burt Reynolds, who is a resident of Jupiter.

Festival venues include the historic San Carlos Institute, where the campaign for Cuba’s independence from colonial powers was planned in 1892. The Key West Film Festival has equipped the San Carlos with DCP technology, and it will host gala screenings. Other screening venues include Eaton Street Theater, the Waterfront Brewery and additional venues to be named later. Host venues for social events include the Hemingway Home and Museum, the Waldorf Astoria Casa Marina and the Southernmost Mansion.

Visit kwfilmfest.com for full program information, a schedule of events and travel and lodging details.

About the Key West Film Festival

Creativity, diversity, sustainability and beauty. The Key West Film Festival is an annual celebration of film and filmmakers, set to take place November 16-20, 2016.

A diverse, entertaining and artistically rigorous selection of films will be represented through a broad array of categories that offer opportunities for filmmakers, both aspiring and established, to commune and exchange ideas with each other while showing their work to audiences in an historic and artistically vibrant tropical paradise.

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Media Contact:

Julia Pacetti, JMP Verdant, [email protected], (718) 399-0400

Jeff Winter, JMP Verdant, [email protected], (718) 399-0400

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