Laura Williamson 3/22/24 Laura Williamson 3/22/24

2024 ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL UNVEILS KEY PROGRAMMING AND FULL LINEUP OF OFFICIAL SELECTIONS FOR 48TH ANNUAL EVENT, INCLUDING 27 WORLD PREMIERES

ATLANTA, GA (March 22, 2024) — Today, The 48th annual Atlanta Film Festival + Creative Conference (ATLFF) revealed key programming highlights, including the full lineup of selected works from more than 7,500 submissions. The film festival and 14th annual Creative Conference, which is the festival’s educational programming, will take place Thursday, April 25 - Sunday, May 5, 2024 at the Plaza Theatre and Tara Theatre in Atlanta and virtually.

While 118 countries are represented in the selections, more than 24% of films have ties to Georgia filmmakers. The 142 total announced creative works from submissions will feature diverse filmmakers who continue to uplift voices and stories from around the world. Eleven Marquee screenings will combine Hollywood star power with the best of independent film.

“We're so excited to be bringing another edition full of artful, challenging, and flat-out fun films to Atlanta this spring. When we make selections for ATLFF, we always follow our sense of discovery, of seeing what movies will be in the years to come. And we think anyone visiting the festival this year will come away knowing what we know, that cinema has a really rich future ahead of it.”
Jonathan Kieran, Programming Director, ATLFF

Kicking off a robust slate of Marquee programming that will be presented throughout the 11-day festival, the Opening Night presentation of director Michael Showalter’s “The Idea of You” will take place at the Plaza Theatre on Friday, April 26. Anne Hathaway stars as Solène, a 40-year-old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet.

The Closing Night presentation of director Greg Kwedar’s “SING SING,” will take place at the Plaza Theatre on Saturday, May 4. The film follows Divine G (Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit, as he finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.

Some highlights of the Marquee programming from celebrated filmmakers and Hollywood studios announced today include narrative features “Brief History of A Family,” about a middle-class family whose fate becomes intertwined with their only son's enigmatic new friend in post one-child policy China; “I SAW THE TV GLOW,” about a teenager who’s just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show, a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own; and documentary “Luther: Never Too Much,” that chronicles the life of an iconic musical performer, from childhood musical talent to worldwide fame.

Since its founding, diversity in programming has been a cornerstone of ATLFF’s mission, demonstrated by their lineup of 29 feature-length films, 90 short films, and 22 creative media selections. Of these selections, 49% are directed by filmmakers who identify as female or non-binary, and 59% are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC).

Five specialty tracks will return to the 2024 festival including: New Mavericks, celebrating excellence in film from female and gender non-conforming directors and leads; ¡CineMás!, focusing on Latin American culture; Noire, uplifting Black filmmakers; Pink Peach, featuring films with LGBTQ stories and characters; and Georgia Films, highlighting productions with ties to the state of Georgia.

The 14th annual Creative Conference, ATLFF’s popular educational programming extension, returns Tuesday April 30 - Friday May 3. The Creative Conference offers educational programming for upcoming filmmakers, festival goers, newcomers and members of the greater community alike to learn from industry experts. There are approximately 32 in-person panels and 8 virtual panels, for a total of 40 unique educational offerings, planned during the 11-day festival. The Creative Conference lineup announcement is forthcoming.

This year, ATLFF will once again offer a mix of in-person and virtual screenings. Screenings will be held at the Plaza Theatre (1049 Ponce De Leon Ave NE) and The Tara Theatre (2345 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30324). All films (outside of Marquee) will be available virtually following the in-person events; the virtual screenings and events will be presented via Eventive.

The full schedule of films and events is available at www.AtlantaFilmFestival.com and through the ATLFF 2024 app. Festival passes and badges are on sale now on the site for purchase here.

The Atlanta Film Festival is the annual centerpiece of educational and enriching film programming that is provided year-round by its parent organization, the Atlanta Film Society (ATLFS). Now in its fifth decade, ATLFF is one of only a handful of film festivals worldwide that is Academy Award-qualifying in all three categories (live-action short, animation short, and documentary short subject).

Applications for press credentials for ATLFF 2024 are now open and can be submitted here. Press materials and assets, including past press releases, logos, and film stills can be found here.

OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION

The Idea of You
directed by Michael Showalter
United States // 2024 // English // 115 min
Solène, a 40-year-old single mom, begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell, the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet.
#Marquee, #NarrativeFeature

CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION

SING SING
directed by Greg Kwedar
United States // 2023 // English // 105 min
Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.
#Marquee, #NarrativeFeature

MARQUEE SCREENINGS

Brief History of A Family
directed by Jianjie Lin
China, Denmark // 2024 // Chinese // 99 min
A middle-class family's fate becomes intertwined with their only son's enigmatic new friend in post one-child policy China, putting unspoken secrets, unmet expectations, and untended emotions under the microscope
#Marquee, #NarrativeFeature

Evil Does Not Exist
directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Japan // 2023 // Japanese // 106 min
Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a camping site near Takumi's house offering city residents a comfortable "escape" to nature.#Marquee, #NarrativeFeature

I SAW THE TV GLOW
directed by Jane Schoenbrun
United States // 2024 // English // 100 min
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show - a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen's view of reality begins to crack.
#Marquee, #NarrativeFeature

Last Summer
directed by Catherine Breillat
France, Norway // 2023 // French // 106 min
Follows Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives with her husband Pierre and their daughters. Anne gradually engages in a passionate relationship with Theo, Pierre's son from a previous marriage, putting her career and family life in danger.
#Marquee, #NarrativeFeature

Red Rooms
directed by Pascal Plante
Canada // 2023 // French // 110 min
The high-profile case of serial killer Ludovic Chevalier has just gone to trial, and Kelly-Anne is obsessed. When reality blurs with her morbid fantasies, she goes down a dark path to seek the final piece of the puzzle: the missing video of a murdered 13-year-old girl, to whom Kelly-Anne bears a disturbing resemblance.
#Marquee, #NarrativeFeature

Thelma
directed by Josh Margolin
United States // 2024 // English // 97 min
When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her.
#Marquee, #NarrativeFeature

Luther: Never Too Much
directed by Dawn Porter
United Kingdom, United States // 2024 // English // 101 min
Chronicles the life of an iconic musical performer, from childhood musical talent to worldwide fame. Explores his collaborations, influences, character and relationships with family, friends and fans.
#Marquee #DocumentaryFeature

Power
directed by Yance Ford
United States // 2024 // English // 85 min
Driven to contain threats to social order, American policing has exploded in scope and scale over hundreds of years. Now, it can be described by one word: power.
#Marquee #DocumentaryFeature

Seeking Mavis Beacon
directed by Jazmin Jones
United States // 2024 // English // 102 min
Investigates the disappearance and reexamines the legacy of one of the most influential Black women in technology.
#Marquee #DocumentaryFeature

NARRATIVE FEATURES

A Song for Imogene
directed by Erika Arlee
United States // 2023 // English // 104 min
Faced with an unexpected pregnancy, Cheyenne, a once free-spirited songwriter, flees in the night from her possessive boyfriend, Alex. Back in her rural hometown, Cheyenne faces her bitter mother and reunites with her vagabond sister, Janelle: now a single mother to a five-year-old son. The two rekindle their sisterhood and Cheyenne's forgotten dreams. Meanwhile, Alex discovers evidence of the hidden pregnancy and decides to chase Cheyenne down, challenging her to break a generational cycle of abuse. Immersive in its realism, A SONG FOR IMOGENE is a story of grit set against the grueling landscape of the American South that explores issues of abuse, trauma, and the female bid for independence.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeFeature

A Strange Path
directed by Guto Parente
Brazil // 2023 // Portugal // 83 min
A young filmmaker returns to his hometown and attempts to reconnect with his eccentric father as the pandemic rapidly accelerates across Brazil. Resuming their distant father-son relationship proves to be more complicated, however, as bizarre phenomena begin to fray the edges of their reality.
#¡CineMás!, #NarrativeFeature

African Giants
directed by Omar S. Kamara
United States // 2024 // English // 106 min
Over a weekend visit in Los Angeles, two first-generation Sierra Leonean American brothers navigate the changing dynamics of brotherhood after a surprise announcement.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeFeature

Asog
directed by Seán Devlin 叶世民
Canada, Philippines // 2024 // Tagalog, Waray // 101 min
ASOG is a screwball tragicomedy starring a cast of real life Super Typhoon survivors. Jaya is a non-binary teacher whose career as a comedian hosting a late-night television show ended due to a climate disaster that devastated the Philippines. Picking up the pieces in their life, Jaya decides to travel across the country in hopes of winning a beauty pageant and the prize money that comes with it. But before they can leave, a chance encounter with Arnel, a student going the same way in search of family, complicates their solitary plans. As they travel seemingly countless miles together on foot, bike, and boat, the unlikely duo find themselves forever changed by each other and those they encounter on their journey.
#PinkPeach, #CinematographyCompetition, #NarrativeFeature

Atikamekw Suns
directed by Chloé Leriche
Canada // 2023 // Atikamekw, French // 102 min
On June 26, 1977, a vehicle drives into a river outside the Atikamekw community of Manawan in northern Québec. Two Whites survive the accident, but five Atikamekw lose their lives. The police conclude it was an accident, but for the victims' families, many questions remain unanswered. A historical and poetic story, a hybrid between documentary and fiction — SOLEILS ATIKAMEKW (ATIKAMEKW SUNS) is freely inspired by the dreams, impressions, and memories of the victims’ loved ones.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #CinematographyCompetition, #NarrativeFeature

Boca Chica
directed by Gabriella A. Moses
Dominican Republic // 2023 // Spanish, English // 97 min
As a young girl growing up in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, 12-year-old Desi is powerfully drawn to song and music by a famed ancestor with a musical legacy. Her handsome brother Fran lives in New York pursuing his music, too, while struggling to make ends meet. The long-awaited return of their cousin Elvis and his marriage festivities animate the family and community. But Elvis’ sinister machinations reveal that his business interests involve trafficking children. Threatened by the very people who should care for her most, Desi finds her voice among a group of underground rap artists. BOCA CHICA weaves richly drawn stories into a coming-of-age story of hope and discovery.
#¡CineMás!, #Noire, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeFeature

Do You Say What You Mean?
directed by Win Marks
United States // 2024 // English // 87 min
Aliyah, confident and easy going, quickly falls for a truck driver, Sean. Their relationship plays out in snapshots as they try to build a life together, but the more they try, the more they unravel.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaFeatureCompetition, #NarrativeFeature

Dragoons
directed by Reinis Ubelis
Latvia // 2024 // Latvian // 77 min
Father-to-be Pavel and his pregnant girlfriend Sabine spend their days living like nomads and breaking into houses in search of food and resources. Upon finding themselves lost in a mysterious forest, they seek refuge in a crumbling gothic manor inhabited by two aging siblings, the Dragoons. Soon they find that escape is impossible and Sabine's delivery is approaching. Haunted by the guilt of leading his girlfriend into a nightmare scenario and falling under the sway of the weird Dragoons, Pavel soon begins to question his own ability to separate reality from dreams.
#InCompetition, #CinematographyCompetition, #NarrativeFeature

Faceless After Dark
directed by Raymond Wood
United States // 2024 // English // 82 min
Following her breakout success as the star of a killer clown horror flick, Bowie now finds herself struggling to capitalize on her newfound semi-fame. But when she is held hostage by an unhinged fan posing as that same killer clown, horror becomes her reality as she fights to survive the night and escape before he completes his sinister plan to recreate the film’s fatal plot. Jenna Kanell from the TERRIFIER franchise gives a tour-de-force performance in this wild, gory ride.
#Georgia Film, #GeorgiaFeatureCompetition, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeFeature

Melk
directed by Stefanie Kolk
Netherlands // 2023 // Dutch // 96 min
Days after giving birth to a stillborn baby, Robin’s breasts start to produce milk. Unable to bring herself to throw it away, Robin makes the unusual decision to donate her milk. As her quest for a place to donate becomes more difficult than anticipated, more and more milk starts to crowd her freezer, relationship, and life.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeFeature

Mountains
directed by Monica Sorelle
United States // 2023 // Haitian Creole, English, Spanish // 95 min
Xavier, a Haitian demolition worker, is outgrowing the Little Haiti home he shares with his wife Esperance – a seamstress and school crossing guard – and their son Junior, a young adult pursuing a standup comedy career. MOUNTAINS is a multigenerational drama that explores the relationships between immigrants and their children, Miami’s own stratification of race and nationality, and the looming threat of gentrification.
#Noire, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeFeature

Poor Clare
directed by Blaine Redden
United States // 2024 // English // 119 min
Just before dawn, a strange man appears at Clare's door. The young filmmaker begins to see this man wherever she goes. She struggles to connect to those around her, to tell them what haunts her, until she meets a mysterious stranger who is intent on showing Clare what she's most afraid to see. Drawing from the rich and shadowy legacy of underground, cult, and trash film, POOR CLARE is a vivid and dreamlike vision etched in camcorder tape.
#InCompetition, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeFeature

The Battle
directed by Vera Egito
Brazil // 2024 // Portuguese // 84 min
Constructed of just 21 separate shots, THE BATTLE brings you inside the Philosophy School building of São Paulo University on a decisive day in October 1968, that came to be known as the Battle of the Students. As they attempt to carry out a crucial University-wide election, students and Professors of the Left Student Movement face pressure from within and physical threats from the reactionary forces outside their door.
#InCompetition, #PinkPeach, #¡CineMás!, #NewMavericks, #CinematographyCompetition, #NarrativeFeature

The Trap
directed by Lena Headey
United Kingdom // 2023/4 // English // 84 min
Michelle is a broken woman, shut off to the world. Then Joe, a damaged young man, arrives at Michelle’s fortress of solitude and brings her back to life. However, their tender romance is shattered when Joe reveals that he is the son Michelle gave up more than twenty years earlier. After a brutal reckoning, Joe and Michelle set off together in search of Joe’s father. Along the way, they slowly rebuild their relationship, discovering the power of unconditional love and, ultimately, redemption.
#NewMavericks, #NarrativeFeature

We Strangers
directed by Anu Valia
United States // 2024 // English // 80 min
When Rayelle Martin, a Black woman scraping by in Gary, Indiana, scores a job housekeeping for a pair of upper-crust families across town, it seems like a step up from her usual thankless commercial cleaning gigs. However, the slights and secrets that are dealt out in these houses of privilege serve as a constant reminder of her outsider status. Things take a turn when Rayelle shares an impulsive, seemingly harmless lie: that yes, she can speak to the dead. This lie begins to spin out of control, and Ray's attempt to gain ownership over her own identity goes in directions she could have never predicted.
#In Competition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeFeature

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

Amakki
directed by Célia Boussebaa
United States, Netherlands // 2024 // Sidamuu Afoo, Sidama // 104 min
AMAKKI, meaning "your mother", is an intimate journey through Sidama's coffee-growing hills in Ethiopia. It explores the interconnected lives of a grandmother, a mother, a young girl, and a baby girl, celebrating the profound moments of love, loss, and resilience that shape the tapestry of motherhood and womanhood.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #Noire, #CinematographyCompetition, #DocumentaryFeature

Baghdad on Fire
directed by Karrar Al-Azzawi
Norway, Iraq // 2023 // Arabic // 60 min
BAGHDAD ON FIRE is an energetic account from inside the demonstrations of the new Iraqi youth. Together with friends Khader and Yousif, 19 year old Tiba has started a medical team that helps the brave young protesters. They spend days and nights in tents in Tahrir Square in the center of Baghdad, where they discuss and plan how to bring freedom, democracy and change to Iraq.
#DocumentaryFeature

Caterpillar
directed by Liza Mandelup
United States // 2023 // English // 111 min
Endlessly struggling to feel seen, David becomes infatuated with a mysterious company’s promise to transform people’s lives by permanently changing the color of their eyes. After traveling to India to get the controversial procedure, he begins to question if this artificial beauty will give him the fulfillment he truly seeks.
#PinkPeach, #¡CineMás!, #DocumentaryFeature

Citizen Sleuth
directed by Chris Kasick
United States // 2024 // English // 82 min
CITIZEN SLEUTH follows Emily Nestor and her Mile Marker 181 podcast, as she conducts an amateur murder investigation into the death of Jaleayah Davis. With a growing audience of millions, Emily's podcast becomes a hit, but as she probes deeper into the case, she’s confronted with a new truth she struggles to tell her listeners.
#DocumentaryFeature

Family Tree
directed by Jennifer MacArthur
United States // 2024 // English // 97 min
FAMILY TREE explores sustainable forestry in North Carolina through the stories of two Black families fighting to preserve their land and legacy. Despite setbacks, they work to create sustainable land to pass on to the next generation. The forest itself and the beauty of its changing seasons become a primary character in this family drama.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #NewMavericks, #DocumentaryFeature

Go Like Hell
directed by Scott Edwards
United States // 2024 // English // 104 min
In an industry dominated by billionaires, a team of renegade engineers bands together to bootstrap a rocket company amidst the sprawling Texas cattle fields. With funding rapidly dwindling and a relentless race against the giants of "big space," this scrappy startup, led by an eccentric and determined CEO, must defy the odds and race to reach orbit before their finances collapse.
#InCompetition, #DocumentaryFeature

