In April of 2009, the 25-minute short film “Glory at Sea” screened at the Atlanta Film Festival. Three years later, the film’s director, writer and composer—Benh Zeitlin—went on to win prizes at both the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals. He later garnered two Oscar nominations for his feature debut, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” As an alumnus of the Atlanta Film Festival, Zeitlin is in good company. Spike Lee, Ray McKinnon, James Ponsoldt and Robert Rodriguez all screened their early short films at the Atlanta Film Festival and each has gone to great success both artistically and commercially.

One of only a handful of Academy Award-qualifying festivals in the United States, the Atlanta Film Festival has long championed short films. For the 2014 event the organization received 2,212 short film submissions, 84 of which will be shown during the festival. Some of those will go on to the festival’s other outlets for short film, such as the Airport Shorts program or Film Festival Collective, the ATLFF Xfinity video-on-demand channel which reaches a seven state region, exposing films to a viewership of over 2.4 million customers.

“Although my eyes are still on the mend, I am ecstatic to say that we’ve programmed shorts from 20 different countries,” says Christina Humphrey, ATLFF’s Programmer of Short Films. "Nearly half of our program is composed of female filmmakers, and we have a great representation of local filmmakers to boot. I’m very proud of the New Mavericks block, which features six female filmmakers with strong, dynamic female leads in films that should appeal to everyone. Local films can be found all over the lineup, but the Other Worlds block leads the pack — fully half of those films are locally produced.”

Together, these seven dozen short films form an artistic and thematic mosaic—each one a singular piece of a greater picture. The 2014 Atlanta Film Festival takes place March 28 – April 6. See these films for yourself— Buy a pass now!
 

Animation

Strange Wonderful - Stephanie Swart – USA – 4:18
Little monster goes to school that day. She thinks, 'They probably call me snail face when I'm not around.' Sometimes she gets lonely, but she can be happy too.
 

Confusion Through Sand – Danny Madden – USA - 12:00
A nineteen year old kid finds himself alone in a hostile desert, scared as hell and trained to react.
 

The Magnificent Lion Boy - Ana Caro – UK - 11:24
Whilst leading an expedition to Africa, anthropologist Leonard Orlov discovers a feral child living a brutal and primitive existence. Horrified, he brings the creature back to Victorian London, intent on civilizing the child.
 

Crime - Alix Lambert, Sam Chou – USA/Canada – 4:26
When Hartford teacher Marcus McGhee has his car stolen, the police refuse to assist him.
 

Fingers Tale - Luca Schenato, Sinem Vardarli – Turkey – 4:06
An unusual adventure of a team of toes.
 

Dji. Death Fails - Dmitri Voloshin – Moldova – 4:56
Dji is an unlucky reaper. All he has to do is collect the soul of a dying man, but many obstacles prevent him from completing this simple process.
 

Snowdysseus - Evan Curtis – USA – 5:36
“Snowdysseus” explores the vulnerability in nostalgia for one's home.
 

The Wanderer of Saint-Marcel - Rony Hotin – France – 8:00
In the Parisian subway, a happy homeless in spite of his conditions. Every night, after the closure of its station, its dreams take life
 

Monkey Rag - Joanna Davidovich – USA – 3:45
A bouncy, animated romp set to the rollicking Asylum Street Spankers tune.
 

Olive - Harriet-Lane Ngo – USA – 3:04
Olive finds herself lost in the woods. When she sees a tree in the clearing, she attempts to climb it.
 

Rabbit and Deer - Péter Vácz – Hungary - 16:15
The friendship of Rabbit and Deer is put to the test by Deer's new obsession to find the formula for the 3rd dimension.

Chema García Ibarra Retrospective

The Attack of the Robots from Nebula - Chema García Ibarra - Spain – 6:26
Almost everybody is going to die very soon. Fortunately for some, the impending attack of the robots has been forecasted.

Protoparticles - Chema García Ibarra – Spain - 7:30
The experiment was almost a success: protomatter exists.

Mystery - Chema García Ibarra – Spain – 11:00
They say that if you put your ear to the back of his neck, you can hear the Virgin talk.

Comedy

Melon Head - Andy Fortenbacher – USA - 13:53
The only way to a woman's heart is to scare the HELL out of her!

