ATLFF '15 Official Selection BEAR STORY Receives Academy Award Nomination

Bear Story (Historia de un oso)

ATLFF '15 official selection "Bear Story (Historia de un oso)" received a nomination for the Best Animated Short Oscar! Directed by Gabriel Osorio Vargas, the film tells the story of an old bear's life through a mechanical diorama.

Mountainfilm on Tour ATL '15 also featured a short film that went on to recieve an Academy Award nomination. "Body Team 12," directed by David Darg, also received a nomination for Best Documentary Short.

Body team 12

The Atlanta Film Festival is an Academy Award-qualifying festival in all three short film categories. The winners of our Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short and Best Animated Short Jury Prizes go on to become eligible for Oscar shortlist inclusion.

Animated Shorts Compete for Oscar Eligibility at ATLFF

Academy Award® nominated film and ATLFF '14 official selection "The Dam Keeper"

In 2015, the Atlanta Film Festival became Oscar-eligible for the Documentary Short Film category, meaning that the jury award-winning film in that category would then qualify for the shortlist of films that the final nominees are chosen from. However, ATLFF has already been Oscar-qualifying in the animated and narrative short categories for many years.

Earlier this year, two ATLFF official selections were nominated in the Best Animated Short category at the Academy Awards®. "The Dam Keeper," by Robert Kondo and Daisuke 'Dice' Tsutsumi, was part of the animated short competition during the 2014 festival and "The Bigger Picture," by Daisy Jacobs, played this spring as part of the 2015 ATLFF animated short competition. 

The winning animated short film from ATLFF '15, thus qualifying it for Academy Award® consideration, is the locally produced "Starlight" from the Atlanta-based filmmakers and animators Tamarind King, Shir Wen Sun, Marisa Tontaveetong and Yu Ueda. "Starlight" follows a stray cat as it navigates the sights and sounds of Atlanta's famed Starlight Six Drive-in Theatre during a busy night. One of the animators, Marisa "Ginger" Tontaveetong, was announced as one of ATLFF's Filmmakers-in-Residence earlier this year. We will have to wait and see if "Starlight" goes on to compete for an Oscar next winter, but we know we have our fingers crossed!

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We are now accepting submissions for the Animated Short category and all other categories for the 2016 Atlanta Film Festival. The Regular Deadline is September 18.

ATLFF '15 Best Documentary Feature Winner "Stray Dog"—One of the Year's Most Lauded Films

The Documentary Feature Jury Award-Winning film from the 2015 Atlanta Film Festival was Debra Granik's "Stray Dog."

Harley-Davidson, leather, tattooed biceps: Ron "Stray Dog" Hall looks like an authentic tough guy. A Vietnam veteran, he runs a trailer park in rural Missouri with his wife, Alicia, who recently emigrated from Mexico. Gradually, a layered image comes into focus of a man struggling to come to terms with his combat experience. When Alicia's teenage sons arrive, the film reveals a tender portrait of an America outside the mainstream. "Stray Dog" is a powerful look at the veteran experience, a surprising love story, and a fresh exploration of what it takes to survive in the hardscrabble heartland. (official synopsis)

You probably recognize Granik's name as the Oscar-nominated writer-director of 2010's "Winter's Bone." Shortly after that film debuted at Sundance, it played ATLFF, earned several Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and went on to launch the career of America's currently reigning movie star queen, Jennifer Lawrence. It was on the set of "Winter's Bone" that Granik first met Ron Hall, one of the film's characters. The contrast of his gruff appearance with his truly gentle nature was so fascinating, Granik turned her camera to Hall for a documentary and "Stray Dog"—the film—was born.

As you can see, "Stray Dog" played dozens of festivals—many of them in competition—and went on to win a bevy of awards. It was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards, losing to eventual Oscar-winner "Citizenfour."

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We are now accepting submissions for the Documentary Feature category and all other categories for the 2016 Atlanta Film Festival. The Earlybird Deadline is June 20, Regular Deadline is September 18.

ATLFF '15 Best Documentary Short Award-winner Jesse Kreitzer Updates Us on His Next Project

The Murder Ballad of James Jones, ATLFF’s Jury Award-Winner for Best Documentary Short, was a byproduct of fool’s luck and good fortune.