Happy Campers
directed by Amy Nicholson
United States // 2023 // English // 78 min
Every summer, working-class families enjoy waterfront living in a scrappy trailer park off the coast of Virginia. When the relentless march of capitalism threatens their shabby Shangri-La, the denizens of Inlet View face the inevitable, and reveal the secrets to a rich life.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #DocumentaryFeature

Naked Ambition
directed by Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch
United States // 2023 // English // 73 min
Bunny Yeager, once heralded as the world's prettiest photographer, had a huge influence in 20th-century pop culture. As a model and photographer, she was a trailblazer whose work helped pave the way for both the feminist movement and sexual revolution. Featuring Dita Von Teese, Bruce Weber, and Larry King, NAKED AMBITION is a rediscovery of a brilliant and forgotten artist.
#InCompetition, #PinkPeach, #¡CineMás!, #DocumentaryFeature

Pianoman
directed by Sunny Liu
United States // 2024 // English // 52 min
David Avenando, an undocumented immigrant in NYC, finally achieves his dream of opening a piano factory in Yonkers, but runs into unforeseen circumstances that threaten to take away his livelihood and potentially separate him from his family. This moving film will resonate deeply with those intrigued by civil rights, social justice, and immigration.
#InCompetition, #¡CineMás!, #NewMavericks, #DocumentaryFeature

Rape Play
directed by Gabriella Mykal
United States // 2023 // English // 82 min
RAPE PLAY is an experimental documentary that explores fanfiction writing amongst teenage girls online and the learned narrativization of sexual experiences. Through interviews, lyrical essays, and fantastical reenactment, it touches on internet history, sexual assault discourse, and the magical cultural production happening in the bedrooms of teenage girls worldwide every day.
#InCompetition, #PinkPeach, #NewMavericks, #Noire, #DocumentaryFeature

Richland
directed by Irene Lusztig
United States // 2023 // English // 93 min
Richland, Washington is proud of its heritage as a nuclear company town and proud of the atomic bomb it helped create. RICHLAND offers a prismatic, placemaking portrait of a community staking its identity and future on its nuclear origin story, presenting a timely examination of the habits of thought that normalize the extraordinary violence of the past.
#NewMavericks, #DocumentaryFeature

Taxibol
directed by Tommaso Santambrogio
Italy // 2023 // Spanish, English // 50 min
Driving around the streets of Cuba, Lav Diaz – the famous Filipino director – and Gustavo Flecha - a talkative Cuban taxi driver – find themselves discussing politics, social conditions, and love. Through their dialogue and the subsequent narrative construction, the audience is invited to reflect on the harmful actions of significant historical figures and examine their impact on human lives.
#¡CineMás!, #DocumentaryFeature

Thank You Very Much
directed by Alex Braverman
United States // 2023 // English // 99 min
Throughout his short life, Andy Kaufman's work dissolved the boundaries between fiction and reality, and his commitment to performance on-stage and off rendered any distinctions between his characters and his real life useless. From Executive Producers Josh and Bennie Safdie, THANK YOU VERY MUCH is the definitive documentary look at how a shy, oddball kid from Long Island became the most polarizing performance artist of the 20th century.
#DocumentaryFeature

The Body Politic
directed by Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough
United States // 2023 // English // 91 min
THE BODY POLITIC is a harbinger of hope in a country plagued by gun violence. In Baltimore, Brandon Scott, an idealistic young leader with a holistic plan to stop chronic violence in his city,is elected mayor. Throughout his first year in office, we follow Brandon as he fights powerful political forces to save lives in Baltimore and reveal a pathway toward healing for the nation.
#Noire #DocumentaryFeature

The South Got Something to Say
directed by The Horne Brothers
United States // 2023 // English // 96 min
Pulling footage from an archive spanning the first fifty years of hip-hop as well as new interviews with Atlanta icons and genre luminaries (Killer Mike, Arrested Development, Goodie Mob, Lil Yachty, Jermaine Dupri), THE SOUTH GOT SOMETHING TO SAY tells the ongoing story of Atlanta’s undeniable impact on hip-hop.
#GeorgiaFilm, #DocumentaryFeature

NARRATIVE SHORTS

8 Minutes 20 Seconds
directed by Harris Doran
United States // 2024 // English // 9 min
Max must race against time to reconcile with his ex-boyfriend for them to be together in Earth's last moments of sun.
#InCompetition, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeShort

A Bird Called Memory
directed by Leonardo Martinelli
Brazil, United Kingdom // 2023 // Portuguese // 15 min
A bird called Memory has forgotten how to come back home. Lua, a trans woman, searches for Memory in the streets, but the city can be a hostile place.
#¡CineMás!, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeShort

A Forgotten Place
directed by Alice Leigh Barrós
United States // 2024 // English // 14 min
A reclusive stripper returns to her conservative home to answer a question that tortures her: whether she was abducted by an alien or if there's a darker truth to her past.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #¡CineMás!, #NarrativeShort

A Short Film About Kids
directed by Ibrahim Handal
Palestine // 2023 // Arabic // 10 min
Four kids from the refugee camp in Bethlehem decide to visit the sea for the first time in their lives.
#InCompetition, #NarrativeShort

As You Are
directed by Daisy Friedman
United States // 2023 // English // 14 min
An interabled queer couple spend the night together for the first time.
#NewMavericks, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeShort

Baby Gay
directed by Arielle Frances Bagood
United States // 2024 // English, Mandarin, Shanghainese // 9 min
Desperate to prove her bisexuality, Stevie Lee bluffs her way into a lesbian threesome thinking she’ll “figure it out” when she gets there.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeShort

Barely Breathing
directed by Derek Evans
United States // 2023 // English // 20 min
An awkward accident forces Sai to move back in with his father, forcing them to bridge the gap left by the death of Sai's mother years prior.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NarrativeShort

Becoming
directed by Tramaine Raphael Gray
United States // 2023 // English // 25 min
An imaginative queer teen weaves in and out of his own fantasy world while struggling to connect with his older brother.
#Noire, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeShort

Billy & Mac
directed by Sam Hahn
United States // 2024 // English // 8 min
A closeted high school football player discovers the dead body of his crush.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeShort

Black Silk
directed by Patrick Michael
United States // 2023 // English // 16 min
A timid black boy is thrust into turmoil when a violent revelation from his estranged father sets him on a harrowing path of self-discovery.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

Blue Boy
directed by Tyler Riggs
United States // 2023 // English // 19 min
Insecure New Jersey bodybuilder Joey Rossi, aka Joey Muscles, starts doing steroids in a last-ditch effort to go pro.
#NarrativeShort

Buster's Onion
directed by Giovanni Tortorici
United States // 2024 // English // 10 min
As an aging grandfather's mysterious surgery draws near, he and his wife contend with what their 50 years of marriage have come to.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NarrativeShort

Chickenshit
directed by Ellie Rogers
United Kingdom // 2023 // English // 8 min
At the height of summer, two rowdy boys spend the afternoon tearing through the countryside discovering nature, electricity, and themselves.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #PinkPeach, #NarrativeShort

Claude
directed by Finola Hughes
United States // 2024 // English // 15 min
Her childhood stuffed bunny, Claude, watches his owner navigate her turbulent love life as an adult trans-woman.
#InCompetition, #PinkPeach, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

Definitely Not a Monster
directed by Brea Cola Angelo
United States // 2024 // English // 19 min
After a beloved icon dies after being accused of rape, his devoted widow invites a journalist into their home to clear his name.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

Don't Wipe Your Tears
directed by Dominick Cormier
United States // 2024 // English // 16 min
A young couple is triggered by each of their childhood traumas after a playful moment turns upside down.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

Everything Goes Dark
directed by Alex Casimir
United States // 2023 // English // 15 min
A Black high school student prepares to take her senior yearbook photo when horrors lurking within come to the surface.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

Free Lunch
directed by Samuel Laine
United States // 2024 // English // 4 min
A first grader is forced to perform manual labor after failing to cover his two-dollar lunch debt.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

Goodnight, Moon
directed by Michael Patten
United States // 2023 // English // 18 min
After hijacking his father’s ashes, Steve Gailule makes a suburban pilgrimage to his childhood home.
#InCompetition, #NarrativeShort

Ham
directed by Fiona Hampton
United Kingdom // 2023 // English // 12 min
On a walk through the woods in the depths of rural England, childhood friends Cathy and Jules find a baby.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks

Happy Thanksgiving
directed by ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby
United States // 2023 // English // 8 min
An Indigenous man takes a Happy Thanksgiving wish very very personally.
#InCompetition, #NarrativeShort

Heaven is Nobody's
directed by Hector Prats
United States, Spain // 2024 // English // 12 min
A boy journeys through a nightmarish city to find a cure for his mom, as a dancing curse descends on him and his home.
#InCompetition, #¡CineMás!, #NarrativeShort

I Could Just Die, and That Would Be All Right
directed by A.K. Espada
United States // 2023 // English // 19 min
A suicidal woman lures a monster into the woods to kill her only to wake up the next day as an undead vampire.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #¡CineMás!, #NarrativeShort

I Didn't Mean To Say I Love You
directed by Jenna D'Angelo
United States // 2023 // English // 7 min
Abby has a full-on meldown after accidentally saying "I love you" at the end of a voicemail to an ex.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

It Stays with us
directed by Rich Perez
United States // 2023 // English, Spanish // 14 min
A young Latino teen struggles with his lingering grief years after a devastating loss.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #¡CineMás!, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

It's All Happening
directed by Sammy Grand
United States // 2024 // English // 14 min
Through a series of phone calls, Hazel and Rowan discuss Rowan's upcoming move to New York where they will finally live together despite their rapidly deteriorating friendship.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

Jedo's Dead
directed by Sara Nimeh
United States // 2024 // English, Lebanese // 11 min
A young Middle Eastern girl confronts loss when she finds her dead grandfather. Alone and confused, she works through the stages of grief.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

Jellyfish and Lobster
directed by Yasmin afifi
United Kingdom // 2023 // English // 20 min
Two elderly and terminally ill patients in a care home find magic in the mysterious swimming pool in the basement.
#NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

Kayla Baby
directed by Clark Comstock
United States // 2024 // English // 16 min
When a girl and her sister are forced to relocate to an abandoned housing development, they befriend a teenage boy and an old man.
#InCompetition, #NarrativeShort

Klette
directed by Michael Abay
Belgium // 2022 // Dutch, French // 17 min
A day’s journey of an unaccomplished 26-year-old woman in Brussels after a one-night stand.
#Noire, #NarrativeShort

Konpa
directed by Al'Ikens Plancher
United States // 2023 // Haitian Creole, English // 9 min
A young Haitian-American learns how to dance Konpa to impress his crush.
#Noire, #NarrativeShort

Lava
directed by Carmen Jiménez
Spain // 2023 // Spanish // 18 min
Berta is very happy to spend time with her cousin but doesn't realize he has other intentions.
#NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

Living Reality
directed by Philip Thompson
United States // 2024 // English // 16 min
An exploration of the emotional divide between fiction and reality in the American sitcom.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #¡CineMás!, #NarrativeShort

Mr. Bold
directed by Aiman Mimiko
United States , Nigeria // 2023 // Yoruba // 13 min
A young boy attempts to earn the respect of his older brother by desecrating a Mosque in a small Nigerian town.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

Okem
directed by Joshua Okwuosa
United States // 2023 // Igbo, English // 15 min
Okem, a Nigerian immigrant, is faced with his worst nightmare when he receives a call from home informing him his mother has been kidnapped.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NarrativeShort

One Happy Customer
directed by WATTS
United States // 2024 // // 6 min
An aged sex worker dispatches her clientele quickly with a special trick, until an unexpected client arrives with a special trick of his own.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

Rainbow Sun
directed by Malik Ali
United States // 2023 // English, Spanish // 15 min
A father and son must decide if the secrets they have kept from each other will break the family or if love will allow them to push past it.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

Shut Up & Fish
directed by Raul Sanchez & Pasqual Gutierrez
United States // 2023 // English // 14 min
When friend group of Chicano teens go fishing for the first time, Aiden, the newest to the group, finds he must challenge the status quo.
#InCompetition, #¡CineMás!, #NarrativeShort

Skettel
directed by Moon Lee Ferguson
United States // 2024 // English // 14 min
A single mom of a special needs child struggles to keep her head above water as she tackles the day as a bottle girl with a quarter tank of gas.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

Ten to One
directed by Jonathon Pawlowski
United States // 2023 // English // 6 min
Daniel and his personal care assistant prepare for a first date, but when things go bad, Daniel calls on a friend to calm him down.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

Terminally Ill
directed by Christopher J. Cole
United States // 2024 // English // 8 min
When a rapper is summoned to his grandmother’s deathbed, he engages in a madcap freestyle in an attempt to prevent her from dying.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

The G-Spot
directed by MELISSA BAYER
United States // 2023 // English // 5 min
A woman's newest sex toy possesses unforeseen mystical power.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

the girl with the om tattoo
directed by Paras Chaudhari, Marquelle Young
United States // 2024 // English // 25 min
When the livelihood of her yoga studio is threatened by a thriving yoga influencer industry, Nalini's struggle for self-worth sends her into a destructive downward spiral.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #Noire, #NarrativeShort

The Last Black Dinosaur
directed by Danielle Nebeliuk
United States // 2024 // English // 14 min
A cop slips into a musical alternate reality and sees the past, present, and future of the black man he kills.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

The Museum
directed by Annette Elliot
United States // 2024 // English // 15 min
After years of rejection, a Black artist confronts a past he has been unable to forget.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

The Year of Staring At Noses
directed by Karen Knox, Matt Eastman
Canada // 2024 // English // 22 min
A woman undergoes plastic surgery in an attempt to become a contestant on a beloved reality television show.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #NarrativeShort

Wokman
directed by Jeremy Thao
United States // 2023 // Mandarin, English // 16 min
An American-born Chinese boy gains a perspective on his parents' American Dream after starting to work at the family restaurant.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NarrativeShort

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

A Home on Every Floor
directed by Signe Rosenlund-Hauglid
Norway // 2023 // Norwegian // 11 min
A young Eritrean poet from Oslo uses her voice to excavate the lost home of her childhood.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #Noire, #DocumentaryShort

A Synonym For Art: Rodgric J.
directed by Kasey L. Martin
United States // 2023 // English // 3 min
A Black man shares his personal journey of self-expression through tattoos.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire, #DocumentaryShort

About a Bowshot Away
directed by Sangsun Choi
United States // 2024 // English, Korean // 14 min
With a little help from her parents, a young Korean-American girl pursues her dreams of becoming an Olympic archer.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #DocumentaryShort

American Seams
directed by Carly Jakins
United States // 2024 // English, Navajo // 17 min
The stories of three quilters reveal an intimate portrait of rural women in the American West.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #DocumentaryShort

And Still the Seed
directed by Llaima Suwani Sanfiorenzo
Puerto Rico // 2023 // Spanish, English, Latin // 14 min
This short film tells a captivating story about the importance of reforestation, with Puerto Rico's native and endemic trees as the protagonists.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #¡CineMás!, #DocumentaryShort

Cycles
directed by Pisie Hochheim; Tony Oswald
United States // 2024 // English // 14 min
A single mom from rural Kentucky travels to San Diego to sell her eggs in order to support her family.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #DocumentaryShort

Elephant
directed by Wes Sterrs
United States // 2023 // English // 15 min
“Elephant” spins a yarn of quiet observation against the backdrop of Maine’s emerging Spring as the tightly-wound circle of life unfurls.
#InCompetition, #DocumentaryShort

Friendly Signs
directed by Rahsaan Thomas
United States // 2022 // English, ASL // 22 min
An incarcerated man seeks to start a sign language class inside a state prison.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #DocumentaryShort

Goodbye, Morganza
directed by Devon Blackwell
United States // 2024 // English // 15 min
Years after a family's displacement, the youngest daughter is left to pick up the pieces—all of them fitting within 2 storage units.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #Noire, #DocumentaryShort

I Am More Dangerous Dead
directed by Majiye Uchibeke
United States, Nigeria, UK // 2022 // English // 24 min
Poetic tribute to Nigerian writer and environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed for his beliefs.
#InCompetition, #Noire, #DocumentaryShort

Makayla's Voice: A Letter to the World
directed by Julio Palacio
United States // 2024 // English // 23 min
A teenage girl with a rare form of autism finds her voice after 14 years of being silent.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #¡CineMás!, #DocumentaryShort

Map to the Sirens
directed by Demetrius Antonio Lewis
United States // 2024 // English // 15 min
An exploration of the landscapes and history of the American South through the eyes of rideshare drivers
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire, #DocumentaryShort

My Queerceañera
directed by Marcos Nieves
United States // 2023 // Spanish // 17 min
Upon turning fifty years old, Karyna, a transgender immigrant, is determined to fulfill her lifelong dream of celebrating her Quinceañera.
#InCompetition, #¡CineMás!, #PinkPeach, #DocumentaryShort

Olive
directed by Lev Omelchenko
United States // 2023 // English // 12 min
“Olive” follows an energetic woman on her daily routine of salvaging and redistributing food and “waste” across Atlanta, GA.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition

Pirsas
directed by Angélica M. Torres Tamayo
Colombia // 2023 // Spanish // 20 min
16 years after a tragedy that took her brothers life, the director returns with her mother to the site of the event, looking for answers.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #¡CineMás!, #DocumentaryShort