Stay at Home - Cedar Daniels – USA - 13:56
A comedy about finding the balance between one's career, one's family and one's high powered, bolt-action sniper rifle.

This is it - Alexander Engel – USA - 3:00
Two college kids. First apartment. Shit gets real. Fast.

Housesitter - Rex New, Thia Schuessler – USA - 12:15
When bored housesitter Amy is taken hostage by a wanted fugitive, she welcomes the company with open arms.

Slash - Clay Liford – USA - 9:15
A 13-year-old boy writes Harry Potter erotic fan fiction as a means to become comfortable with his sexuality.

Human Resources: Sick Days Aren't A Game - Jeff Barry – USA - 10:40
The reign of Kendra Kurtis, Shen Com's respected and feared Director of HR, may be over when her assistant, Perry, is charged with the task of her termination. But how do you take down the queen who hired half the company and made you who you are?

Documentary

How you doin' boy? Voicemails from Gran'pa - William D. Caballero – USA – 4:00
A character-driven hybrid short film about pint-sized elderly Latino Gran'pa leaving a series of humorous unanswered voice-mails for his grandson Davy.

Nile Perch - Josh Gibson – Uganda/USA – 17:00
A man and a fish on Lake Victoria in Uganda. This hand-made black and white film is a meditation on the economic impact of an invasive species as well as a parable about the effects of globalization and colonialism on Africa.

Scattered - Lindsay Lindenbaum – USA - 26:00
“Scattered” takes an unflinching look at the filmmaker's late father—a man who was fixated on documenting his life on film—and unravels the story he tried to create with his camera, to reveal the story that actually was.

Por Dinero - Brendan Smyth, Jeremy Smyth – Mexico/USA - 31:00
Quotes from an ancient Mayan hero tie together the life of an undocumented Mexican, his indigenous family, and their dying language in this experimental documentary.

empathia - Cali Berry – USA - 4:35
Troubled by matters of her past, filmmaker Cali Berry reflects on her relationship with her mother as she considers forgiveness and her own intimate relationships.

Thomas Bennett - Nathan Honnold – USA - 9:40
An Intimate portrait of my friend Thomas, who lives on the fringes of society. Every week he gets a check from the state of Georgia for $30, and he spends his allowance buying costume jewelry, war medals, and trophies.

Drama 1

Animals - Alexander Yan – USA - 11:43
A repressed young woman finds power in an act of deviance.

Little Secret - Martin Krejci - Czech Republic - 20:00
We've all covered things up, but what happens when the consequences begin to snowball, and every minute it becomes harder and harder to take back the lie?

Annalyn - Maria Eriksson – Sweden - 30:00
Agnes is bored. She wants a new life, although loyalty towards her lonely father and hard working girlfriend binds her. But when her father presents his new wife, Annalyn, to her, everything changes in ways no one thought possible.

216 Months - Valentin Potier, Frédéric Potier – France - 25:00
Nothing is comparable to the success of Maureen, the ventriloquist singer, except her belly: it is simply outrageous. But a shadow is hanging over her career and that of her manager husband's. The entrancing voice that comes out of Maureen's insides has a name: Charles. He will soon be 18, the rebellious age, and he has one sole objective in life: to be born.

The Bravest, The Boldest - Moon Molson – USA - 17:00
A woman wanders her apartment building avoiding the two Army Casualty Notification Officers who have obviously come there to bring her some bad news.

Drama 2

Butter Lamp - Hu Wei – China/France - 15:00
A young photographer and his assistant suggest to Tibetan nomads to take their picture.

5cm - Jordan Schiele – China - 19:00
A dancer from the National Ballet of China is wasting the best years of his life. Repeatedly overlooked in favor of his rival/friend, he struggles to dominate the stage in one last chance to impress a foreign director who has the power to change his life.

Mystery - Chema García Ibarra – Spain - 11:00
They say that if you put your ear to the back of his neck, you can hear the Virgin talk.

Escaping Gravity - Benjamin Teske – Germany - 22:46
To finally gain her father's acceptance, transsexual Leonie decides to return masqueraded as a man to the world of her childhood: the funfair. Though even the old owner of the ghost train has something to hide.

Nadya - Jonathan Sanford, Mary Rasmussen – Russia/USA - 11:15
In an environmentally devastated Russian town populated only by women, 14 year old Nadya has a strange encounter with a visiting Geologist.

