Atlanta Film Festival

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Atlanta Film Festival
First Night of the 2019 Atlanta Film Festival at The Plaza Theatre
First Night of the 2019 Atlanta Film Festival at The Plaza Theatre
LocationAtlanta, Georgia, United States
PredecessorAtlanta International Film Festival
Established1976
ProducersAtlanta Film Society
No. of films150-250
LanguageInternational
Websiteatlantafilmfestival.com

The Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) is an international

Academy Award-qualifying in all three short film categories.[1]

History

Founding

In 1968, the

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1976. The IMAGE Film & Video Center opened that year as the first media arts center in the state of Georgia, providing much-needed equipment access, networking, information dissemination, and support to local filmmakers. A year later, the inaugural Atlanta Independent Film & Video Festival launched on May 14, 1977 at the Piedmont Park Bathhouse
.

Name Changes

In 1984, the organization truncated the name of the festival to the Atlanta Film and Video Festival, and again in 2002, to the Atlanta Film Festival. In 2015, the parent organization became known as the Atlanta Film Society.[2]

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

In March 2020, ATLFF made the decision to postpone the 44th edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The original dates of April 30-May 10 were rescheduled to September 17–27.[3] This will mark the first time in the organization's history that the event will take place beyond the spring or early summer months. The 2022 event had the festival back to its usual practice with many awards.[4]

Academy Award Qualification

For decades, ATLFF has been an

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) qualification, ATLFF became Oscar-qualifying in all three short film categories in 2015. The winners of the Best Narrative Short Film, Best Animated Short Film and Best Documentary Short Film Jury Prizes go on to be eligible for the respective shortlists for their Oscar categories. Ray McKinnon's The Accountant won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
in 2002 after qualifying at the 2001 Atlanta Film Festival.

IMAGE Film Awards Gala

On June 7, 2001, the organization launched the annual IMAGE Film Awards Gala as a separate event attached to the annual film festival. Recognizing individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to building the state's film industry and community, the awards were named in honor of the organization's founding name.

Academy Award
-nominated filmmaker Gary Moss, and Crawford Communications were the inaugural honorees.

The IMAGE Film Awards Gala continued for eight years until 2008, when the Atlanta Film Society paused the program for over a decade. It returned again on April 3, 2019 at the

The Walking Dead" Executive Producer Tom Luse
were honored.

Other IMAGE Film Award recipients include Dallas Austin, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, the Georgia Film Office, Diane Ladd, Spike Lee, Will Packer, Parker Posey, Burt Reynolds, Michael Stipe, Tyler Perry Studios, and Cicely Tyson.[5]

Notable discoveries

Do The Right Thing, and in 2019 with the Originator Award.[6]

When ATLFF revived its annual Screenplay Competition in 2008,

The Spectacular Now
was the Closing Night presentation of the 2013 ATLFF.

South by Southwest Film Festival and then played ATLFF, with Meghie in attendance alongside stars Sherri Shepherd, Taylour Paige and Erica Ash
.

Additionally, ATLFF has played the first works of Heidi Ewing, David Gordon Green, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Tina Mabry, Ray McKinnon, Victor Nuñez, Robert Rodriguez, RuPaul, David O. Russell and more.

Locations

Over the years, the festival's primary venues have included theaters such as

Poncey-Highland
neighborhood.

Midtown

2007 Atlanta Film Festival

In 2007, the festival partnered with the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema to centrally locate the festival to Midtown, dubbed the "Heart of Atlanta’s Arts" and home to a wide array of restaurants, bars and shops. The change allowed the festival more opportunities for panels, screenplay readings, film discussions and after-parties.

Highlands and Little Five Points

After 6 years centered at Landmark, the festival moved its home base to Atlanta's oldest continually operating cinema,

Virginia-Highland and incorporated several local landmarks as venues, such as The Highland Inn & Ballroom, The Church at Ponce & Highland, Ponce City Market, The Hotel Clermont and Dad's Garage Theatre Company
.