Prelude of a Story
directed by Ashley Salman
Chile // 2023 // Spanish, English // 17 min
Following her mothers passing, a young Chilean woman searches through archival footage to try and understand who her mother really was.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #¡CineMás!, #DocumentaryShort

Seven Acres and a Church
directed by Caroline Josey Karoki
United States // 2023 // English // 7 min
A passionate community matriarch fights to preserve her church, heritage, and community's history in Savannah, GA.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #Noire, #DocumentaryShort

The Alchemy of David
directed by Nicholas Woytuk
United States // 2023 // English // 15 min
An artist-photographer reflects on the state of his medium and wonders if the digital age has taken the magic out of making art.
#InCompetition, #DocumentaryShort

The Waiting
directed by Volker Schlecht
Germany // 2023 // English // 15 min
Mysterious deaths occur all over the planet and have a similar pattern. Why have so many species vanished?
#InCompetition, #DocumentaryShort

We Exist in Memory
directed by Darian Woehr
United States, Brazil // 2024 // Spanish, Warao // 13 min
How do you rebuild “home” from nothing but memories? Through intergenerational conversations, we witness the complexity of raising a new generation in displacement.
#InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #DocumentaryShort

ANIMATED SHORTS

27
directed by Flóra Anna Buda
France, Hungary // 2023 // Hungarian // 11 min
Alice is 27 years old today. She still lives with her parents and tends to live in her dreams to escape her dreary everyday life.
#NewMavericks, #AnimatedShort

A Paw Over Dark
directed by Dorian Saisse, Marisa Molson
United States // 2023 // English // 11 min
A washed-up actor descends into madness after a dog steals his spotlight.
#InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

ATM
directed by Chih-Ching Tseng
Taiwan, United States // 2022 // English // 3 min
A story about a money machine, a poor man, and cat food.
#InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

Discoteque
directed by Masashi Yamamoto
United States // 2023 // English // 5 min
I feel your beat, you feel my rhythm, till the end.
#PinkPeach, #InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

Don't Forget to Take Medicines on Time
directed by Xiaoxuan Han
China // 2023 // Chinese // 2 min
Have the mushrooms not disappeared yet？
#InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

Lil Sherbet
directed by Xinhe Zhao
China, United States // 2023 // Chinese // 3 min
My body is mine, but not all mine.
#NewMavericks, #InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

Mira
directed by Eva Louise Hall
United States // 2023 // English // 11 min
An accordionist busker gets more than she bargained for when her desire to be noticed attracts the attention of a dangerous competitor.
#NewMavericks, #InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

Provisions
directed by Kheyal Roy-Meighoo
United States // 2023 // English // 4 min
A young American woman asks her grandmother how to make traditional Trinidadian provision soup while discussing home, family, and diaspora.
#GeorgiaFilm, #InCompetition, #NewMavericks, #AnimatedShort

The Lost Courier
directed by Ma Zidong
China // 2023 // Chinese, English // 3 min
It may have gone through some incredible things before the courier reached us.
#InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

The Nectar Instead
directed by Yoo Lee
United States // 2023 // English // 4 min
A young fly gets trapped in a fly trap in a stop-motion studio, only to have an existential realization about its entire life.
#InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

The Sun is Bad
directed by Rachel Mow
United States // 2023 // Cantonese // 3 min
In 80s Hong Kong, a temperamental girl tries to destroy the sun and stop it from melting her city using toys.
#InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

Vainglorious
directed by Gabriel Ugbodaga
United States, Nigeria // 2023 // English // 8 min
A skilled young boxer and a determined father clash in a traditional Nigerian boxing match.
#Noire, #InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

Worry World
directed by Jessica Patterson
Ireland // 2023 // English // 9 min
What price would you pay for the connection?
#NewMavericks, #InCompetition, #AnimatedShort

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

(ಥ﹏ಥ) ✧_MY PARENTS ARE CIA PSY0PS_!!!* ಠ_ಠ
directed by Haydon Mayer
United States // 2023 // English // 10 min
On a sleepy summer night in 2004, my parents are fighting but I wish they would shut up because I'm trying to fix my new blog.
#ExperimentalShort

Burnt Milk
directed by Joseph Douglas Elmhirst
United States, Jamaica // 2023 // English, Patois // 9 min
When an isolated Jamaican midwife takes a moment of solace by following a ritual, she's taken home.
#Noire, #ExperimentalShort

Chamber of Shadows
directed by OK Seyoung
South Korea // 2023 // // 11 min
Eadweard Muybridge’s photographs of animals, people, and landscapes begin to move in a transparent acrylic frame.
#ExperimentalShort

Decomp Disco
directed by Russell Sheaffer & Aaron Michael Smith
United States // 2024 // English // 5 min
"Taking place entirely on “Cybill’s Disco Jet
#PinkPeach, #ExperimentalShort

Devouring Stones Up Close
directed by Cat Rider, Zap Mcconnell
United States // 2024 // English // 9 min
A dance film that serves as an expression of feminine rage and channels the spirits of those whose land we walk, create, and dance on.
#NewMavericks, #PinkPeach, #ExperimentalShort

Islets of Langerhans
directed by Anna Winter
United States // 2023 // English // 5 min
Islets of Langerhans is an experimental documentary about chronic illness and mother/daughter relationships
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #NewMavericks, #ExperimentalShort

Photosynthesis
directed by Brian Zahm
United States // 2023 // // 7 min
Seeds. Light. Water. Life.
#ExperimentalShort

The Expectation of the Observed
directed by Stephanie J Williams
United States // 2022 // // 5 min
This stop motion about labor features disembodied meaty legs, flayed of skin, dancing in repetition even as they start to disintegrate.
#Noire, #ExperimentalShort

They Got Me Goin' In On My Day Off.
directed by Luis Figueroa Caunedo
United States // 2024 // English // 5 min
A lo-fi, dry-humored glimpse of a Manhattan bus driver who gets called in to work on his day off.
#¡CineMás!, #ExperimentalShort

Wonderful
directed by Daniel Martinico
United States // 2024 // // 4 min
Into the flickering abyss. Tiny fragments sourced from Frank Capra’s IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE are folded into a stroboscopic incantation.
#ExperimentalShort

MUSIC VIDEO

Ara - Torn
directed by Sinan Taner
Switzerland // 2023 // English // 4 min
TORN portrays the structure and fragility of a relationship by depicting inner states. A story about the rupture of patterns.
#MusicVideo

billy woods and Kenny Segal - Soft Landing
directed by Henry Nelson, Tim Blake Nelson
United States // 2023 // English // 3 min
Birds fly high you know how I feel, sun in the sky you now how I feel, breeze drifting on you know how I feel, birds fly high you know how I feel.
#¡CineMás!, #MusicVideo

E - Glitter Electron
directed by Chihiro Sato, Takaaki Numa, E
Japan // 2022 // // 6 min
This film is a glitter storm of pleasant and strange visual images and electronic sounds on the theme of electricity, which is the driving force of modern civilization.
#NewMavericks, #MusicVideo

Home is Where - Yes! Yes! A Thousand Times Yes!
directed by Texas Smith
United States // 2023 // English // 6 min
A woman time travels back in time to her mother’s past, present, and future on September 10th, 2001.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #MusicVideo

Mad Fox - Cinerama
directed by Matt Fulks
United States // 2023 // English // 4 min
Louisville rapper Mad Fox recreates 30 of film's most iconic moments
#MusicVideo

Nicole Blakk - Run
directed by SYCHELLE-KRISTINA YANDA
United Kingdom // 2023 // English // 3 min
Everybody's running from something, right?
#NewMavericks, #MusicVideo

Pattie Gonia, Quinn Christopherson, and Yo-Yo Ma - Won't Give Up
directed by Abdul Kassamali
United States // 2023 // English // 5 min
Climate justice and environmental justice are inextricably linked - how we treat this planet is how we treat each other.
#Noire, #MusicVideo

Pronto - Light Light
directed by Maximilian Speidel
Switzerland // 2022 // Swiss German, English // 6 min
A young adult clears out his mother's apartment, unlocking his quest to preserve her unconditional love through cherished memories.
#MusicVideo

Quinn Bentley - Stripes
directed by Sarah Menasce
United States // 2024 // English // 3 min
STRIPES is about a young woman’s intrusive thoughts, slowly taking on a concrete & sinister form.
#NewMavericks, #¡CineMás!, #MusicVideo

Sadmadbad - Everything is Fine
directed by Naomi Plasterer
United States // 2023 // English // 3 min
From birth to death a painful life full of trials and tribulations. Everything is not fine. Will their next life be better?
#NewMavericks, #¡CineMás!, #MusicVideo

Tammy Lakkis - Get Up
directed by Oksana Mirzoyan
United States // 2023 // English // 3 min
A live performance by electronic music composer Tammy Lakkis of her song "Get Up."
#NewMavericks, #MusicVideo

Tim Aminov - Ultraviolence
directed by Andrei Maica
Kazakhstan // 2022 // Russian, Kazakh // 3 min
How does the crowd feel? Where does this collective unconscious come from, ready to kill and indulge in the idea of violence?
#MusicVideo

Zulu - From Tha Gods To Earth
directed by Malakai
United States // 2023 // English // 5 min
Black Culture is not a monolith. FROM THA GODS TO EARTH explores the metamorphosis of Black Ancestry through hardcore punk.
#Noire, #MusicVideo

EPISODIC

Do It To Me If You Want
directed by Elise Kibler, James Udom
United States // 2023 // English // 19 min
Alexandra runs into her ex's identical twin Kent at a Halloween frat party.
#NewMavericks, #Noire, #Episodic

Last Option
directed by Don-Dimitri Joseph
United States // 2024 // English // 11 min
Daniel, a gifted psychic with the ability to see into the future, decides to use his powers to commit burglaries.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire, #Episodic

Lucy & Sara
directed by Susan Park
United States // 2024 // English // 7 min
Two unlikely sisters learn to lean on each other after the death of their beloved father despite their seemingly toxic relationship.
#NewMavericks, #Episodic

Roboto
directed by Keone & Mari Madrid
United States // 2023 // English // 18 min
A choreographer hits rock bottom when a dancing artificial intelligence puts him out of work and becomes everyone's favorite dance partner.
#NewMavericks, #Episodic

The Comic Shop
directed by Robert Butler III
United States // 2023 // English // 13 min
A former engineering major opens up her own Comic Book store in the heart of Los Angeles with her quirky friends.
#Noire, #NewMavericks, #Episodic

The Murder on Cape Melancholy
directed by Christian ‘Blaque’ Meier
United States // 2024 // English // 26 min
After being accused of a brutal murder, Todd Bishop plunges into chaos uncovering twisted town secrets on his quest for vindication.
#GeorgiaFilm, #GeorgiaShortCompetition, #Noire, #Episodic

VIRTUAL REALITY

Comfortless
directed by Gina Kim
United States, Korea // 2023 // English, Korean // 16 min
Filmed on-site, COMFORTLESS immerses in American Town, a brothel exclusive to the U.S. Air Force Base in Kunsan, South Korea.
#NewMavericks, #VirtualReality

Even You Leave: A Neighborhood Sketchbook
directed by Geoffrey Beatty
United States // 2023 // English // 4 min
A hand-drawn, animated, 360° film documenting a historic neighborhood in Philadelphia.
#VirtualReality

Minitourism
directed by Jan Grabowski
Poland // 2023 // Polish // 8 min
A trip around the world that turns out to be a metaphorical journey set in a miniature park.
#VirtualReality

Cover photo by Gregory Bishop.

Kevon Pryce 3/27/23 Kevon Pryce 3/27/23

2023 ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL UNVEILS KEY PROGRAMMING AND FULL LINEUP OF OFFICIAL SELECTIONS FOR 47TH ANNUAL EVENT, INCLUDING 39 WORLD PREMIERES

ATLANTA, GA (March 27, 2023) — The 47th annual Atlanta Film Festival + Creative Conference (ATLFF) today revealed key programming highlights, including the opening night presentation and the full lineup of selected works from nearly 10,000 submissions. Highlighted by the Opening Night presentation of “Polite Society”, 17 Marquee screenings will combine Hollywood star power with the best of independent film. The 155 total announced creative works from submissions will feature diverse filmmakers who continue to uplift voices and stories from around the world. The film festival and educational conference will take place Thursday, April 20 through Sunday, April 30, 2023 at multiple venues in Atlanta and virtually.

“We are thrilled to return for our 47th annual festival with both an in-person and virtual format, allowing our films and content to be more accessible than ever,” said Christopher Escobar, Executive Director of the Atlanta Film Festival. “This year’s lineup is once again full of unique programming from a variety of diverse voices from the local Atlanta community and around the world. We can’t wait to welcome audiences back this April.”

Kicking off a robust slate of Marquee programming that will be presented throughout the 10-day festival, the Opening Night presentation of Focus Features’ “Polite Society” will take place at the Plaza Theatre on Friday, April 21. Starring Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya, the film follows a martial artist-in-training who enlists her friends to help save her older sister from her impending marriage in the name of independence and sisterhood.

Some highlights of the Marquee programming from celebrated filmmakers and Hollywood studios announced today include narrative features “This World Is Not My Own,” a documentary film that traces the lifespan of artist Nellie Mae Rowe through motion capture technology to replicate human expressions and movement performed by Uzo Aduba, “It's Only Life After All,” a documentary that follows the lives and careers of one of the most iconic folk-rock bands in America, the Indigo Girls, and “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster,” starring Laya DeLeon Hayes and Chad Coleman, is poignant story of grief and hope, in which a teenage anti-hero goes on a desperate quest to cure death.

Since its founding, diversity in programming has been a cornerstone of ATLFF’s mission, demonstrated by the final lineup of 40 feature-length films, 84 short films, and 27 creative media selections. Of these selections, 49% are directed by filmmakers who identify as female or non-binary, and 47% are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC). Five specialty tracks will return to the 2023 festival including: New Mavericks, celebrating excellence in film from female and gender non-conforming directors and leads; ¡CineMás!, focusing on Latin American culture; Noire, uplifting Black filmmakers, Pink Peach, featuring films with LGBTQ stories and characters, and Georgia Films, highlighting productions with ties to the state of Georgia.

For five years in a row, the festival received a record-breaking number of creative works and screenplay submissions. Works from more than 204 countries were submitted to the festival, and 30 countries are represented among the final lineup of chosen selections. Over 20% of this year’s selections have ties to the state of Georgia.

The 13th annual Creative Conference, ATLFF’s popular educational programming extension, returns with in-person panel discussions, as well as virtual panels and one-on-one, in-depth virtual conversations with industry experts from Georgia to New York and Los Angeles. The entire Creative Conference lineup will be announced in the coming weeks. This year’s programming will focus on community, craft and the future of filmmaking. Additional topics will include screenwriting, directing, producing, development and pitching, using AI, and much more.

ATLFF 2023 will be more accessible than ever, offering a mix of in-person and virtual screenings. Screenings will be held at the Plaza Theatre (1049 Ponce De Leon Ave NE), Dad’s Garage (569 Ezzard St SE), The Carter Center (453 Freedom Parkway), and The Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University (80 Forsyth St NW). All virtual screenings and events will be presented via Eventive.

The full schedule of films and events is available at www.AtlantaFilmFestival.com and through the ATLFF 2023 app. Festival passes are on sale now on the site. Tickets for individual events will be available at the beginning of April. In-person screening tickets range from $12-15; virtual access is $9.99 per film/panel with an unlimited virtual all-access pass for $85 for both films and Creative Conference.

Applications for press credentials for ATLFF 2023 are now open and can be submitted here. Press materials and assets, including past press releases, logos, and film stills can be found here.

