The Atlanta Film Festival has long been a part of a select few Academy Award® qualifying film festivals, as only 37 film festivals in the U.S. currently hold Oscar qualifying eligibility. With a recent announcement from the Academy, we are proud to announce that another ATLFF film category—Documentary Short—now qualifies for Academy Awards® consideration. 

Providing that the film otherwise complies with Academy rules, the winner of the ATLFF Documentary Short Jury Prize will be eligible for consideration at the Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run.

In the past, only our Narrative and Animated Shorts have qualified. With this new announcement, ATLFF joins the company of only 14 other U.S. film festivals with three or more qualifying film categories. We are thrilled to see new and compelling documentary shorts in our future festivals that will hopefully follow ATLFF competition shorts The Dam Keeper and Butter Lamp and garner Academy Award® nominations.