James “Tail Dragger” Jones, a protégé of legendary Chicago bluesman Howlin’ Wolf, had been cast in my short film Lomax, a spirited reimagining of folklorist Alan Lomax’s 1941 journey through the Mississippi Delta. An Arkansas mule driver at age seven and a natural-born showman, James’ life experience superseded every line on the page. James didn’t like the idea of rehearsing and I agreed to roll with it. Well, come production day, James didn't quite "have it".  We improvised, shot wide, and grabbed as many cutaways as we could justify.

Unsure if I had a film, I brought the script and a bottle of whiskey to James’ hotel room to record a clean read that night. With the lavalier still clipped to his collar and half a bottle down, we were bullshitting about working with The Wolf and the heyday of South Side Chicago Blues. James asked if I knew about his record. I knew of the albums he produced for Delmark, but that wasn’t what James was talking about. He proceeded to tell me of his rising feud with “Boston Blackie,” a guitarist who was better known for cutting and shooting. As James spoke with a slang and vernacular that disappears with the passing of every elder bluesman, the recorder rolled and preserved a little-known piece of Chicago folklore. So there you have it. Lightning in a bottle.

My next film currently in post-production explores another slice of Americana.  Black Canaries, a 1900s coal mining folktale inspired by my maternal ancestors, is the story of the Lockwood family coal miners who operate a private drift mine in rural Iowa. After a mine collapse blinds the youngest son and kills the hauling mule, the family must continue to drudge the depths, extract coal and keep warm against the winds of the vacant prairie.

In collaboration with the Berklee College of Music’s Film Scoring Program, Composer Jose Parody and Music Supervisor Austin DeVries are putting the final touches on the score and sound design as we prepare for festival submissions this fall. In the meantime, I’m organizing a grassroots film tour at arthouses, makeshift venues, backyards, and living rooms, to present advance screenings of the film to raise the necessary finishing and distribution funds.

Click here to watch the trailer and learn more about "Black Canaries."

— ATLFF '15 Award-Winning Filmmaker Jesse Kreitzer

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We are now accepting submissions for the Oscar-qualifying Documentary Short category and all other categories for the 2016 Atlanta Film Festival. The Earlybird Deadline is June 20, Regular Deadline is September 18.

Announcing the 2015 ATLFF Jury Award Winners!

Saturday morning at the Atlanta Film Festival Awards Brunch, filmmakers, jurors, and festival friends from around the world gathered to honor and celebrate all of the nominees. The Jury Award Winners of our Narrative, Animated, (and for the first year) Documentary Shorts qualify for the Oscar short list. We are proud to announce the 2015 ATLFF Jury Award Winners:

• Best Narrative Feature - God Bless The Child
• Best Documentary Feature - Stray Dog
• Best Pink Peach Feature - Before the Last Curtain Falls (Bevor der letzte Vorhang fällt)
• Best New Mavericks Feature - In The Turn
• Special Jury Prize - Next Year (L'année Prochaine)
• Best Narrative Short - Turtle (Wu Gui)
• Best Documentary Short - The Murder Ballad of James Jones
• Best Animated Short - Starlight
• Best Pink Peach Short - Charlotte
• Best New Mavericks Short - Jennah
• Best Music Video - 80's Rok performed by Willie Hyn

And of course, our Filmmaker to Watch Award (presented by Mountainfilm on Tour ATL and voted on by our Kickstarter Backer's Jury) goes to Ian Samuels for "Myrna the Monster".

Congratulations to all the winners and to every film selected to play at the 2015 Atlanta Film Festival. We look forward to seeing you all next year!

Oscar® Eligible Short Film Competition Lineup Announced for 2015 Atlanta Film Festival

Last week, the Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) announced its competition film programming in the narrative and documentary feature categories. Today, the festival is pleased to announce the competition lineups in the narrative, documentary and animated short film categories.

For years, ATLFF has been one of only two-dozen Academy Award® qualifying festivals in the United States for the narrative and animated short competitions, corresponding with the live action and animated short film Oscar® categories. In 2013, the Academy began approving film festivals as sources for eligible documentary short films. This year, the world's most prestigious organization of film industry professionals chose to include ATLFF in the exclusive list of qualifying festivals.