2023 ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP

OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION

Polite Society
directed by Nida Manzoor
United Kingdom // 2023 // English // 103 min
Ria Khan believes that she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting her friends' help, she attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists, in the name of independence and sisterhood.
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION

*TBA

MARQUEE SCREENINGS

Divinity
directed by Eddie Alcazar
United States // 2023 // English // 88 min
Executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and starring Stephen Dorff, DIVINITY is set in an otherworldly human existence, where the creation of a ground-breaking immortality serum named “Divinity” is wreaking havoc. Jaxxon Pierce, the creator’s son (Dorff), now controls and manufactures his father’s once-benevolent dream, and society on the barren planet has been entirely perverted by the supremacy of the drug. When two mysterious brothers arrive with a plan to abduct Pierce with the help of a seductive woman named Nikita, they will all be set hurtling toward true immortality.
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Final Cut
directed by Michel Hazanavicius
France // 2022 // French // 111 min
Final Cut follows a director (Duris) making a live, single-take, low-budget zombie movie in which the cast and crew, one by one, actually turn into zombies. More blood-soaked high farce than horror, the film revels in its affectionate embrace of goofy genre fun. Academy Award-winning director Michael Hazanavicius (THE ARTIST) pulls off the improbable, a French-language remake of Shin’ichirô Ueda’s cult hit One Cut of the Dead that milks the film’s hilarious and meta-to-the-max premise for all it’s worth, while also crafting a sly love letter to the art of filmmaking.
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Little Brother
directed by Sheridan O'Donnell
United States // 2023 // English // 94 min
Jake and his brother Pete pile into a busted-up van, headed from Albuquerque to Seattle. Pete has just attempted suicide for the umpteenth time and his concerned parents have recruited Jake to drive Pete home for a family intervention. The brothers are at once uneasy friends and sworn rivals; they're not just oil and water, they're fire and gasoline. And now they've got 1,400 miles to go and nowhere to hide.
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Master Gardener
directed by Paul Schrader
United States // 2022 // English // 107 min
Narvel Roth is the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens, a beautiful estate owned by wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill. When she orders Roth to take on her troubled great-niece Maya as his apprentice, his life is thrown into chaos and dark secrets from his past emerge. A new film by master writer & director Paul Schrader (FIRST REFORMED, TAXI DRIVER).
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Medusa Deluxe
directed by Thomas Hardiman
United Kingdom // 2022 // English // 101 min
MEDUSA DELUXE is a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing competition. Extravagance and excess collide, as the death of one of their own sows seeds of division in a community whose passion for hair verges on obsession.
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Party Girl
directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer
United States // 1995 // English // 94 min
Plazadrome is a monthly film screening partnership between the Plaza Theatre and Videodrome, Atlanta’s last video store, where Videodrome employees bring store favorites and cinematic curiosities to the big screen. This month’s selection is the Atlanta premiere screening of a brand-new restoration of PARTY GIRL, director Daisey von Scherler Mayer’s 1995 Manhattan cult comedy starring the sublime Parker Posey. Co-hosted by Fun City Editions, who commissioned and oversaw the restoration, this event will feature a Q&A with Fun City founder Jonathan Hertzberg and Millie De Chirico, local film programmer, writer, historian, and host of the weekly film podcast I Saw What You Did.
#Narrative Feature

Passages
directed by Ira Sachs
France // 2023 // English, French // 91 min
In contemporary Paris, German filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski, A HIDDEN LIFE, I WAS AT HOME, BUT...) embraces his sexuality through a torrid love affair with a young woman named Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos, MANDIBLES, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR), an impulse that blurs the lines which define his relationship with his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw, THE LOBSTER, WOMEN TALKING). When Martin begins an extramarital affair of his own, he successfully gains back his husband’s attention while simultaneously unearthing Tomas’ jealousy. Grappling with contradicting emotions, Tomas must either embrace the confines of his marriage or come to terms with the relationship having run its course. A new film by indie mainstay Ira Sachs (LITTLE MEN, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON)
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Sanctuary
directed by Zachary Wigon
United States // 2022 // English // 96 min
Confined to a claustrophobic hotel room, the heir to a hotel empire (Christopher Abbott, POSSESSOR, GIRLS) and the dominatrix who has primed him for success (Margaret Qualley, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD) become locked in a battle of wits and wills as he tries to end his relationship with her.
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Scarlet
directed by Pietro Marcello
France, Italy, Germany, Russia // 2022 // French // 100 min
Pietro Marcello, one of contemporary cinema’s most versatile talents, follows his dramatic breakthrough Martin Eden with an enchanting period fable based on a beloved 1923 novel by Russian writer Alexander Grin. Beginning as the tale of a sensitive brute (Räphael Terry) who returns home from World War I to his rural French village to discover his wife has died and that he must take care of their baby daughter, Juliette, the film blossoms into a pastoral portrait of Juliette as a young woman (Juliette Jouan) reckoning with a local witch’s prophecy for her future and falling for the modern man (Louis Garrel) who literally drops from the sky. In his first film made in France, Marcello proves again he is as comfortable in the realm of folklore as he is in creative nonfiction, delicately interweaving realist drama, ethereal romance, and musical flights of fancy.
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Showing Up
directed by Kelly Reichardt
United States // 2022 // English // 108 min
A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt's vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft. Stars Academy Award nominee Hong Chau (THE WHALE, THE MENU), André "André 3000" Benjamin of Outkast, and five-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams.

#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

The Cow Who Sang a Song Into The Future
directed by Francisca Alegria
Chile // 2022 // Spanish // 98 min
A choir of creatures introduces a world delicately constructed by fantasy, mystery, and magical realism in Francisca Alegría’s poignant and stunning debut feature. It begins in a river in the south of Chile where fish are dying due to pollution from a nearby factory. Amid their floating bodies, long-deceased Magdalena (Mia Maestro, Frida, The Motorcycle Diaries) bubbles up to the surface gasping for air, bringing with her old wounds and a wave of family secrets. This shocking return sends her widowed husband into turmoil and prompts their daughter Cecilia to return home to the family’s dairy farm with her own children. Magdalena’s presence reverberates among her family, instigating fits of laughter and despair in equal measure with all but Cecilia’s eldest child, who finds much-needed comfort in their grandmother’s love and unconditional understanding during a time of transition. A lyrical rumination on family, nature, renewal, and resurrection, The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future is an ambitious proposal for acceptance and healing, suggesting that the dead return when they are most needed.
#Narrative Feature, #Marquee

Being Mary Tyler Moore
directed by James Adolphus
United States // 2023 // English // 119 min
With unprecedented access to Mary Tyler Moore’s vast archive, Being Mary Tyler Moore chronicles the screen icon whose storied career spanned sixty years. Weaving Moore’s personal narrative with the beats of her professional accomplishments, the film highlights her groundbreaking roles and the indelible impact she had on generations of women who came after her.
#Documentary Feature, #Marquee

Judy Blume Forever
directed by Davina Pardo, Leah Wolchok
United States // 2023 // English // 97 min
Judy Blume and the generations of readers who have sparked to her work. It will examine her impact on pop culture and the occasional controversies over her frankness about puberty and sex.
#Marquee, #Documentary Feature

Kokomo City
directed by D. Smith
United States // 2023 // English // 73 min
A raw depiction of the lives of four black trans sex workers as they confront the dichotomy between the black community and themselves.
#Documentary Feature, #Marquee

My Last Nerve
directed by Adam LaBrie
USA // 2023 // English // 90 min
Fueled by his fathers torturous disease, a son stakes his scientific career on a new cure that could change how we treat pain.
#Documentary Feature, #Marquee

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
directed by Davis Guggenheim
United States // 2023 // English // 95 min
Incorporating documentary, archival and scripted elements, STILL recounts Michael J. Fox’s extraordinary story in his own words — the improbable tale of an undersized kid from a Canadian army base who rose to the heights of stardom in 1980s Hollywood. The account of Fox’s public life, full of nostalgic thrills and cinematic gloss, unspools alongside his never-before-seen private journey, including the years that followed his diagnosis, at 29, with Parkinson’s disease. Intimate and honest, and produced with unprecedented access to Fox and his family, STILL chronicles Fox’s personal and professional triumphs and travails, and explores what happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease.
#Documentary Feature, #Marquee

NARRATIVE FEATURES

Everybody Wants To Be Loved
directed by Katharina Woll
Germany // 2022 // German // 80 min
On a blistering summer day, psychotherapist Ina notices something is wrong. But she doesn't have time to worry about it: Patients are waiting at the practice, her daughter is threatening to move in with her father, her boyfriend wants to emigrate to Finland, and her self-centered mother is celebrating her 70th birthday. Ina tries to please everyone, until suddenly everything changes.
#Narrative Feature, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Hello Dankness
directed by Soda Jerk
Australia // 2022 // English // 70 min
Comprised entirely of hundreds of film samples, HELLO DANKNESS bears witness to the psychotropic spectacle of American politics from 2016 to 2021, and the mythologies and lore that took root around it. Taking form as a suburban stoner musical, the film follows a neighborhood through these years as consensus reality disintegrates into conspiracy and other contagions.
#In Competition, #Narrative Feature

Hundreds of Beavers
directed by Mike Cheslik
United States // 2023 // English // 108 min
In this 19th century, slapstick winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
#Narrative Feature, #Cinematography Competition

Jasmine is a Star
directed by Jo Rochelle
United States // 2023 // English // 58 min
Jasmine, a determined 16-year-old with albinism makes it her mission to become a professional model in her hometown of Minneapolis, while attempting to go unnoticed in every other aspect of her teenage life. Against the backdrop of fall in the Twin Cities, Jasmine explores what independence - and more importantly, what self-acceptance - looks like for someone like her.
#Noire, #Family Friendly, #Narrative Feature, #New Mavericks

Miss Viborg
directed by Marianne Blicher
Denmark // 2022 // Danish // 99 min
Former beauty queen and senior citizen Solvej lives alone with her dog in a social housing area on the outskirts of a Danish provincial town. Every day, she performs the same routine of rolling around on her scooter, dealing her prescription drugs, and dreaming of a world outside Viborg. When her neighbor’s rebellious 17-year-old daughter crashes into Solvej's life, an unlikely friendship forms.
#In Competition, #Narrative Feature, #New Mavericks

Our Father, the Devil
directed by Ellie Foumbi
United States, Cameroon // 2022 // French // 108 min
Marie is an African refugee working as the head chef at a retirement home in small-town France. Her quiet existence is upended by the arrival of Father Patrick. a charismatic priest with whom she’s convinced she shares a heavy past in her homeland. Marie must now confirm his identity and decide if settling an old score is worth sacrificing the new life she’s built.
#Narrative Feature, #New Mavericks

Quantum Cowboys
directed by Geoff Marslett
United States // 2022 // English // 99 min
Mixing live action film, paper cut outs, hand drawn animation, oil paintings, 8k video, collages and digital animation, and featuring live musical performances by Neko Case, John Doe, Howe Gelb and Xixa, Quantum Cowboys is an old fashioned western about a trio of hapless drifters in search of an elusive frontier musician. There’s gun fights, horses, cacti and time travel, too!
#In Competition, #GA Features Competition, #Georgia Film

Red Earth
directed by Georg Koszulinski
United States // 2023 // English // 64 min
Explore the landscape of the late Anthropocene age, where large parts of Earth have become inhospitable to life. The story follows three generations of Martians, from the first colonists to the first expedition to return to an Earth decimated by interplanetary war.
#Narrative Feature, #Cinematography Competition

She Watches Blindly
directed by Bryan Tan
United States // 2023 // English // 86 min
Beth Abrams believes she has a unique ability: she can know the thoughts of others. Only it is not a gift, it is an illness, and it is destroying her life and relationships. After a night of nightmares, a mysterious doctor arrives to investigate the circumstances and help Beth piece together what remains of her life, but doing so may cost her everything.
#Narrative Feature, #GA Features Competition, #Georgia Film

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
directed by Bomani J. Story
United States // 2023 // English // 91 min
Death surrounds everything in Vicaria's world. All around her are the fatal outcomes of chronic gang violence, drugs, and police brutality. After watching her mother and brother succumb, Vicaria decides to put an end to all this death...by curing it. Drawing deeply from Black cinema of the 90s , THE ANGRY BLCK GIRL AND HER MONSTER wraps systemic terrors up inside thrilling scares and suspense.
#Narrative Feature, #In Competition, #Noire

Wilder Than Her
directed by Jessica Kozak
United States // 2023 // English // 89 min
When Bea, the glue of their friend group, dies tragically, Emilia, Finn, and Lucey suffer in solitude until Emilia convinces them to go on their annual camping trip, where they can honor Bea and reconnect. Once they’re alone in the forest, however, Emilia begins to feel gaslit and taunted by Finn, the only person who witnessed Bea’s death. As tensions escalate and old wounds are brought to the surface, the trio of women begin to suspect each other of terrible things, calling into question their friendship and their own morality.
#In Competition, #Narrative Feature, #New Mavericks

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

Black Mothers Love & Resist
directed by Débora Souza Silva
United States // 2022 // English // 102 min
Wanda Johnson and Angela Williams, mothers of young Black men victimized by police brutality, come together and build a network of community-led support, mutual aid, and healing in this documentary spanning Oakland’s Fruitvale to the American South. Radical empathy fuels this timely exposé.
#In Competition, #Documentary Feature, #Noire, #New Mavericks

Dusty & Stones
directed by Jesse Rudoy
United States // 2022 // English, SiSwati // 83 min
Dusty and Stones struggle to sustain a country music career in their tiny African Kingdom of Swaziland and yearn for greater recognition. When they are unexpectedly nominated to compete in a Texas battle of the bands, the two cousins journey to the heart of American country music, determined to win big and turn their careers around.But things do not exactly go as planned.
#In Competition, #Documentary Feature, #Talent Anticipated

Eat Bitter
directed by Pascale Appora-Gnekindy and Ningyi Sun
Central African Republic, United States // 2023 // Sango, Chinese, French // 95 min
EAT BITTER is a vérité film set in the Central African Republic . As in other African countries, skilled migrant workers from China are a strong presence here. Through the parallel stories of Chinese immigrants and local residents, the film captures the journeys of two opposed communities.
#In Competition, #Documentary Feature, #Noire

Fenom
directed by Kayla Johnson
United States // 2022 // English // 66 min
Fenom follows basketball and music’s next big star -Flau’Jae Johnson, one of the nation’s top recruits and the daughter of the late rapper, Camouflage. Building her brand and balancing life as a student-athlete comes with hard work, sacrifice, and triumph. This is a story of legacy, victory and the pursuit of greatness.
#In Competition, #Georgia Film, #Noire, #New Mavericks, #Documentary Feature

Gabi: Between Ages 8 and 13
directed by Engeli Broberg
Sweden, Denmark, Norway // 2021 // Swedish // 76 min
GABI: Between 8 and 13 follows the remarkable Gabi over the course of five formative years as she wrestles with society’s stereotypes about boys and girls. As puberty kicks in, Gabi must decide whether she wants to fit in with the crowd or chart her own path. A landmark portrait of early adolescence, GABI: From 8 to 13 is ultimately about the journey to be true to yourself.
#In Competition, #Documentary Feature, #Pink Peach, #New Mavericks

It's Only Life After All
directed by Alexandria Bombach
United States // 2023 // English // 123 min
Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, better known as The Indigo Girls, have made their mark as musicians, songwriters, and dedicated activists. Still, Amy and Emily battled misogyny, homophobia, and a harsh cultural climate chastising them for not fitting into a female pop star mold. A timely look into the obstacles, activism, and life lessons of two queer friends who never expected to make it big.
#Documentary Feature, #In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Pink Peach, #Talent Anticipated

JessZilla
directed by Emily Sheskin
United States // 2023 // English // 90 min
Jesselyn Silva, a 15-year-old girl from New Jersey, is a 3x national boxing champion who has her sights set on becoming the best in boxing. As she is on the cusp of making the Olympic team, she faces her toughest battle yet, a cancer diagnosis. JessZilla is a coming-of-age story about what it means to be a champion.
#Documentary Feature, #Cinemás, #New Mavericks, #In Competition

No Time To Fail
directed by Sara Archambault, Margo Guernsey
United States // 2022 // English // 91 min
Despite the desperate attempts to disrupt the 2020 election, election administrators pulled off the most secure election in our history. Rather than receiving a hero’s welcome, they have become the focus of a coordinated campaign of disinformation.No Time To Fail gives voice to the experiences of this largely invisible, yet completely indispensable workforce.
#Documentary Feature, #In Competition

Path of the Panther
directed by Eric Bendick
United States // 2022 // English // 89 min
The Florida panther's habitat has become an island. Its lush territory transformed into subdivisions.Perched on the edge of extinction, the panther is an emblem of our once connected world. Against all odds, wild panthers have been stunningly captured in their native ecosystem, as they've never been filmed before.
#Documentary Feature, #In Competition

Savage Waters
directed by Mikey Corker
France // 2022 // English // 93 min
A treasure-hunter’s journal inspires a captivating journey to seek out a mythical, never-ridden wave in some of the most remote and dangerous waters of the Atlantic Ocean. With family and friends, Matt Knight boards the beautiful catamaran Hecate and follows clues to find this ‘perfect wave’, but not everything goes to plan.
#In Competition, #Documentary Feature

Ship Happens
directed by Jordan Bellamy, Josh Gilligan
United States // 2023 // English // 81 min
On Sept 8, 2019, The Golden Ray, a 656 foot cargo ship loaded with 4200 vehicles capsized in the Saint Simons Sound. Concerned locals work hard to undo the environmental damage and hold authorities accountable, but the attempts to remove the ship suffers every possible setback.
#Georgia Film, #Documentary Feature, #In Competition

Silent Beauty
directed by Jasmín Mara López
United States // 2022 // English, Spanish // 87 min
When director Jasmin Mara López sees an old family photo, she is flooded by painful memories of sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather. In this poetic documentary, López bravely films her story through archival family footage and intimate moments with her family. López has created a film about confronting painful truths and the beauty one can feel when they reach the other side of grief.
#New Mavericks, #Cinemás, #Documentary Feature

The Only Doctor
directed by Matthew Hashiguchi
United States // 2023 // English // 80 min
For the past 15 years, Dr. Karen Kinsell, a compassionate, yet no-nonsense physician, has been the only doctor in Clay County, Georgia-one of the poorest counties in the nation. Knowing all too well that she’s the only healthcare for many residents, she begins a journey of twists and turns towards a solution so that she can continue serving her patients,
#Preview Screening, #Documentary Feature, #New Mavericks, #In Competition, #Georgia Film