Programming

Robert Rodriguez at the 1993 Atlanta Film Festival with El Mariachi

On Average, ATLFF programs between 150 and 250 films from approximately 50 countries each year. For the 2020 Film Festival, ATLFF received 8,559 works submitted for consideration.[7] On average, 85-95% of each year's film program comes from submissions, which special tracks designated for women filmmakers (New Mavericks), Black filmmakers, LGBTQ content (Pink Peach), Latin American content and Georgia-tied content.

ATLFF Screenplay Competition and Screenwriter's Retreat

Since 2008, ATLFF has hosted an annual Screenplay Competition that attracts over 1,300 submissions each year. Three feature film screenwriter winners attend a 3-day Screenwriter's Retreat at Serenbe where professional mentors help them workshop their scripts and get ready for the next stages of production. Winning screenplays also are featured at the festival in a staged table read. Additional prizes are also offered to winning episodic and short film scripts.[8]

Out on Film and Pink Peach

For years the Atlanta Film Festival organization produced Atlanta's

501(c)(3)
gay/lesbian operation. Since 2008, the festival has included the Pink Peach track, highlighting LGBTQ films and filmmakers.

From 2008 to 2015, there was a Pink Peach Jury Award annually given to a feature film. Since 2016, LGBTQ films in competition are considered for the general jury prizes.

Year Pink Peach Jury Award-winner
2008 XXY
2009 Training Rules
2010 8: The Mormon Proposition
2011 Bear Nation
2012 Cloudburst
2013 God Loves Uganda
2014 Queens & Cowboys: A Straight Year on the Gay Rodeo
2015 Before the Last Curtain Falls

New Mavericks

In 2013, the festival featured a shorts block titled New Mavericks, featuring films by female filmmakers with strong female leads. This began an annual tradition and in 2015, the New Mavericks program was expanded to include feature films and an annual New Mavericks prize.

SOUND+VISION

In 2012, the festival partnered with the Goat Farm Arts Center and indieATL to introduce a special, mostly-outdoor event featuring music videos, art installations and live musical performances called SOUND+VISION. The evening is an example of the types of elements film festivals continue to add as they look to redefine themselves, connect with audiences and innovate. An estimated 1,200 people attended in its inaugural year, dropping to just under 800 in 2013, due to inclimate weather. In 2014, the event drew over 1,500 attendees, and eclipsed 3,000 attendees in 2015. In 2016, the event moved to Ponce City Market and again to 787 Windsor in 2017. After a year break, SOUND+VISION returned and took place on the BeltLine and in Historic Fourth Ward Park in 2019.

Individual Award Recipients

IMAGE Film Award

Southeastern Media Award

Ossie Davis Award

Filmmaker-to-Watch Award

  • Sean Bloch (2006)
  • Julien Paolini (2013)
  • Moon Molson (2014)
  • Ian Samuels (2015)
  • Thoranna Sigurdardottir (2016)
  • Malcolm Washington (2017)
  • Connor Simpson (2018)
  • Kalu Oji (2019)
  • Esteban Bailey (2022)