Afronauts - Frances Bodomo – USA - 13:00
It's July 16, 1969: America is preparing to launch Apollo 11. Thousands of miles away, the Zambia Space Academy hopes to beat America to the moon in this film inspired by true events.

Experimental

Between Regularity and Irregularity - Masahiro Tsutani – Japan - 7:50
Nature creates the glow of light and the beauty of a shape in a chaotic worldview of finely-detailed images filled with light.
 

End, End, End - Jonathan Rattner – USA - 8:46
“End, End, End” is an experimental short on the fragmentary nature of thoughts, memories, and emotions.
 

On Loop - Christine Hooper – UK - 5:00
Four in the morning, crapped out, yawning.
 

Saturar - Joshua Winters – USA - 1:35
The film in which a man is squirted with ketchup and mustard.
 

Close the Lid, Gently: A Home Document Scan - Ariana Gerstein – USA - 5:30
A video made entirely from 2 home desktop scanners- one a photo scanner, the other a refurbished low end document scanner. Each has it's own texture and sees the domestic environment in it's own particular way, one scan at a time.
 

Déjà-vu - Jean-Guillaume Bastien – Canada - 4:00
Five women share a sense of deja-vu.
 

Black Box Recorder - Abinadi Meza – USA - 2:21
A film about memory, time and the streams of images that form our consciousness.
 

Inversion - Linda Fenstermaker – USA - 12:00
"Inversion" creates an open space for female consciousness, embodying intimate dialogs between filmmaker, camera and subject.
 

Dancing Glitch - Michael Betancourt – France/USA - 2:30
“Lumiere vue no. 76” (1896) of choreographer and dancer Loie Fuller, whose Serpentine Dance was an early inspiration for Cubist abstraction, provided the original source material for this visual music work.
 

Malaria - Edson Oda – USA - 5:32
The story of Fabiano, a young Mercenary who is hired to kill Death.
 

Listen - Monteith McCollum – Sweden/USA - 10:00
A short film made as part of a collaboration of works curated by Slamdance Film Festival, “Listen” examines shortwave radio as a technology that can be utilized not only for communication, but also abstract sound art.

New Mavericks: Female Directors

Thirteen Blue - Jacqueline Lentzou – Greece - 17:51
Ellie, a lonely only-child, spends her lazy summertime walking in the family's building, eating ice-creams and watering the plants.

Damn Girl - Kira Richards Hansen – Denmark - 13:00
A coming of age story about a 12-year old tomboy, who is confronted with an incipient sexuality.

Painted Lady - Brittany Shyne – USA - 16:47
A nine-year-old girl experiences the first changes of womanhood.

So You've Grown Attached - Kate Tsang – USA - 14:55
An off-beat comedy about Ex, an imaginary friend, who is forced to consider retirement when his creator, Izzy, starts to grow up.

Crystal - Chell Stephen – Canada/USA - 15:48
Cursed with a real crumby attitude and a boring-ass hometown, 17-year-old Crystal relies on her passion for dance to escape the mundane life of rural Ontario and pursue her out-sized dream of being a pop superstar.

Without Fire - Eliza McNitt – USA - 20:00
A young Navajo girl must find a way to heat her home in order to save her asthma-stricken mother from a bitter winter storm.

Other Worlds

After Arcadia - Joe Tippet, Robert Brice – UK - 12:28
A lone scientist wracked with guilt over his part in the accidental extermination of humanity is hoping to rewrite history and erase his past mistakes.
 

All You Can Eat - Tommy Groth – USA - 3:05
Did you have nightmares about clowns when you were a child? Do you still have nightmares? This short film about a clown and his secret will confirm your fear.
 

Radiance - Andrew Cumming – UK - 24:00
Forced into hiding on the outskirts of a vast city, two sisters are keeping a dangerous secret.
 

Beasts in the Real World - Sol Friedman – Canada - 8:00
Explore the tenuous connections between a strange beast, a naturalist, some ghosts and a pair of sushi chefs through several genres including fantasy, thriller, documentary and animation.
 

Aftermath - Jeremy Robbins – USA - 20:00
In a new, predatory ice age, two brothers search for a place to call home.
 

Welcome to Dignity Pastures - Brian Lonano – USA - 3:21
Dignity Pastures Funeral Home takes great pride in assisting families to grieve their lost and will give you a respectable and dignified service...no matter what happens.
 