This World is Not My Own
directed by Petter Ringbom, Marquise Stillwell
United States, Sweden // 2023 // English // 97 min
This World is Not My Own traces the lifespan of Nellie Mae Rowe, an artist who struggled to dedicate her life to art while exploring the personal and political events that shaped her singular body of work. In detailed film sets that recreate Nellie’s home, the actress Uzo Aduba embodies an animated version of the subject. Her recorded dialogue, movement and song make Nellie come to life.
#In Competition, #Georgia Film, #Noire, #Documentary Feature

Twenty
directed by Lev Omelchenko
United States // 2023 // English, Portuguese // 65 min
Amid the tumultuous events of 2020, a mysterious speak-easy in Atlanta becomes a home for a group of young people to share their stories of loss, resilience, and hope. “Twenty” is an observational film, set in a dreamy underground world, witnessing a group’s unique yet universal vulnerabilities—shown through scenes shot in intimate black-and-white.
#Georgia Film, #Documentary Feature, #In Competition

ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak)
directed by Schon Duncan, Michael McDermit
United States // 2023 // Cherokee, English // 95 min
While there are 430,000 Cherokee citizens in the three federally recognized tribes, fewer than an estimated 2,000 fluent speakers remain—the majority of whom are elderly. Language activists, artists, and the youth must now lead the charge to help save the language from extinction.
#In Competition, #Documentary Feature

NARRATIVE SHORTS

Black Butterfly
directed by Kelvin Summerhill
United States // 2023 // English // 13 min
On the day of his long-awaited corporate promotion, an ambitious Black man starts to see cracks in his carefully constructed persona.
#Noire, #GA Shorts Competition, #Georgia Film, #Narrative Short

Bowling 4 Eva
directed by Aelfie Oudghiri
United States // 2023 // English // 14 min
A troubled teen girl spends her time trolling men online and bowling with her grandfather while becoming increasingly medicated by her psychiatrist.
#New Mavericks, #In Competition, #Narrative Short

CATCHING SPIRITS
directed by Vanessa Beletic
United States // 2022 // English // 13 min
Destiny has been told since childhood she has seizures when she dances. An unexplained phenomena that’s resulted in deep fear and her refusal to dance- despite being drawn to it.
#Noire, #In Competition, #Narrative Short

Chipper
directed by Shaun Maclean
United States // 2023 // English // 20 min
After receiving a mysterious letter, a wayward son returns to his childhood home to wrestle with a dark family secret.
#GA Shorts Competition, #Georgia Film, #Narrative Short

Civic
directed by Dwayne LeBlanc
United States // 2022 // English // 20 min
A young man returns to South Central L.A. after several years away. Confined to the interior of his car, we watch as he interacts with the people and places he once knew.
#Noire, #Narrative Short

CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man
directed by Brian Lonano, Blake Myers
United States // 2023 // English // 15 min
"Filmmaker" Brian Lonano tries to talk about a beloved cult film. What happens next will shock you!
#Georgia Film, #GA Shorts Competition, #Narrative Short

Dandelion
directed by Lorena R. Valencia
Mexico, United States // 2022 // Spanish // 17 min
A teenage girl who lives in a small town in Mexico, is helped by her best friend in her search for home remedies to stop an unwanted pregnancy, undeterred by the health risks that she may face.
#Cinemás, #Narrative Short

Demon Box
directed by Sean Wainsteim
Canada // 2023 // English // 14 min
After festival rejections, a director revises his intensely personal short film about trauma, suicide, and the Holocaust, and transforms it into a painful, blunt and funny dissection of the film and his life. Ten years in the making.
#Narrative Short

Fragments
directed by Jakey Lutsko
United States // 2022 // English // 7 min
Bedridden and broken, Emma, a young woman in her early twenties, faces the horrors manifested from her recent car crash.
#In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Gabriela
directed by Evelyn Lorena
United States // 2023 // Spanish, English // 18 min
It's the summer after high-school graduation in North Carolina and Gabriela, a young undocumented Guatemalan woman, pursues her dream of swimming with an illustrious Country Club swim team. However, she is soon confronted with her over-protective mother’s fears, limitations on her legal and socio-economic status, and her own self-judgment.
#Cinemás, #Georgia Film, #GA Shorts Competition, #Narrative Short

Give It To Me
directed by Courtney Hope Therond
United States // 2023 // English // 9 min
In a bid to finally process a traumatic sexual experience, Max hires Lucy, a sex worker, to recreate the scene - but things instead take a steamy turn.
#In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Good Man !?!
directed by Marshall Wayne Cooper
United States // 2022 // English // 8 min
A young man grapples with conflicting beliefs about masculinity after a video of him backing down from a fight goes viral.
#Noire, #In Competition, #Narrative Short

Goose Egg
directed by Madeline Leshner and Zach Stone
United States // 2023 // English // 13 min
When a lonely suburban mom begins experiencing hallucinatory migraines, she sends her son Tim to retrieve her medication. While on the road, he is tailed by a menacing truck and taken hostage by a pair of vengeful vagrants. In a case of mistaken identity, they believe Tim is the mayor, who has begun euthanizing local geese and feeding the tainted meat to the community.
#In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Hangtime
directed by Chester Vincent Toye
United States // 2023 // English // 11 min
An eager young artist receives a disturbing introduction to the art world during the delivery of a
controversial sculpture.
#Noire, #In Competition, #Narrative Short

Homesick
directed by Valeria Contreras
United States // 2022 // English // 15 min
“Homesick” is a modern-day tale of two star-crossed lovers, separated by a global pandemic and the U.S.-Mexico Border. This film focuses on the love and bond that unites people and communities across borders—and the heartbreak that exists when that unity is broken.
#Cinemás, #Narrative Short

I Seek Your Help to Bury a Man
directed by Anderson Bardot
Brazil // 2023 // Portuguese, Nheegatu, Calon // 20 min
Gita is a transgender woman doomed to die or suffer the consequences of her traditions. The half-breed soldier is fated to uphold and serve the unjust laws of his country. The old woman in black needs to save her indigenous son from the claws of the Brazilian Empire. The child claims that the purpose of love, the greatest universal law, is the breaking of the cycle of all tragedies.
#Cinemás, #Narrative Short

Impression
directed by Brandi Stevens
United States // 2023 // English // 14 min
Set in the late 90’s Texas, Impression follows a young perfectionist art graduate student, Mia, and her internal struggle over her looming marriage to her doctor fiancé, Derek. She is soon surprised at her developing feelings from a day spent with a mysterious, free-spirited young woman, Vivian.
#Noire, #New Mavericks, #GA Shorts Competition, #Pink Peach, #Narrative Short

Kid Free Weekend
directed by Rozalyn Mattocks
United States // 2022 // English // 13 min
Vivian finally has a weekend all to herself, she won't let anything eat up her free time.
#GA Features Competition, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Late to the Party
directed by Hannah Patterson
United States // 2023 // English // 16 min
During his 25th birthday party, a Trans man runs into his ex-best friend who ghosted him after he confessed his feelings for her before college, but she doesn't recognize him post-transition.
#GA Shorts Competition, #Pink Peach, #New Mavericks, #Georgia Film, #Narrative Short

Lily's Mirror
directed by Linnea Frye, Adam Pinney
United States // 2022 // English // 17 min
Lily is out on a dinner date with her boyfriend Bart, expecting a proposal, when he unexpectedly chops off her hand. As Lily works on recovering, she begins to feel phantom pains where her hand used to be, so her doctor gives her a therapeutic mirror box to help with the discomfort. However, as she begins to use the box, she realizes there's a side effect: she can see real phantoms in the mirror.
#GA Shorts Competition, #Georgia Film, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Look Back At It
directed by Felicia Pride
United States // 2023 // English // 12 min
A forty-something single mother gets her groove back with a little assistance from her teenage daughter
#In Competition, #Noire, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Lumps
directed by David Nixon Jr.
United States // 2023 // English // 20 min
After the sudden incarceration of his mother, thirteen-year-old Jaylen is forced to move to a new city where he struggles to learn the ropes of his new school, city, and family life.
#Noire, #Georgia Film, #GA Shorts Competition, #Narrative Short

Murmur
directed by Simon Smith
United Kingdom // 2023 // English // 19 min
Murmur is a contemporary fairytale short film, about the relationship between a mother and her autistic daughter, and their fascination with the murmurations. Evie doesn't talk very much, but we learn she is communicating with everything.
#New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

No Other Gods But Me
directed by Alex Spott
United States // 2023 // English // 7 min
In the midst of a sexual awakening, a religious teen finally musters up the courage to kiss her crush, but will lust will send her straight to h-e-double-hockey-sticks?
#New Mavericks, #In Competition, #Narrative Short

One Yes the Other No
directed by Juanita Umaña
United States // 2022 // Spanish // 11 min
In the mountains of Bogota, a woman ages before our eyes experiencing small moments in her life that shape her understanding of sisterhood, beauty, and death. The story follows two sisters in three different
stages of their life—one of them falls ill, the other doesn’t.
#New Mavericks, #Cinemás, #GA Shorts Competition, #Georgia Film, #Narrative Short

OURIKA!
directed by Xenia Matthews
United States // 2022 // English, French // 18 min
After being dead for over 200 years, Ourika’s soul awakes inside of a barren purgatory while her body incubates in a fleshy blob. In the void, she encounters ghosts from her past life and depictions of her likeness that taunt her. Meanwhile, two sister scientists, Velinda and Ronnell, been searching for all the pieces of Ourika in hopes to bring her back to life.
#Noire, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Over the Causeway
directed by Pablo Mejía
United States // 2023 // English, Spanish // 16 min
Over the Causeway is the coming-of-age story of Victoria, a twenty-year-old jazz musician born and raised in Galveston TX. As she ties up loose ends around town, she is confronted by doubtful neighbors, childhood friends, and dependent family members who question her decision to chase her dreams beyond the Gulf.
#Cinemás, #In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Pink Peach, #Narrative Short

Petalos
directed by Nicole Mejia
United States // 2023 // English, Spanish // 14 min
A Mexican flower vendor spreads hope and love through the streets of Los Angeles while reminiscing on the life that led her there.
#Cinemás, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

RACE
directed by Sean Famoso, Dennis Williams, Gladimir Gelin
United States // 2022 // English // 5 min
An overly confident cop’s first day on the job gets interesting as he navigates unfamiliar territories and people.
#Georgia Film, #Noire, #GA Shorts Competition, #Narrative Short

Rage
directed by Youngjae Lee
United States // 2023 // English // 9 min
Mr. Nice Guy has a change of heart after a neighbor flips him off.
#In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Roaming Dawn
directed by Adam Rioux
United States // 2022 // English // 13 min
A man takes a road trip with his pet fish.
#GA Shorts Competition, #Georgia Film, #Narrative Short

Scotty's Vag
directed by Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz
United States // 2023 // English // 15 min
A college freshman goes outside her comfort zone to impress the older girl she wants as her sorority "big."
#New Mavericks, #In Competition, #Narrative Short

Slice
directed by Kelsey Scult
United States // 2022 // English // 15 min
A young Black woman grieves her grandfather while trying to love her mortician girlfriend, after a tumultuous relationship Chilean abuse victim.
#In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Cinemás, #Noire, #Pink Peach, #Narrative Short

Sound to Sea
directed by Ryan Craver
United States // 2022 // English // 26 min
Leo, a shy eighth grader at the cusp of understanding their trans identity, pursues a crush on a boy sharing his dorm, but is plagued by a frog. Meanwhile, Leo's eager, gay teacher-in-training Brad tries to connect with his students, but oversteps boundaries in the eyes of a coworker. It is only in nature, among marshes and maritime forests, that Leo and Brad find an unspoken connection.
#Pink Peach, #Narrative Short

The Jennifer Meyers Story
directed by Caroline Symons
United States // 2023 // English // 13 min
A mock true-crime episode covers the 1988 disappearance of a fictional teenager named Jennifer Meyers, but the reenactments are acted out with crudely-made mini models. As the episode progresses, we learn more about the woman constructing and operating the reenactment mini models and the danger lurking in her one bedroom apartment.
#In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

The Vacation
directed by Jarreau Carrillo
United States // 2022 // English // 9 min
In Flatbush, Brooklyn, four friends are stuck in their car after it breaks down on the way to the beach on the last day of the summer.
#Noire, #Narrative Short

TikTok Challenged
directed by Ivan Rome
United States // 2023 // English // 9 min
Claretha, a soap opera-loving grandmother, has always dreamed of being a star - and she's finally got her chance: TIKTOK. To go viral though, she needs a little help from her grandson, Daryl, who didn't exactly plan spending the day teaching her how to do the newest TikTok dance.
#GA Shorts Competition, #Noire, #Georgia Film, #Family Friendly, #Narrative Short

Troy
directed by Mike Donahue
United States // 2022 // English // 16 min
Troy has loud sex 24-7. Troy shares a wall with Thea and Charlie. Troy is ruining their lives... or is he saving them? A darkly comedic tale of New York neighbors, the ways in which we become interwoven with the lives of strangers, and the unexpected consequences of unasked-for intimacy.
#New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

True Love Waits
directed by Erin Doyle Cooper
United States // 2023 // English // 6 min
When freshman art students Viv and Cameron sneak into a studio classroom to practice figure drawing on one another, they must grapple with their budding sexuality and whether they can stick to the "True Love Waits" pledges they signed in their youth.
#In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Would You Still Love Me?
directed by Ramsey Telhami
United States // 2023 // English // 4 min
A romantic picnic takes an unexpected turn after she pops the magic question: "Would you love me if I was a ___?"
#Georgia Film, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

Yarayah
directed by Bernardo De Jeurissen
France // 2023 // Arab French // 20 min
Yarayah is the story of Yasmina, a Algerian and French female bodybuilder who goes back home after winning the world championship at the Arnold classic. This story depicts the moment in which Yasmina has to face her father's closed doors.
#In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Narrative Short

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

#BlackBoyJoyGone
directed by Ashley Karrell and Isaac Ouro-Gnao
United Kingdom // 2022 // English // 25 min
Blending interviews, poetry, dance and storytelling, BlackBoyJoyGone captures the lives of men who experienced sexual trauma but who find strength through brotherhood.
#In Competition, #Documentary Short, #Noire

Access Point
directed by Alexander glustrom
United States // 2023 // English // 14 min
Riley Kirkpatrick, a trans man living in rural Georgia, advocates for the safety and rights of drug users after founding the only harm reduction center in the area.
#In Competition, #GA Shorts Competition, #Documentary Short

Black Strings
directed by Marquise Mays
United States // 2023 // English // 12 min
A string orchestra in Milwaukee, WI redefines what it means to be a first responder.
#Noire, #Documentary Short, #In Competition

Blue
directed by Guénola Bally
Mexico // 2022 // Spanish // 11 min
BLUE follows the Contreras family as they harvest the jiquilite plant to produce a deep blue dye.
#Documentary Short, #Cinemás, #New Mavericks

Breaking Silence
directed by Amy Bench, Annie Silverstein
United States // 2023 // English, ASL // 18 min
BLUE follows the Contreras family as they harvest the jiquilite plant to produce a deep blue dye.
#Documentary Short, #New Mavericks

Cristo Negro
directed by Brendan Mills, Paul Stavropoulos
Panama // 2023 // Spanish // 18 min
A spiritual portrait of the devout inhabitants of an Afro-Caribbean coastal town that worships a black Jesus Christ.
#Noire, #Cinemás, #Family Friendly, #In Competition, #Documentary Short

Eco-Hack!
directed by Josh Izenberg and Brett Marty
United States // 2022 // English // 17 min
Biologist Tim Shields is waging an all-out technological war against ravens in a last ditch effort to save the Mojave desert tortoise from extinction.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #Family Friendly

Exit 238
directed by Henry Davis
United States // 2022 // English // 12 min
Every year in Austin Texas, hundreds of people gather together to marvel at the sight of thousands of Purple Martins as they journey along their migratory path to Brazil.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #Family Friendly

From Dreams to Dust
directed by Stephanie Tangkilisan, Muhammad Fadli
Indonesia, United States // 2022 // Indonesia // 10 min
Dreams to Dust tells the story of Pola, a nickel miner and family man from Indonesia. Through Pola’s eyes we see the dark side of green technology.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

I Don't Know If You Remember This
directed by Katelyn Rebelo
United States // 2022 // english // 16 min
A group of former highschool classmates explore the memory of unspoken sexual assault, following the rhythms of the seventeen year cicada emergence in Virginia.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

In The Light
directed by Ruoyu Wang
United States // 2022 // English // 5 min
A young man comes to terms with his gender identity while exploring themes of faith and nature.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Our memory
directed by Johanna Makabi
France // 2022 // French // 12 min
Mbissine Therese Diop, who played the starring role in the 1966 film, “Black Girl”, looks back on her experience as a Black actress in the 1960s.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Noire

Radio Bingo
directed by Shelby Mitchell Adams
Canada // 2023 // English, Mohawk // 8 min
To help revitalize the Mohawk language, a local reservation radio station incorporates the Mohawk language into a game of Radio Bingo.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition

Still Waters
directed by Aurora Brachman
United States // 2022 // English // 12 min
A mother and daughter find connection and peace through intimate conversations about their past.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #Cinemás

Strictly Two Wheel
directed by Ania Freer
Jamaica // 2022 // English // 10 min
An intimate portrait on a family owned mechanic shop in rural Jamaica and a father’s love for his children and community.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #Noire

