BREAKING: Key West Film Festival to honor Billy Connolly, Deborah L. Scott with Golden Key Awards
Legendary comedian and Oscar-winning costume designer to be recognized at 2025 festival, which runs Nov. 12–16
Legendary comedian, actor and musician Billy Connolly will receive the Golden Key Award for Artistic Excellence at the 2025 Key West Film Festival, organizers announced Thursday.
Connolly’s award will coincide with a 20th anniversary screening of The Aristocrats, the boundary-pushing 2005 documentary that featured him among a star-studded cast of comedians. Known as “The Big Yin,” the Scottish-born performer is celebrated for his sharp observational humor, improvisational style and decades-spanning career across film, music and stand-up.
Connolly, who was knighted in 2017 for services to entertainment and charity, has appeared in more than two dozen films, including Mrs. Brown, The Boondock Saints, The Last Samurai, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. In 2022, he received the prestigious BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement.
“From acclaimed roles in Mrs. Brown and The Last Samurai to action heroes in The Boondock Saints and The Hobbit, to his ability to charm international audiences with his wit and candor on stage and screens big and small, he’s an international treasure living right here in Key West,” said Michael Tuckman, director of programming for the festival. “The Aristocrats broke both box office records and set a new ceiling for laughter levels in theaters when it was released 20 years ago, and Billy’s performance in the film shows his rightful place among comedy giants.”
Billy Connolly
Scottish comedian, actor, musician, artist
Knighted in 2017 for services to entertainment and charity
BAFTA Fellowship recipient (2022)
Film credits include Mrs. Brown, The Last Samurai, Boondock Saints, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Featured in The Aristocrats (2005)
The festival also celebrates its tenth annual Golden Key Award for Excellence in Costume Design, honoring Academy Award-winning costume designer Deborah L. Scott.
Scott, who won the Academy Award for Titanic and has worked on landmark films including E.T., Back to the Future and Avatar, will be in attendance to accept her award and participate in a conversation about her craft moderated by Variety’s Addie Morfoot. A pre-recorded tribute from Oscar-nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis will also be presented.
Scott’s most recent work can be seen in James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, set for release Dec. 19. She also designed costumes for Avatar: The Way of Water, which earned her a Costume Designers Guild nomination, and has received multiple honors across a career that spans more than 40 years.
“Deborah Scott has brought characters to life in some of the most consequential and culturally important films of the last five decades,” Tuckman said. “From creating the world of the crossing of the Titanic, to worlds that can only be imagined through the Na’vi in Avatar, her vision has constructed characters that inspire and amaze us.”
Deborah L. Scott
Academy Award for Best Costume Design: Titanic (1997)
Costume designer on E.T., Back to the Future, Heat, Minority Report, Transformers, Avatar (2009), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Latest project: Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
Designer-in-Residence, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (2023)
Career spans more than 40 years across Hollywood’s most iconic films
The 2025 Key West Film Festival runs Nov. 12–16 at venues across the island, featuring screenings, panels, and special events celebrating the art of filmmaking.
For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.