2023 Key West Film Festival: Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran, Documentary Producer and Executive Sheila Nevins to Receive Golden Key Awards [Exclusive]

The Key West Film Festival announced today that Academy Award-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran will be the recipient of its 8th annual Golden Key for Excellence in Costume Design, and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Executive, Director and Producer Sheila Nevins will be the 2nd annual Golden Key Award winner for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking. This year’s festival takes place November 15-19, 2023.

Jacqueline Durran’s most recent work can be seen in the record-breaking, billion-dollar box office smash Barbie. She previously collaborated with Barbie director Greta Gerwig on Little Women, which garnered Durran the Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Costume Design, as well as Chicago Film Critics Association and Critics’ Choice Award nominations. Durran previously won the Academy and BAFTA Award for Best Costume for Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina.

Durran’s many other collaborations with director Joe Wright also include Cyrano for which she was nominated for an Academy and Costume Designers Guild Award; Darkest Hour, which garnered her both Academy and BAFTA nominations; Pan; The Soloist; Atonement for which she received Academy, BAFTA, Satellite and Costume Designers Guild Award nominations, and Pride and Prejudice, for which Durran also received Academy and BAFTA Award nominations.

As part of the honor, Durran will participate in a discussion of her work, to be moderated by Stephanie Zacharek of Time. Ms. Durran will accept her award in person at the festival, which will feature a pre-recorded presentation by Oscar nominated Costume Designer, Dr. Deborah Nadoolman Landis. Past recipients of the award include Mary Zophres, Mark Bridges, Alexandra Byrne, Arianne Phillips, Jamison-Tanchuck, Paul Tazwell, and Jennifer Johnson.

Sheila Nevins, an industry icon whose recent credits include the Academy Award-nominated documentary Ascension (2021) and the current Oscar contender The Eternal Memory, will be joined by award winning director Erin Lee Carr, winner of the inaugural KWFF Documentary Award, for a conversation via satellite. Following the talk, the festival will present the Florida premiere of the short film, The ABC’s of Book Banning, directed by Nevins, which centers on the book banning efforts of a school district in central Florida.

As an Executive Producer for MTV Documentary Films and the former president of HBO Documentary Films and Family Programming for Home Box Office, Nevins she was responsible for overseeing the development and production of more than 1500 programs for HBO, HBO2 and Cinemax.

She has received 32 Primetime Emmy Awards, 35 News and Documentary Emmys and 42 George Foster Peabody Awards. During her tenure, HBO’s critically acclaimed documentaries won 26 Academy Awards. She has been honored with numerous prestigious career achievement awards, including the 2018 Realscreen Legacy Award and the 2017 DOC NYC Lifetime Achievement Award.  She is the recipient of the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and is a NYU Tisch School of the Arts Honoree. Women in Film presented Sheila with a Lucy Award for her outstanding achievements in advancing documentary filmmaking and the National Board of Review presented her with the Humanitarian Award for her contribution to the advancement of social reforms and the promotion of human welfare through film. 

Michael Tuckman, Director of Programming of the Key West Film Festival, said “Jacqueline and Sheila stand at the apex of their fields. Sheila has been a trailblazer in documentary filmmaking for over five decades, constantly pushing and redefining the boundaries of the genre, and kicking down a glass door that opened opportunities for so many women in the field in particular. Jacqueline has given particular emphasis to creating the characters of so many powerful women in film, from Anna Karenina to the March family to Barbie herself, in her many iterations. It’s an absolute honor to recognize and highlight the work of these incredible women.”

The complete lineup and details of the 2023 Key West Film Festival will be announced on October 19. For more festival details go to https://keywestff.com.