The Blake
directed by Courtney Sposato, Mark Sposato
United States // 2023 // English // 15 min
This cinematic memoir explores how the filmmaker’s childhood experience with a replica of the
Challenger space shuttle helped her cope with a devastating loss.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

The Boston Photograph
directed by Clennon L. King
United States // 2022 // English // 8 min
LaVerne Eagleson, a 91-year-old woman from Berlin, MD, tells the story of how she dated Martin Luther King Jr.
#Georgia Film, #Documentary Short, #GA Shorts Competition, #New Mavericks, #Noire

Wild Magnolias
directed by Alexandra Kern
United States // 2022 // English // 15 min
A New Orleans based barber teaches his protégés the virtues of being a Mardi Gras Indian, a centuries-old tradition that shapes the minds of the local youth.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Year One
directed by Cai Ning
Belgium, Portugal, Hungary // 2023 // English, Chinese, Dutch // 21 min
A sensitive group portrait of the first-time mothers.
#Documentary Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Young Kings
directed by Jonathan Banks & Dr. Arshley Emile
United States // 2022 // English // 23 min
From Ponce De Leon to Ralph David Abernathy, this film explores the exciting world of bike culture in the heart of Atlanta.
#Documentary Short, #GA Shorts Competition, #Noire

ANIMATED SHORTS

Clicker
directed by Charles Kugler
United States // 2023 // English // 9 min
Two boyfriends take a tour of their dysfunctional relationship through the magic of television.
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #Pink Peach

Curiosa
directed by Tessa Moult-Milewska
United Kingdom // 2022 // English // 10 min
Overly curious Mary climbs into her boyfriend's head in search of answers.
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Fury
directed by Julia Siuda
Poland // 2021 // // 5 min
Organic, fleshy masks become icons of living rage.
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Hospes
directed by Stephanie J Williams
United States // 2022 // // 12 min
A film about appearing "racially ambiguous". Performing a choreography of resistance, an amalgam of body pieces tries to remain whole in an environment programmed to disassemble it.
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #Noire, #New Mavericks

In the Big Yard Inside the Teeny-Weeny Pocket
directed by Yoko Yuki
Japan // 2022 // Japanese // 6 min
When it shrinks, it expands. It floats and it sinks. It separates but connects. When I think I’m watching them, they're actually watching me.
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks, #Family Friendly

Me and me
directed by ChiuLing Chen
Taiwan // 2022 // Mandarin // 10 min
A pencil hand-drawn animated short film, depicting the life of solitude into a short, light, black and white song .
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Pills! Pills! Pills!
directed by Kate Saltel
United States // 2023 // English // 3 min
During Lobster Lobster's first day as an unpaid intern at a snazzy pharmaceutical company, an abrasively hardworking coworker makes their one assigned task impossible,
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Rest in piece
directed by Antoine Antabi
France, Germany // 2022 // // 9 min
A starving migrant man starving and resorts to eating the objects he has packed for the journey. The monstrous effects give him the strength to carry on through a scorching desert.
#Animated Short, #In Competition

Rosemary A.D. (After Dad)
directed by Ethan Barrett
United States // 2022 // English // 10 min
As he cradles his newborn, a father wonders if his daughter would be better off without him and imagines her life once he is gone. Completely drawn with crayons.
#Animated Short, #In Competition

Shelf Life
directed by Erin Zhang
United States // 2022 // English // 8 min
Mealtime and aging intersect in this stop-motion short about female shelf life.
#Animated Short, #In Competition

Sprout
directed by Zora Kovac
United States // 2023 // // 8 min
An agoraphobic scientist accidentally creates a baby-like plant creature, and their connection threatens to upend his reclusive way of life.
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

Tavla
directed by Zoe Bysal
United States // 2023 // // 8 min
A stray cat must rescue her friend from the depths of the Aegian Sea.
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #New Mavericks

The Law of the Jungle Gym
directed by Yoon Hei Cho
United States, Korea // 2022 // // 6 min
A dog-eat-dog survival game takes place in the seemingly innocent environment of a school at lunchtime.
#Animated Short, #In Competition, #New Maverick

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

An Example of Lee-Roth Fog Isolated Under Laboratory Conditions
directed by Ryan Betschart
United States // 2022 // English // 3 min
Spiritual mists are a stand in for the nuts and bolts details surrounding the life of enigmatic Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth.
#Experimental Short

Arrest in Flight
directed by Adrian Flury
Switzerland // 2021 // // 8 min
An experiment in film sets the stage for a hitherto unseen magical life form.
#Experimental Short

as time passes
directed by Jamil McGinnis
United States, Turkey // 2022 // English, Turkish, Persian // 15 min
Through journal entries, a mother’s words, neighborhood stories, and existential inquiries; one still searches for meaning beyond the walls of one's mind.
#Experimental Short, #Noire

Boys Clap, Girls dance
directed by Dena Springer
United States // 2022 // English // 10 min
A short meditation on becoming and being.
#Experimental Short, #New Mavericks

ELE OF THE DARK
directed by Yace Sula
United States // 2022 // English // 13 min
A nonbinary visual artist contemplates their relationship with darkness and its hold on their complexion, trauma and queerness.
#Experimental Short, #Pink Peach, #New Mavericks, #Talent Anticipated, #Noire

I was born in 1988
directed by Yasaman Baghban
United States // 2022 // Persian, English // 9 min
An experimental documentary based on the executions of Iranian political prisoners that began in thesummer of 1988.
#Experimental Short, #New Mavericks

Only If You Could See a View Above the Clouds
directed by Zhuoyun (Yun) Chen
United States // 2022 // English // 4 min
A ghost, a face, lucid minerals, vague landscapes... What do you see when my words fall?
#Experimental Short, #New Mavericks

Stinger
directed by Brian Zahm
United States // 2021 // English // 5 min
A filmmaker documents his own subtropical parasitic disease...
#Experimental Short

Sun Coming and Casting a Shadow
directed by Daniel Robin
United States // 2022 // English // 7 min
A film about time, memory, fear, and the challenges of holding onto joy.
#Experimental Short, #Georgia Film

What I Imagined the Dying Fly, with the Broken Leg, was Feeling
directed by Hugh Clegg
United Kingdom // 2022 // English, Italian // 5 min
A short film about a dying fly's last words, and an Italian voice over artist.
#Experimental Short

MUSIC VIDEO

American Football - "Fade Into You"
directed by David M. Helman
United States // 2022 // English // 7 min
A narrative music video for the band American Football.
#Music Video

Arssalendo - "Quattro Paredi"
directed by Giada Bossi
Italy // 2022 // Italian // 6 min
When the family of a kid hides from him his dog’s death, the older brother takes the kid on a brutal journey towards the grieving process.
#Music Video, #New Mavericks

Astral Summer - "Lucia (Love Yourself)"
directed by Elli Maven
United States // 2022 // English // 6 min
I can't wait to see where you'll go!
#Music Video, #New Mavericks, #Georgia Film

Duffle Bag Buru - "What's Crakin"
directed by Tanaseth (Pong) Tulyathan
United States // 2022 // English // 2 min
A man trapped in the multi reality, has to overcome his consequences.
#Music Video, #Noire

Indigo De Souza - "Kill Me"
directed by Jordan Alexander
United States // 2021 // English // 5 min Indigo de Souza's music video for the lead single entitled "Kill Me" features amateur wrestlers and the growing sport of cake sitting.
#Music Video, #Noire

Linqua Franqa - "The Whole Bank"
directed by Nolan Huber-Rhoades
United States // 2023 // English // 6 min
Linqua Franqa and a group of indebted workers must find a way to fight for their own liberation and the liberation of everyone who is held hostage by debt.
#Music Video, #Pink Peach, #Georgia Film

Mermaid
directed by Haonan Huang
United States // 2023 // English // 4 min
A moody music video about a mysterious mermaid.
#Music Video, #Georgia Film

Sadé Awele - "Intuition"
directed by Bruna Arbex
Canada // 2023 // English // 5 min
Two adventurous souls stumble upon an abandoned house and transform it into their very own haven, a powerful representation of their love blossoming.
#Music Video, #New Mavericks, #Cinemás

Säye Skye - "ADHD"
directed by Sina Dolati
Canada // 2022 // Farsi, English // 5 min
A Persian music video that celebrates Attention Hyperactivity Disorder as a superpower through a lens of comedy and science fiction.
#Music Video

Tianna Esperanza - "Princess Slit and the Raincoat Prince"
directed by Peter Collins Campbell
United States // 2022 // English // 2 min
A queer, punk rollercoaster - smashing through walls, sets and reality.
#Music Video, #Cinemás, #Pink Peach

Tosya Chaikina - "Arrows Have Struck In The Heart"
directed by Yulya Litinskaya
Russia // 2022 // Russian // 4 min
In a surreal world, the Main Character falls from the sky and becomes an observer to chaos as people flee from the Dark-soul people.
#Music Video, #New Mavericks

Wim Tapley - "Gut Punch"
directed by Connor DiVita
United States // 2022 // English // 5 min
It's all about the moped.
#Music Video, #Cinemás, #Pink Peach

EPISODIC

A Version
directed by Asad Farooqui
United States // 2023 // English, Urdu // 10 min
When a newly married Muslim-American couple visit a therapist to hash out their differences, we, the audience, get to see exactly what they’re complaining about.
#Episodic, #Georgia Film

Brownsville Bred
directed by Elaine Del Valle
United States // 2022 // English, Spanish // 22 min
A spunky Latina must find her own path as she faces the grim realities of the musician father she once idolized and the deteriorating neighborhood she calls home
#Episodic, #New Mavericks, #Cinemás

Don't Let Kyle Sit Down
directed by Joel Jay Blacker
United States // 2023 // English // 9 min
When a couple attempts to depart from a fading party, their desperate friend suggests throwing one
more log on the fire, summoning a charred, shirtless stranger looking for warmth.
#Episodic

Good Boy
directed by William Yu
United States // 2022 // English, Korean // 16 min
A young Korean American with dreams of launching his own streetwear brand struggles with
dysfunctional relationships and conflicting family values.
#Episodic

Harbor Island
directed by Calvin Lee Reeder
United States // 2023 // English // 17 min
A dad-joke comic wanders the industrial zone at night.
#Episodic

How To Be A Person: How To Get An Abortion
directed by SINDHA AGHA
United Kingdom // 2022 // English // 6 min
After booty calling Jawad from Sunday school, Sanam’s found herself pregnant with no one reliable to accompany her as her “abortion plus one.”
#Episodic, #New Mavericks

Off Fairfax
directed by Erica Eng
United States // 2022 // English // 7 min
After a tumultuous night trying to solve a murder, three friends are led to a local diner where the answer may be staring them right in the face.
#Episodic, #New Mavericks, #Noire

Phlophouse: Patton's Theory
directed by Grant Hollingshed Jackson
United States // 2022 // English // 5 min
A young man turns his friend's home into a motel while he's out of town.
#Episodic, #Noire, #Georgia Film

Sheltered
directed by Ben Evory
United States // 2023 // English // 45 min
His first year of college complete, Nathan returns home to the Appalachian foothills. With his dad’s help he reintegrates back into his progressive protestant community and prepares for a mission trip to Honduras. But what once seemed normal now feels foreign, and Nathan must build his own relationship to his father’s faith.
#Episodic, #Pink Peach

Sorry I am late i was masturbating
directed by Alena Shevchenko
Germany // 2022 // English // 6 min
A young woman discovers her own sexuality through wild fantasies.
#Episodic, #New Mavericks

VIRTUAL REALITY

Caves
directed by Carlos Isabel Garcia
Switzerland // 2021 // English // 19 min
Mankind has landed on the moon and flies around in space. But under our feet there are about a million kilometers of cave systems—only one per cent of which has been explored.
#Virtual Reality

Cycle of Violence
directed by Felicia Bergström
Germany // 2022 // English // 8 min
So sweet, so painful - a love trapped by violence and fears, animated with stop motion, puppets and clay.
#Virtual Reality, #New Mavericks

Musalem: from (selm); who lives in peace
directed by Mariam Al-Dhubhani
Yemen, United States, Jordan // 2022 // Arabic, English // 10 min
Amat Al-Lateef and Mohammed try to keep Yemeni honey available locally and abroad, despite the obstacles and destructions infused by seven years of war.
#Virtual Reality, #New Mavericks

Surfacing
directed by Rossella Schillaci
Italy, Portugal // 2022 // Italian // 20 min
A 360 immersive fairy tale, set amongst mothers and children who live in prison.
#Virtual Reality, #New Mavericks

The Choice
directed by Joanne Popinska
Canada, Poland // 2021 // English // 25 min
A Virtual Reality documentary about maternal health and reproductive rights.
#Virtual Reality, #New Maverick

Kevon Pryce 6/11/20 Kevon Pryce 6/11/20

Time to Take Action

To Our Atlanta Film Festival Community,

It goes without saying that the last several days have been a tumultuous period filled with emotion, outrage, and fear.

To Our Atlanta Film Festival Community,

It goes without saying that the last several days have been a tumultuous period filled with emotion, outrage, and fear. Though the many protests in response to the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmuad Arbery, and many others may appear to be only current indignation, it is something we’ve seen told in the stories we have been privileged to share for decades and are a long overdue outcry for change from a history of injustice.

While everyone may never truly understand the struggles our Black peers may endure, we can still show our support. This is part of why coming together to experience cinema is so important--especially those stories by those typically unheard and unseen--it helps us get a little closer to understanding those experiences outside our own, seeing ourselves in people who do not look like us, and learning from, celebrating and honoring each other through moving images. This is a means to an end of bettering our world.

It is our duty at the Atlanta Film Society to uplift the stories, voices, works and artists alike that forward the effort towards equity and equality on the basis of gender, race, orientation, nationality, religion, socioeconomic status and abilities call upon all ATLFS members, supporters and alum to join us in the call for justice.

Some ways you can take action:

Support Black filmmakers and their stories
Find your pathway(s) to support social justice causes
Continue to educate yourself on what it means to be anti-racist
Amplify the voices of marginalized people in your own circles
Educate yourself on racial inequalities and share meaningful resources with others
Urge your political leaders for real change and VOTE!

This is not merely a hashtag on your social media page or a single day of solidarity, but an ongoing mission for a better future. We're at a critical moment in our history where a mirror has been placed in front of us, and it's time for us to not only admit the atrocities of the past but to start making a real change.

We all have a part to play. Don't make this just a moment. Take part in the movement. You can start here:

https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
https://blacklivesmatter.com/
https://atlsolidarity.org/
https://www.array101.org/

In Solidarity,

Christopher Escobar
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Atlanta Film Society

Cameron McAllister 6/5/18 Cameron McAllister 6/5/18

Apply to Become an ATLFF '19 Screenplay Reader

With nearly 1,000 submissions already received for consideration into ATLFF '19, we are excepting applications to join our Screening Committee and to become a Screenplay Reader.

More than 7,000 works were submitted for consideration into the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival—another huge increase from the year before. From these hopeful filmmakers, we have only the capacity to program around 200 features, short films, pilot episodes and music videos combined. How do we decide which films to play? How do we go through those thousands of entries to sort the ones that will please our local audience the best?

We get help. A lot of help.

Most of that help comes from our volunteer Screening Committee and Screenplay Readers. Members of this team watch, or read dozens (sometimes hundreds) of short or feature films, or screenplays each, evaluating them along the way. This helps the programming team sort out the worthy from the not-so-worthy so they can make the final decisions.

With nearly 1,000 submissions already received for consideration into ATLFF '19, we are excepting applications to become a Screenplay Reader. Volunteer readers can earn a variety of perks (free tickets and passes to the festival) based on how many screenplays they read.

Space is limited, so not all applicants will be chosen. If you have an interest in reading submitted screenplays for the ATLFF '19 Screenplay Competition, apply to be a reader! Please apply by July 2, 2018. Applications may be re-opened at a later date.

Questions? Email screening@atlantafilmfestival.com.

Screenplay Reader Application

*Deadline to apply: July 2, 2018. Space is limited. All applicants will be considered, but not all will be chosen.

Kevon Pryce 5/23/18 Kevon Pryce 5/23/18

The 2018 Atlanta Film Festival Recap

With it being four weeks since the close of one of the most star-studded, mystical, and down right fun festivals since inception, we wanted to share some of the highlights that we thought were truly amazing! The 2018 Atlanta Film Festival welcomed over 27,000 attendees with open arms, southern charm, and hospitality

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With it being four weeks since the close of one of the most star-studded, mystical, and down right fun festivals since our inception, we wanted to share some of the highlights that we thought were truly amazing! The 2018 Atlanta Film Festival welcomed over 28,000 attendees with open arms, southern charm, and hospitality. We made it our top priority to ensure that all of our attendees felt at home. Speaking of home, on April 12, we showcased what we thought best represented our hometown with two phenomenal shorts blocks, SPRING IN MY HOMETOWN and WALKING DISTANCE.

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Welcome to ATLFF '18

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April 13, things kicked off with our Opening Night Presentation: BLINDSPOTTING with the writer/actor duo Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. To open the film, Diggs was presented with the inaugural ATLFF Innovator Award for the boisterous and bold choices he made, pushing the boundaries of filmmaking and social commentary.