New Mavericks Award

Innovator Award

Phoenix Award

Rebel Award

Originator Award

Notable films that have played the festival

Year Films
1970 Shinbone Alley[9]
1983 Chicken Ranch
1993 El Mariachi
2002 West 47th Street
2004 Primer, Control Room, Born into Brothels, Baadasssss!, Bomb the System, Zatōichi, Dirty Work, Dear Pillow
2005 Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Puffy Chair, Emmanuel's Gift, The Boys of Baraka, Hustle & Flow, Me and You and Everyone We Know
2006 Quinceanera, Who Killed the Electric Car?, Factotum, The Other Side
2007
La Vie En Rose, War/Dance
2008 The Lena Baker Story, Dance of the Dead, Make-out with Violence, Mongol, American Teen, At the Death House Door, The Visitor, Land of Confusion, Nerdcore Rising, My Effortless Brilliance, The Cake Eaters, XXY
2009
(500) Days of Summer, The People Speak, Rudo y Cursi, That Evening Sun, Tyson, Moon, Beeswax, Alexander the Last, Art & Copy, Mississippi Damned, Neshoba, Idiots & Angels, Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, Naturally Obsessed
2010 Winter's Bone, The Square, 8: The Mormon Proposition, Racing Dreams, Horn Dog, Pigeon: Impossible, I Am Comic, Family Affair, 9500 Liberty, Cropsey, Putty Hill, American Jihadist, Yellowbrickroad, Handsome Harry, Freedom Riders, Godspeed, Wheedle's Groove
2011 Terri, Sahkanaga, The First Grader, White Irish Drinkers, Incendies, Young Goethe in Love, Hot Coffee, The Start of Dreams
2012 L!fe Happens, The Cabin in the Woods, Americano, Boy, The Woman in the Fifth, Take Me Home, AKA Blondie, John Portman: A Life of Building, V/H/S, My Last Day Without You, OK, Good, That's What She Said, Monsieur Lazhar, Marley
2013 Mud, The Spectacular Now, I Used to Be Darker, Concussion, God Loves Uganda, A River Changes Course, Interior. Leather Bar., Blood Brother, Good Ol' Freda, White Reindeer, Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp, A Teacher, Blood Brother, Between Us, Our Nixon
2014 Obvious Child, Locke, Joe, The Double, The Congress, The Raid 2, The Sacrament, Limo Ride, Mayan Blue
2015 I Am Michael, Sunshine Superman, Krisha, While We're Young
2016
Morris From America, The Fits, Miles Ahead, Driving with Selvi
2017 Menashe, Dave Made a Maze, The Zookeeper's Wife, The Lost City of Z, The Hero, Whose Streets?
2018 Eighth Grade, Blindspotting, American Animals, Hearts Beat Loud, Lean on Pete, Leave No Trace, A Prayer Before Dawn, Summer '03, Tully, You Were Never Really Here
2019 The Farewell, Them That Follow, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Greener Grass, Teen Spirit, In Fabric, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

Feature Film Award-Winners

Year Narrative Feature Documentary Feature Audience Award Feature
1999 The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez-Gomez American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land A Luv Tale
2000 Good Housekeeping Good Kurds, Bad Kurds: No Friends But the Mountains
2001 Hybrid Confederacy Theory,
T-shirt Travels
The Journey,
Scratch
2002 My Father, the Genius That's My Face Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew
2003 Zero Day A Certain Kind of Death,
Girlhood
2004 Dear Pillow Dirty Work
2005 Most High The Boys of Baraka
2006 Pope Dreams What Remains Loving Annabelle
2007 Great World of Sound Protagonist Darius Goes West
2008 Make-out with Violence At the Death House Door Young@Heart
2009 That Evening Sun The Way We Get By Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride,
Living is Winning
2010 Putty Hill Family Affair
2011 Prairie Love An African Election Disabled but Able to Rock,
Sahkanaga
2012 Welcome to Pine Hill Code 2600
2013 I Used to Be Darker A River Changes Course Blood Brother
2014 I Believe in Unicorns Getting to the Nutcracker Little Ballers
2015 God Bless the Child Stray Dog Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi
2016 Hunky Dory Driving with Selvi The Founders
2017 Cortez Rat Film Holden On
2018 Restos De Viento (Wind Traces) Man Made Maynard
2019 Greener Grass The Fourth Kingdom (El Cuarto Reino) The Farewell

See also

References

  1. ^ "The 2019 Atlanta Film Festival is Almost Here". FanBolt. 7 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Atlanta Film Society History". atlantafilmsociety.org.
  3. ^ "Atlanta Film Festival + Creative Conference Reveals New Dates and Official Selections for 2020 Event". atlantafilmfestival.com.
  4. ^ "News".
  5. ^ "2019 IMAGE Film Awards Gala". atlantafilmsociety.org.
  6. ^ "Film in brief: Spike Lee wins, Bill Duke signs, plus a head's up [sic] on Buried Alive fest". Arts ATL. 16 October 2019.
  7. ^ "Atlanta Film Festival Announces First Wave of Films from 2020 Lineup". atlantafilmfestival.com.
  8. ^ "Screenplay Submissions FAQ — Atlanta Film Festival". atlantafilmfestival.com.
  9. ^ "Animation Anecdotes #115". 2013-06-21. Retrieved 2022-06-04.

External links