Bait - Jared Young, Raymond Carr – USA - 9:57
A desperate father uses his willing young son as bait to rescue his wife from a monster conjuring cult.
 

Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse - Jonathan Rej – USA - 40:00
Where will you be when the Zombie Apocalypse begins? Hopefully not stuck in a cheesy Haunted House wishing you could find a better weapon than a plastic machete.

Puppetry

Klonox - Thomas Guerigen – France - 5:08
In a strange world, an army of tanks is moving forward relentlessly. Inside one of them, we discover the sad and monotonous world of soldiers but suddenly a strange encounter occur or something strange happens.

The Strings of My Fate - Thomas Guerigen – France - 4:32

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse - Sara Stanton, Mia James, Rachael Hayes, Sylvie Macmillan, Roisin Larkin – UK - 8:12

Fish - Michael Patrick O'Leary, Katherine Fahey – USA - 4:40
Wye Oak's music video—“Fish”—combines the ancient art of shadow puppetry and modern film to tell the tale of a man's transformative journey through a surreal watery landscape.

Not Alone - Trish Sie – USA - 3:55
A lonely sock searches far and wide for its mate.

Puppet Earth: Episode 1 - Laurens Roorda, Thijs Molenaar – Netherlands - 7:21
A documentary about yet undiscovered and unknown life on Little Barrier Island.

Being Doug - Michael Van Orden – USA - 21:05
After a bizarre body switch, Doug, a shy puppeteer, finds himself inside the body of his ventriloquist puppet, Sid, while Sid has now come to life and taken over Doug's body, forcing Doug to learn to gain control of Sid before Sid gains control of the woman Doug loves.

What's for Dinner? - Miron Gusso – USA - 1:28
Spices from all around the world, fight out to be featured for dinner.

Ed is a Portal - Darrell C. Hazelrig – USA - 9:22
"Ed is a Portal" is a sci fi comedy by the New Puppet Order about all of life's little headaches: obnoxious coworkers, slovenly roommates, and having an interdimensional gateway growing in the back of one's head.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Simon's Cat in 'Suitcase' - Simon Tofield – UK - 2:06
A creative cat exceeds the baggage allowance.
 

Baxter - Ty Coyle – USA - 2:55
Baxter, the raccoon, makes his way into Granny's Sweet Shop, but upon entering he gets so obsessed with the candy that he creates his own downfall.
 

Rabbit and Deer - Péter Vácz – Hungary - 16:15
The friendship of Rabbit and Deer is put to the test by Deer's new obsession to find the formula for the 3rd dimension.

Strange Wonderful - Stephanie Swart – USA - 4:18
Little monster goes to school that day. She thinks, 'They probably call me snail face when I'm not around.' Sometimes she gets lonely, but she can be happy too.
 

Olive - Harriet-Lane Ngo – USA - 3:04
Olive finds herself lost in the woods. When she sees a tree in the clearing, she attempts to climb it.
 

The Dam Keeper - Dice Tsutsumi, Robert Kondo – USA - 18:00
The tale of a young pig with an important job, and a new classmate who changes everything.
 

The Wanderer of Saint-Marcel - Rony Hotin – France - 8:00
In the Parisian subway, a happy homeless in spite of his conditions. Every night, after the closure of its station, its dreams take life.
 

Pipkin - Pamela Wyn Shannon – UK - 5:27
Pipkin is a sycamore seed who is blown by the wind. His journey explores the relationship between landscape, folk memory and finding a place of belonging within the cycles of life.

Attached to Features

Gum - Vic Coram – USA – 5:05
Hayley, a teenage girl living in a small, Christian town in Oklahoma decides it's time to come out of the closet.

Little Lies - Keith Adam Johnson – Australia – 15:00
Phillip has just lost Marcus, his long-term partner. He tries to forget his grief in a haze of alcohol and invites a young rent boy home. But the boy proves to be more than Phillip bargained for, and a dangerous game of truth and lies unfolds.

Alfred Jarry & 'Pataphysics - Skizz Cyzyk – USA - 2:00
An oral report on French writer Alfred Jarry is given stop-motion treatment with the help of talking t-shirts, flip book pages and time-lapse lino-cut printing in this two-minute animated documentary.