While here in Atlanta, both Casal and Diggs exclaimed their appreciation for the city and highlighted how they loved the audience's response to the film's overarching theme of identity and gentrification. With Atlanta being one of the countless cities currently undergoing gentrification, this film hit home for many of those in attendance making it the perfect fit for opening night.

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Atlanta Film Society Presents ScreenCraft Writers Summit

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To kick off the first weekend of ATLFF, we were home to the ScreenCraft Writers Summit! This featured guests such as Mika Pryce (Creative Executive, Universal Pictures), JJ Klein (Vice President, Current Programming for FX Networks), Wendy Calhoun (TV Writer/Showrunner, NASHVILLE, EMPIRE, STATION 19), and many more. Events/panels included Mentor Sit-Downs, the Pitch Competition, tips on writer's rooms, and anything writer-esque. Pictured above is a panel titled "Georgia Development or Bust." Panelists discussed how Atlanta can become a self-sustainable entertainment industry from pre- to post-production. This think-tank session was what Atlanta needed to see the light at the end of the tunnel being shed by LA and New York. Atlanta is already a well-oiled machine in terms of production, but we still need a little extra coal (tax credits/investors) to push us through to the other side.

MAYNARD

MAYNARD dropped in for it's Georgia Premiere featuring Maynard III & Wendy Jackson, director Sam Pollard, and the production team. A flood of emotions ran through the crowd as the audience rose for a standing ovation! Maynard Jackson's legacy still lives through the city of Atlanta. There wouldn't have been a(n) Andrew Young, Bill Campbell, Shirley Franklin, Kasim Reed, or Kiesha Lance Bottoms without Maynard Jackson, thank you. The film later was announced as the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival Audience Award winning feature!

Jason Reitman

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This one is for our Rebel, Jason Reitman, for his daring and off kilter approach to his feature film TULLY. Reitman couldn't shed the smile from his face as he accepted the first ever Rebel Award and went on to mention the how much this film means to him.

Two flights cancelled, a Canadian ice storm, and scheduling conflicts were not enough to stop this Masterclass. We finally got the chance to sit down and catch up with Jason Reitman and let us say, he's in love with Atlanta. The intimate conversation was filled with personal stories of Reitman's past with his father, Ivan Reitman, his struggles as a director, and how he approaches each project. The Masterclass felt no longer than a ten minute conversation with an old friend. The Masterclass came to an end with the audience longing for more from Reitman.

Romany Malco Masterclass

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Atlanta didn't welcome Romany Malco, Romany Malco welcomed Atlanta. Romany's gregarious and warm nature filled the Plaza on this Monday afternoon. As he took the stage, the comedian within couldn't be suppressed. His personality is unmatched as he fluidly bounced from his career lull to a conversation about confusing effort with achievement. Malco had many gems of wisdom and life lessons hidden behind his pungent jokes, which kept the audience in tears, but members soon circled back around to the realization of the truth in his words.

Creative Conference

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Creative Conference is a way to connect with panelists, other festival attendees, while obtaining information to either further a(n) filmmaker's/actor's career or delve into what makes a film, a film. On April 17, Auditions and Casting Calls (SAGIndie) was one of 40 panels of CC (Creative Conference) featuring George Pierre, Jessica Fox, Joy Pervis, and Mystie Buice. Each panelist had their dos and don'ts for actors looking for representation and work in the Atlanta market.

The Psychology of the Lens, the Actor/Director Relationship, Speed Dating Meets Career Day, and a myriad of other panels at CC brought in attendees from all across the globe to share their ideas and engage with panelist working in the industry.

Amber Nash Masterclass

Amber Nash was the perfect close to the 2018 Masterclass series. From a degree in psychology to voicing Pam Poovey on FX’s Emmy Award-winner Archer, Nash was thrilled to share her transition as well as keeping the audience engaged with her whit and charm. Interestingly enough Nash took improv classes at the same venue (Dad's Garage) where her Masterclass took place—cue nostalgia.

HEARTS BEAT LOUD

On April 20, after a quick stop at Majestic Diner for a peach milkshake, Bret Haley and Kiersey Clemons came just in time to premiere HEARTS BEAT LOUD to an eager Atlanta audience. Before the screening, Kiersey Clemons was presented with the Phoenix Award as a symbol of her burgeoning career as she rises up from the ashes into stardom. While on stage Clemons's and Haley's relationship showcased the importance of a relationship between a director and an actor, reminiscent of big brother, little sister. Clemons' performance in the film exhibited an untapped side of the actress that we're glad we were able to experience. We only have one question for you Kiersey, when's the album coming?

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Awards Brunch Recap

Best Narrative Feature — WIND TRACES

Narrative Feature - Special Jury Prize — DISAPPEARANCE

Best Documentary Feature — MAN MADE

Documentary Feature — THEY CALL US WARRIORS

Best Narrative Short — FOR NONNA ANNA

Best Documentary Short — ZION

Best Animated Short — FUNDAMENTAL

Filmmaker-to-Watch — Connor Simpson for KUDZU

Georgia Film — STILL

WonderFilm Award presented by WonderRoot — WALLS OF HOPE

Audience Awards

Audience Award Feature — MAYNARD

Audience Award Short — COLOR BLIND

Closing Night Presentation: EIGHTH GRADE

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Our Closing Night Presentation: EIGHTH GRADE, needless to say was everything we could ask for from a film. Bo Burnham and Elsie Fisher kept everything... Gucci. EIGHTH GRADE is Bo Burnham's directorial debut and it is a stark contrast from his previous works, harping on Burnham's refreshing ability to tell a phenomenal story as a filmmaker. The film encompasses Burnham as a whole featuring comedy grounded in reality through the lens of an adolescent girl. Burnham's respect and trust in Elsie Fisher was shown throughout the film as well as on stage as the two shared moments with audience about the origin of the term "Gucci." The two worked as a team to bring EIGHTH GRADE to life.

Day 10

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Day 10, the final day of the Atlanta Film Festival came with victories and a range of heart and emotions. Pictured above are the conclusion to a couple of films; here's director Jimena Montemayor Loyo shortly after receiving her award for Best Narrative Feature for WIND TRACES (left) and the subjects of MAN MADE sharing a moment on stage after being awarded Best Documentary Feature (right).

Kevon Pryce 2/6/18 Kevon Pryce 2/6/18

Atlanta Film Festival Announces Semifinalists for 2018 Screenplay Competition

The Atlanta Film Festival is proud to announce the semifinalists in the 2018 Screenplay Competition. Chosen from over 1,000 submissions, these screenplays represent those moving forward from our feature film, television pilot, and short film categories.

42ATLFF-Screenplay Semifinalists Graphic .png

2018 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Semifinalists

Our writers are competing for once in a lifetime mentorship opportunities to help hone their screenplays and plan the next steps in their careers. In addition, this year marks our first ever partnership with ScreenCraft, a premiere screenwriting competition, consultation, and editorial organization. We’re working together to present the ScreenCraft Writer’s Summit for the first time at the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival.

This three day event will feature panels, workshops, private mentoring and parties with top Oscar and Emmy-winning and blockbuster screenwriters, as well as agents, managers, producers and studio executives. It will be an exclusive and unparalleled opportunity to learn from the best in Hollywood, in a personal environment where unguarded conversations and long-term partnerships can be forged. All screenwriting competition Quarterfinalists are invited to a private reception at summit in celebration of their achievements. A select few VIP Panelists will also be in attendance at this exclusive event.

Congratulations to the writers so far! Stay tuned as our programming team narrows this list down to finalists and this year’s winners.

Feature Screenplay Semifinalists

A Better Place—Katterina Powers
A Small Fortune—Adam Perry
A Witch In Salem—Patrick Lewis
Acts of God—Reed Moran
After the Jump—Marquette Jones
All That Follows—Emily Lobsenz
Beasts and Children—Bryan Ott
Black Jack—Stephen Curran
Blue on Blue—David Dasilma
Can You See Me—Profound Clarke
Catbird Blues—Rebecca Drummond
Darryn The Bold and The Sword of Boldness—J Best
Escher—Jason Kessler
Freedom Fort—Clint Williams
Honey Boy—Shia Labeouf, Otis Lort
Hurry Up And Wait—Allison Radomski
Joni—Aviva Neuman
Kaylee, Age 8—Molly Coffee, Charles Thomas
Oliver Clark & The Future Unknown—Toni Shepherd, Nickolas Shepherd
Orwell’s War—Larry Bogad
Plan B—Paige Gresty
Possum Kingdom—Matt Pope
Potter's Ground—Pearse Lehane
Rhinelander—Laura Wexler
Running—Gemma Addy
Scout—Samuel Goodwin
Spirit Lead—Maggie Calton
Sweet Petunia—Kal Bonner
The Arrow Collar Man—Ellen Ireland
The Bait—Billie Bates
The Baltimore School of Charm—Kelli McNeil
The Boca Bandit—Julie Garces
The Bullshit Boys—Toni Shepherd, Nickolas Shepherd
The Cannibal Trial—Edward Anderson
The Colonist—Brandon Maynard
The Divide—Rashmi Singh
The Dying Machine—Joseph Cahill
The Empty Sea—David Poulshock
The Escape of Robert Smalls—Spencer Magloff
The Fight After—Gunnar Garrett
The Huntress—Suzanne Andrews Correa
The Maidservant's Cap—Jeff Opdyke
The Moonbeam Fisherman—John Dummer
The Sleeping House—Suzanne Griffin
Trip—David Baugnon
Truth Against the World—Denise Meyers
War/Love—Hannah Feller
Why The Willow Weeps—Lafayette Parish
Willowport—Jess Ansik
Wonder Drug—Caitlin McCarthy

Pilot Screenplay Semifinalists

Available—Candace Brown
Counteract—Tracy Lawson
Dead Man Walking—Sean Klooster
Default—Hannah Dillon
End of Life —Sean Collins-Smith
Fisheye—Patty Meyer
Kerosene—Nicole Ramberg
Nightingale—Amanda Bermudez
So Who's Got the Gun?—Sheila Jenca
The Sensualist—Suzanne Griffin
Area 51—Joshua Smooha
Whiskey Ginger—Alan Kelly
Eire's Song—Kristen Nedopak
Awkwardly Apocalyptic—Sarah Hopkins
Between the Eyes— G.J. Lee
Brooklin (Ontario)—Marvin Kaye
Chasing Colour—Cathy Strickland, Tim Pye
Chattahoochee—Clint Williams
Colonials—Ian Fletcher
Detestable—Brandon Morrissey
Grand Union—A. K. Foreman
H8—Faisal Azam
Insurrection—Simon Bowler
Kindred Spirits—Ross Brooks
Lifers Anonymous—Sean Collins-Smith
Masks—Tommaso Pazzi
Mississippi Bound—Christopher Dennis
Radicalized—Bandar Albuliwi
Red Dirt—David Sullivan
Run! Run! Run! - The Lives Of Abbie Hoffman—Michael J. Shapiro
Shanda—Jillian Lauren
Soul Mecha: Betrayals of Exile—Clint Murphy
Ten Thousand Islands—Peter Short, Sue Batterton
Tested—Lisanne Sartor
The 12 Chairs—Gregg Greenberg
The Life and Times of Francie Paige—Victoria Lucia
The Order—Jonathan Mason
The Rapture —Shalini Adnani
The Sentient—Jeff Opdyke
Witch Hunt—Trevor Christie

Short Screenplay Semifinalists

Beyond the Fuchsias—Tara Jackson
Crocodile—Sola Bamis
Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.—Adamma Ebo
Rollers—Jean Estevez
Sweet Sixteen—Joyce Sherrí
The Chocolate Kandinsky—Suzanne Griffin
The Juncture of Custody—Grant Jackson
The Menarche—I-Hui Lee
The Shipyard—Will Berry
Weird and Wonderful—Stephanie Namkoong

Kevon Pryce 1/31/18 Kevon Pryce 1/31/18

Atlanta Film Festival Announces Quarterfinalists for 2018 Screenplay Competition

The Atlanta Film Festival is proud to announce the quarterfinalists in the 2018 Screenplay Competition. Chosen from over 1,000 submissions, these screenplays represent those moving forward from our feature film, television pilot, and short film categories and contain works from seven different countries and ten different states.

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2018 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Quarterfinalists

Congratulations to the writers so far! Stay tuned as our programming team narrows this list down to semifinalists, finalists, and this year’s winners.

Feature Screenplay Quarterfinalists

13 Minutes—Yvonne Paulin
A Better Place—Katterina Powers
A Small Fortune—Adam Perry
A Witch In Salem—Patrick Lewis
Acts of God—Reed Moran
After the Jump—Marquette Jones
All That Follows—Emily Lobsenz
All The Fish In The Sea—Will Goodfellow
Amal—Waleed Alqahtani
American Mule—Ian Ortiz
Armor—Michael Daluz
Beasts and Children—Bryan Ott
Blacks Hands in Red Lands—Larry Baer
Black Jack—Stephen Curran
Blue on Blue—David Dasilma
Boo—Mariana Worrel, Amy Frances Wright
Bronze—Kerri Weston, Robert Pawloski
Cabbagetown—Paul Todd
Californio—Pedro Fernandez
Can You See Me—Profound Clarke
Catbird Blues—Rebecca Drummond
Cryo—Joshua Wilcox
Daisy Park—Lori Waters
Darryn the Bold and the Sword of Boldness—J Best
Escher—Jason Kessler
Fox Run—Jacob Trask
Freedom Fort—Clint Williams
Honey Boy—Shia Labeouf, Otis Lort
Hurry Up And Wait—Allison Radomski
In The Path Of Falling Objects—Arnon Manor
Joni—Aviva Neuman
Kaylee, Age 8—Molly Coffee, Charles Thomas
Las Minas de Altar—Jon Ayon
Lion Killer—Adam Scheiner
Marco Polo—Jeff Heckler
Mr. Moon—Michael Langer
Oliver Clark & The Future Unknown—Toni Shepherd
Orwell's War—Larry Bogad
Perdido—Eduardo Maytorena
Plan B—Paige Gresty
Possum Kingdom—Matt Pope
Potter's Ground—Pearse Lehane
Quintana—William LiPera
Red Light—Dempsey Tillman
Rhinelander—Laura Wexler
Running—Gemma Addy
Sardis the Merciful—Christian Thomas
Save Me!—Jean Barker
Schooling Alex—Tanya Haney
Scout—Samuel Goodwin
Silhouette—Lukas Hassel
Spirit Halloween—Billie Bates
Spirit Lead—Maggie Calton
Splintered Soul—Bobby Sacher
Split Rock—Kyle Hammersmith
Springtime for Mashinsky—Joshua Jashinski
Stampede—Ryan Sieveking
Sweet Petunia—Kal Bonner
Thank You For Waiting—Jake Leister
The Arrow Collar Man—Ellen Ireland
The Assassin's Shadow—William Pigg
The Bait—Billie Bates
The Baltimore School of Charm—Kelli McNeil
The Boca Bandit—Julie Garces
The Bullshit Boys—Toni Shepherd
The Cannibal Trial—Edward Anderson
The Colonist—Brandon Maynard
The Disease—Khalil Sullins
The Divide—Rashmi Singh
The Dying Machine—Joseph Cahill
The Empty Sea—David Poulshock
The Escape of Robert Smalls—Spencer Magloff
The Fight After—gunnar garrett
The Huntress—Suzanne Andrews Correa
The Last Resort—Martha Pinson
The Maidservant's Cap—Jeff Opdyke
The Mental State—James Camali
The Moonbeam Fisherman—John Dummer
The Opposite of Infinity—Karen Johnson
The Sleeping House—Suzanne Griffin
The Sorrow Veil—Russ Lindway
The Titmouse—Michael Nash
Trip—David Baugnon
Truth Against the World—Denise Meyers
Universal Monster—Constantine Nasr
War/Love—Hannah Feller
While The Village Sleeps—Chloe Bellande
Why The Willow Weeps—Lafayette Parish
Willowport—Jess Ansik
Wonder Drug—Caitlin McCarthy

