About the Key Biscayne Film Festival
The Key Biscayne Film Festival is dedicated to bringing the power of film to our island community by showcasing compelling stories that inspire, uplift and spark meaningful conversations through all formats including documentaries, drama, features, shorts, comedy, and animation.
The Key Biscayne Film Festival was founded by Maite Garrido Thornton and Isabel Custer Edwards in 2023 to service the community with a high quality cultural event to showcase the cinematic arts.
Our mission is to celebrate local Florida and renowned international talent, provide a platform for emerging and established filmmakers and offer our community a firsthand look at acclaimed films from top international festivals right in our own backyard.
Together with the Village of Key Biscayne and the Key Biscayne Community Foundation, we bring our community this cultural experience, which strengthens our connection to the arts and each other making Key Biscayne a center for film, creativity, and storytelling.
Isabel Custer
Isabel Custer is a Swiss-Peruvian-Chilean filmmaker and performer whose work is rooted in personal truth, cultural nuance, and a love for storytelling in all its forms. Born in Lima and raised between continents, Isabel has lived and worked in New York, Paris, and Miami. She holds degrees from NYU Tisch and La Sorbonne, and began making films at just 16, honing her voice across fiction, documentary, advertising, and journalism.
A passionate advocate for community-driven cinema, Isabel serves on the board of the Miami Film Lab and is the founder of the Key Biscayne Film Festival, which champions local artists and independent voices.
After an early career in advertising in Chile, Isabel made the leap back to Miami—a place she calls home—determined to tell the stories that mattered to her. Balancing life as a single parent, she began work on her debut feature, As You Like It Like That, a deeply personal project five years in the making that is now in postproduction. Along the way, she wrote, directed, and even performed the closing credits song for the film. Also a musician, Isabel has released both an EP and a full-length studio album.
Maite Garrido Thornton
Maite Garrido Thornton was a Key Biscayne resident for 20 years and a Miami native all her life. A Cuban American television journalism producer, Maite started her career at CNN in Washington DC.
Maite went on to produce financial news at CNBC in New York where she helped launch the Faber Report with David Faber Moving back to her hometown Miami in 2001, Maite went on to produce local news first at NBC6 where she worked as a line producer and health producer.
She then went on to CBS 4 news where she worked alongside Lisa Petrillo in special projects producing entertainment news. While at CBS 4 Maite was awarded a Suncoast Emmy award for her work with Lisa. Her love of movies and the island inspired her for many years to create a local film festival.
Committee
A special thank you to the Key Biscayne Film Festival’s committee members:Toby Rohrer, Andrew Britton, Frank Caplan, Luis de la Cruz, Claire London, Pablo Sanchis, Mary Tague, and Thania Vernon.