Pilot Screenplay Quarterfinalists

Alexander The Pretty Good—Stephen McNamee
Available—Candace Brown
Charles Towne—Alston Jones
Counteract—Tracy Lawson
Dead Man Walking—Sean Klooster
Default—Hannah Dillon
DinoWars—Beau Gilbert
Eitan Has Cancer—Eitan Levine
End of Life —Sean Collins-Smith
Fisheye—Patty Meyer
Kerosene—Nicole Ramberg
Nightingale—Amanda Bermudez
So Who's Got the Gun?—Sheila Jenca
Spies Girls —Nir Shelter
Test.ed—Melissa Long
The Delphines—Stephanie Coggins
The Outskirts—Justine Beed
The Red Dog Order—Jamaal Cobb
The Sensualist—Suzanne Griffin
twentysomething—Amanda Pellegrino
White Trash Heroes —Peter Stallo
Area 51—Joshua Smooha
Because You Can—Darla Phillips, Rebecca Spindler
Bitches In Season—Sasha Feiler
Chris & Andy—Patrick Donohue
Dana Gets Superpowers—Anthony Maccio
Maniac—Greg Mania
We Need Friends—Kelley Young
Whiskey Ginger—Alan Kelly
Eire's Song—Kristen Nedopak
Ali of Saskatoon—Elaine Stirling
Asylum 2035—Mark Netter
Awkwardly Apocalyptic—Sarah Hopkins
Between the Eyes—Gregory Levy
Black Entertainment—Tony Ducret
Bonti Bay—Linn Markussen
Brooklin (Ontario)—Marvin Kaye
Burning Alive—Garrett Oakley
Chasing Colour—Cathy Strickland, Tim Pye
Chattahoochee—Clint Williams
Colonials—Ian Fletcher
Dark Horizons—CARLO CARERE
Detestable—Brandon Morrissey
Echo Lakota Nine—Scott Fleishman
Force of Will—Jessica Sieff
Grand Union—A. K. Foreman
Greyson—David Pinckney
H8—Faisal Azam
Insurrection—Simon Bowler
Intelligence—Manuel Ricardo Moreno
Kindred Spirits—Ross Brooks
Lifers Anonymous —Sean Collins-Smith
Masks—Tommaso Pazzi
Mississippi Bound Christopher Dennis
Oh, Mighty River—Dan Ritter
Pieta—Jen Kuhn
Pinetree—Maggie Calton
Radicalized—Bandar Albuliwi
Red Dirt—David Sullivan
Run! Run! Run!—The Lives of Abbie Hoffman—Michael J Shapiro
Shanda—Jillian Lauren
Soul Mecha: Betrayals of Exile—Clint Murphy
Ten Thousand Islands—Peter Short, Sue Batterton
Tested—Lisanne Sartor
The 12 Chairs—Gregg Greenberg
The Chords of War—Samuel Gonzalez Jr.
The Expedition—Rachel Fischer
The Houses—Tony Fair
The Life and Times of Francie Paige—Victoria Lucia
The Oracle of Athens, GA—Allison Izzo
The Order—Jonathan Mason
The Queen Of Caspary—Laura Solow
The Rapture—Shalini Adnani
The Retreat—John Kirk, Larry Barber, Anthony Bassanelli, M.D.
The Roar—Lynsey Murdoch
The Sentient—Jeff Opdyke
The Who Q (pilot)—Mike Malloy
Tweed—Christopher McClure
Witch Hunt—Trevor Christie
Wormhole to Hermosa—Noah Rieke

Short Screenplay Quarterfinalists

#olivia—Hannah Feller
AMAL—Dilek Ince
Beyond the Fuchsias—Tara Jackson
Buttball—Maryll Botula
Captain American—Patrick Lipscomb
Cherry Glazed—Christine Sherwood
Crocodile—Sola Bamis
Empathic—John Burdeaux
Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.—Adamma Ebo
Leave—Alysha Haran
Limerence—Charlene Fisk
Little Men—Ayesha Adu
Page Turner—Marc Roussel
Rollers—Jean Estevez
She Who Rises from the Ashes—Kaz Cai
Sinker—Alia Lundy
Sweet Sixteen—Joyce SherrÃ
The Chocolate Kandinsky—Suzanne Griffin
The Cypher Sessions Marc Roussel
The Juncture of Custody—Grant Jackson
The Menarche—I-Hui Lee
The Putt Putt Preacher—Jason K. Allen
The Shipyard—Will Berry
Weird and Wonderful—Stephanie Namkoong
White Ferrari—Sarah Smith

Cameron McAllister 12/15/17 Cameron McAllister 12/15/17

Atlanta Film Festival Announces First 15 Films From 2018 Lineup

Official selections from each category of programming released for ATLFF '18, including six films from alumni, two Georgia-lensed works and five films from New Mavericks.

ATLANTA, GA — Leading up to the 42nd annual Atlanta Film Festival & Creative Conference (ATLFF), taking place April 13-22, 2018, the Atlanta FIlm Society is pleased to announce the first wave of film programming. This selection comprises 15 works in both feature length and short form across narrative, documentary, pilot episode, music video, animation, puppetry, experimental and virtual reality categories.

“One of the most beautiful things about independent film is that it allows creators who may be shut out of the Hollywood machine to tell their own stories and make their voices heard,” said ATLFF Programming Director Alyssa Armand. “As we approach our 42nd year, we look forward to continuing to provide a platform for the alternative by showcasing films that you rarely get to see on the big screen, but that absolutely deserve to be there.”

This group of fifteen films comes from a new ATLFF record of 6,650 film submissions. Hailing from Canada, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Turkey, UK and USA, these films represent the inclusive and far-reaching breadth of the forthcoming complete lineup. Last year, more than 50% of ATLFF’s film program was directed by women and nearly 40% was directed by filmmakers of color.

Of the 15 films, six are directed by ATLFF alumni. Two Georgia-lensed films are included in the first wave, narrative feature “Still,” directed by Takashi Doscher, and Virtual Reality short film “Lá Camila,” directed by Jak Wilmot. Shot in Swaziland and directed by Aaron Kopp and Amanda Kopp, “Liyana” blends a rich animated tale told by five orphans with observational scenes of their reality. Documentary short film “Nuuca,” directed by Michelle Latimer, is a powerful look at the correlation between land exploitation and violence against Indigenous women and girls in North Dakota.

These films will be joined by nearly 200 others for the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival, taking place April 13 - 22, 2018.

Narrative Feature

Disappearance

directed by Ali Asgari
Iran, 2017, Persian, 88 minutes
In the course of one cold night in Tehran, two young lovers go from hospital to hospital in search of help. Soon they will have to face the tragic consequences of their youthful naivety.

Never Steady, Never Still

directed by Kathleen Hepburn
Canada, 2017, English, 111 minutes
Having lived with Parkinson’s disease for almost two decades, Judy (Shirley Henderson) is faced with the heightened challenges of daily life when her husband and caregiver dies of a sudden heart attack on their isolated property on the shores of Stuart Lake. Meanwhile, her teenage son Jamie (Théodore Pellerin), pushed by his father to get a job on the oil fields, is terrified by the idea of filling his shoes at too young an age, and grappling with the daunting task of becoming a man in world that has no apparent room for weakness.
#NewMavericks

Still

directed by Takashi Doscher
USA, 2018, English, 88 minutes
Sick, dehydrated, and lost, Lily (Madeline Brewer) quite literally falls on the doorstep of Ella (Lydia Wilson) and Adam (Nick Blood) who own and operate a secret distillery in the middle of the Appalachian mountains. However, as Lily begins to recover she starts to notice stranger and stranger things about the couple: Despite their youthful appearance, everything they own appears to be decades old. Although they live on a beautiful farm, there are no livestock and no crops. She notices how they secretly slip away into the woods, carrying glass jugs of water with them. Most alarming, however, is that there seems to be a great rift, a deep emotional strain, between them—as if they are an old married couple who gradually fell out of love as time went on. As Lily delves deeper and deeper into the lives of this mysterious yet beautiful couple, she is soon caught in the middle of their conflict—a heartbreaking power struggle literally a century in the making. Lily will soon learn how the couple came upon this property and the deep and powerful secret they have been protecting all of these years.
#Georgia

Documentary Feature

Armed with Faith

directed by Geeta Gandbhir and Asad Faruqi
USA/Pakistan, 2017, Pashto//Urdu, 74 minutes
“Armed with Faith” follows the men of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bomb Disposal Unit (KPK BDU) to the front lines of the war against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan. The border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—considered the gateway for terrorists from neighboring Afghanistan and adjacent tribal areas—is the backdrop of our film. The battle for control of this porous border area remains critical to the stability of Pakistan and global security. Should Pakistan, a nuclear power, fall into the hands of terrorists, the entire world is at risk. We witness firsthand the dangerous struggle undertaken by the men of the KPK BDU to protect their country against the Taliban threat in the land they both call home.

Liyana

directed by Aaron Kopp and Amanda Kopp
USA/Swaziland, 2017, English/siSwati, 77 minutes
A Swazi girl embarks on a dangerous quest to rescue her young twin brothers. This animated African tale is born in the imaginations of five orphaned children in Swaziland who collaborate to tell a story of perseverance drawn from their darkest memories and brightest dreams. Their fictional character’s journey is interwoven with poetic and observational documentary scenes to create a genre-defying celebration of the transformative power of storytelling.

Narrative Short

Arlo Alone

directed by Nicole Dorsey
Canada, 2017, English, 16:19
“Arlo Alone” is a futuristic drama that follows Arlo, a young woman, as she comes to terms with her own loneliness in a world where in-person contact has become a rarity.
#NewMavericks

Laws of the Game

directed by Aegina Brahim
Suriname/UK, 2017, Dutch, 17:54
Zeola is a single mother whose life alternates between her job as a prison guard and her career as a football referee in the men’s league. In her attempt to obtain the international FIFA Badge in an official referee test, Zeola is confronted not only with her own insecurities, but also with the unfairness of the world around her.
#NewMavericks

Documentary Short

Carry My Voice

directed by Hasan Demirtaş
Turkey, 2017, Kurdish, 19:00
Carry My Voice is about the division of Kurdish lands after World War I. The documentary focuses on Syria and Turkey borders and how these new borders have affected the lives of Kurdish people.

Nuuca

directed by Michelle Latimer
USA/Canada, 2017, English/Hidatsa, 12:00
An evocative meditation on Indigenous women’s integral connection to land and the ways in which the extractive industry’s exploitation of the earth is linked to the violence perpetrated against Indigenous women and girls.
#NewMavericks

Animated Short

Nevada

directed by Emily Ann Hoffman
USA, 2017, English, 12:00
A young couple's romantic weekend getaway is interrupted by a birth control mishap in this stop motion animated comedy.
#NewMavericks

Virtual Reality Short

Lá Camila

directed by Jak Wilmot
USA, 2017, English, 20:00
When the storms of nature threaten her very existence, the viewer must help a young shepherd girl fill the shoes of her deceased papá.
#Georgia

Puppetry Short

You Can't Play With Us

directed by Jason Rhein, created by Serene Bacigalupi and Jacques Duffourc
USA, 2018, English, 15:00
Rapping unicorns? A dinosaur inventor? A marshmallow avalanche? Experience a new fairy tale from the imaginative world of Leroy’s Place. Built entirely from cardboard and other recycled materials, this endearing short film in puppetry tells a story of overcoming bullying. In a world where dinosaurs eat unicorns for every meal, Delux the dino refuses to eat the magical creatures and sets out to befriend them instead. When the inquisitive dinosaur happens upon some musical unicorns in Marshmallow Mountain, they aren’t as friendly as he expects. It’s not always easy to make new friends, especially when they think you are going to eat them, but Delux uses his unique skills to make the sassy unicorns take a second look. This film is intended for all ages.

Experimental Short

Royal Jelly

directed by Stephanie Burbano
Canada, 2017, English, 9:52
The film begins in abstraction—we meet a drag queen who invites us down the rabbit hole to meet a menagerie of people that make up her community.
#PinkPeach

Pilot Episode

Manic

directed by Kate Marks
USA, 2016, English, 17:00
Aurora, an overachieving teen with Ivy League dreams, finds herself locked in with a crazy band of misfits when she's sent to Greener Pastures Therapeutic School. Convinced it's all a mistake, she fights the system and makes a break for freedom—only to be faced with the truth about why she was committed there in the first place.
#NewMavericks

Music Video

Biggest Curse (performed by Original Swimming Party feat. Moonchild Sanelly)

directed by Amy Allais
South Africa, 2017, English, 4:27
Fundamentally it’s about who gets to eat the cake, and who doesn’t. About the back rooms in many South African houses. And busting through those. But it’s also about childhood, and how easy it is to make friends.

Kevon Pryce 11/29/17 Kevon Pryce 11/29/17

The Atlanta Film Society and ScreenCraft Are Proud to Announce The ScreenCraft Writers Summit in 2018

The Atlanta Film Society and ScreenCraft are proud to partner in 2018 to co-present The ScreenCraft Writers Summit, to take place at the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF).

The Atlanta Film Society and ScreenCraft are proud to partner in 2018 to co-present The ScreenCraft Writers Summit, to take place at the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF).

The Summit will kick-off Friday, April 13th 2018, the shared opening day for both the ScreenCraft Writers Summit and the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival. The Summit will continue for three days of programming, on Saturday April 14th, Sunday April 15th, and close Monday April 16th.

Programming will include: panels, keynotes, workshops, live table reads, small-group mentorship, a closing mimosa brunch and a pitch competition where writers and filmmakers can compete for prizes and the chance to pitch to agents, producers and A-list screenwriters. Social hours and shared evening galas will bring Summit writers together with filmmakers and over 25,000 film enthusiasts and industry professionals attending the Atlanta Film Festival.

Panels and Workshops will include: Screenplay Craft and Structure, Adapting Intellectual Property, Writing the Television Pilot, How to Secure and Work With an Agent/Manager, Producing Independent Film and returning attendee favorite The Failure Panel. In addition to high-level writers, the “Your Voice” track will offer panels and instruction specifically for writers and filmmakers in the Atlanta area to utilize the local production expertise to produce and create content. There will also be programming dedicated to diversity on-screen and faith-based content, topics of great interest for Atlanta artists and beyond.

Confirmed speakers include: Eric Heisserer (Oscar-Nominee, Arrival), Doug Jung (Star Trek Beyond, Banshee), Malcolm Spellman (Empire), Keya Khayatian (Senior Literary Agent at UTA, clients wrote Stick It, Dallas Buyers Club, Brokeback Mountain, Serendipity, etc), Eric Fineman (Producer, Spiderman: Homecoming, Miracles From Heaven) Hannah Ozer, (Literary Manager at Kaplan/Perrone), Michael Lucker (Lilo & Stitch 2, 101 Dalmations II, Vampire in Brooklyn), Jacob Krueger (The Matthew Shepard Story, founder and Instructor Write Your Screenplay) and many more to be announced soon.

In tandem with the Writers Summit, the Atlanta Film Festival spotlights the art and craft of screenwriting through its annual Screenplay Competition. Three grand prize-winning feature film screenwriters will participate in an exclusive two-day screenwriting retreat leading up to the Writers Summit and will be recognized at the Summit Awards Ceremony. Michael Lucker (Writer, 101 Dalmatians 2, Lilo & Stitch 2, etc) will lead the retreat mentorship, with additional mentors to be announced soon.

The ScreenCraft Writers Summit will be a unique opportunity to learn from the best in Hollywood, in a small-scale environment where meaningful, long-term partnerships can be forged. Hollywood heavyweights are coming to Atlanta in 2018 to share stories and insight over Southern hospitality – join us!

For more information visit ScreenCraft!

Cameron McAllister 6/14/17 Cameron McAllister 6/14/17

Apply to Join the ATLFF '18 Screening Committee!

With nearly 2,000 submissions already received for consideration into ATLFF '18, we are excepting applications to join our Screening Committee.

More than 6,000 works were submitted for consideration into the 2017 Atlanta Film Festival—another huge increase from the year before. From these hopeful filmmakers, we have only the capacity to program around 200 features, short films, pilot episodes and music videos combined. How do we decide which films to play? How do we go through those thousands of entries to sort the ones that will please our local audience the best?

We get help. A lot of help.

Most of that help comes from our volunteer Screening Committee. Members of this team watch dozens (sometimes hundreds) of short or feature films each, evaluating them along the way. This helps the programming team sort out the worthy from the not-so-worthy so they can make the final decisions.

With nearly 2,000 submissions already received for consideration into ATLFF '18, we are excepting applications to join our Screening Committee. Volunteer screeners can earn a variety of perks (free tickets and passes to the festival) based on how many films they watch, and films can be watched most anywhere you have an internet connection.

If you have the time, the interest and the fortitude to help us screen thousands of submissions, please apply to join our Screening Committee! Space is limited, so not all applicants will be chosen. Additionally, if you have an interest in reading submitted screenplays for the ATLFF '17 Screenplay Competition, apply to be a reader! Please apply by June 28, 2017. Applications may be re-opened at a later date.

Questions? Email screening@atlantafilmfestival.com.

Screening Committee Application

*Deadline to apply: June 28, 2017. Space is limited. All applicants will be considered, but not all will be chosen.

2023 ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP

OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION

CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION

MARQUEE SCREENINGS

NARRATIVE FEATURES

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

NARRATIVE SHORTS

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

ANIMATED SHORTS

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

MUSIC VIDEO

EPISODIC

VIRTUAL REALITY

Welcome to ATLFF '18

Atlanta Film Society Presents ScreenCraft Writers Summit

MAYNARD

Jason Reitman

Romany Malco Masterclass

Creative Conference

Amber Nash Masterclass

HEARTS BEAT LOUD

Awards Brunch Recap

Audience Awards

Closing Night Presentation: EIGHTH GRADE

Day 10

2018 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Semifinalists

Feature Screenplay Semifinalists

Pilot Screenplay Semifinalists

Short Screenplay Semifinalists

2018 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition Quarterfinalists

Feature Screenplay Quarterfinalists

Pilot Screenplay Quarterfinalists

Short Screenplay Quarterfinalists

Narrative Feature

Disappearance

Never Steady, Never Still

Still

Documentary Feature

Armed with Faith

Liyana

Narrative Short

Arlo Alone

Laws of the Game

Documentary Short

Carry My Voice

Nuuca

Animated Short

Nevada

Virtual Reality Short

Puppetry Short

You Can't Play With Us

Experimental Short

Royal Jelly

Pilot Episode

Manic

Music Video

Biggest Curse (performed by Original Swimming Party feat. Moonchild Sanelly)

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Atlanta Film Festival 2025