Providing that the films otherwise comply with Academy rules, the winners of the ATLFF narrative, animated and documentary short jury prizes will be eligible for consideration at the Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run. Only 14 other film festivals in the United States are Oscar® qualifying  in three or more categories.

“Documentary is evolving,” said ATLFF Shorts Programmer Christina Humphrey. “It’s been great to witness and identify so many changes since I began watching ATLFF submissions in 2011. With our documentary short competition winner now eligible for Oscar® consideration, we hope to bring our perspective on this genre-bending evolution to the Academy’s attention.”

The 2015 ATLFF short film lineup represents fifteen countries: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Passes for the Festival are available for purchase now. Individual tickets go on sale later this month. The 39th annual Atlanta Film Festival takes place March 20-29, 2015.

Pink Grapefruit

Narrative Short Competition:

Actresses

directed by Jeremy Hersh
USA, 2014, English, 11:36
Follows the romantic relationship between a 23-year-old aspiring actress and an off-broadway star.   
 

Charming

directed by John Brandon Delaney
USA, 2015, English, 13:20
A former child actor arranges a meeting with a stranger in a sleazy motel room. The two form a connection that will change her life forever.
 

Haze

directed by Chloe Domont
USA, 2014, English, 12:00
A young man struggles to explain what happened the night before.
 

Hole

directed by Martin Edralin
Canada, 2014, English, 15:00
A daring portrait of a disabled man yearning for intimacy in a world that would rather ignore him.
 

Jennah

directed by Meryem Benm’Barek
Belgium, 2014, French, 18:00
Jennah a young 13-year-old girl is growing up. This path goes through troubles with her mother and the discovery of her femininity.
 

Persefone

directed by Grazia Tricarico
Italy, 2015, Italian, 18:00
In this dark fable rendered in golden, sun-kissed images, a young diver on the coast of the Adriatic in southern Italy finds another kind of natural wonder amidst the bounty of the sea: a beautiful woman. As his strange romantic obsession grows, he withdraws ever further into silence.
 

Pigs

directed by Laura Mohai
Singapore/Malaysia/USA, 2014, 7:45
A young boy attempts to care for a dying piglet in the farm he lives on. His tries to understand his mother who doesn't quite accept him and grieves a lost child. The death of the pig on the bed of the lost child leads mother and son to a quiet conflict.
 

Pink Grapefruit

directed by Michael Mohan
USA, 2015, English, 11:00
A young married couple travels to Palm Springs with two single friends for a long weekend, leading to unexpected results.
 

Rosa

directed by Francisco Neffe
UK/Portugal, 2014, Portuguese, 14:00
Single mother Rosa is locked in a room after a public fight with her ex and ends up receiving help from a young neighbor.
 

Skunk

directed by Annie Silverstein
USA, 2014, English, 16:00
When her pit bull is stolen by an amateur dog fighter, 14-year-old Leila is forced to stand up for herself, at the cost of her own innocence.
 

Stay Awake

directed by Jamie Sisley
USA, 2015, English, 13:50
Brothers, a mother, songs from the seventies, Xanax, and a woman named Vicki. “Stay Awake” explores addiction and making sacrifices for people you love.
 

Stop

directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green
USA, 2014, English, 8:51
A police confrontation forces a young black man to consider how racial profiling might antagonize the consequences of his actions and put his future at risk.
 

Turtle (Wu Gui)

directed by Jordan Schiele
China, 2014, Mandarin, 14:59
Rush hour in Beijing. A construction worker selling a turtle on the road winds up at the country studio of a potential customer who has another offer in mind.

 

Chop My Money

Documentary Short Competition

Broken Branches (ענפים שבורים)

directed by Ayala Sharot
Israel, 2014, Hebrew, 25:00
An animated documentary about the life of Michal Rechter, who was only 14-years-old when she left her home in Poland and travelled to Israel by herself on the eve of the World War II.
 

Chop My Money

directed by Theo Anthony
Democratic Republic of Congo, 2014, Swahili/English, 12:50
A day in the life of three street kids in the Eastern Congo. Featuring music by Dirty Beaches.
 

Crooked Candy

directed by Andrew Rodgers
USA, 2014, English, 6:00
Kinder Surprise eggs are hugely popular all around the world but (oddly) illegal in the United States, thanks to a quirk in FDA regulations. “Crooked Candy” profiles someone who smuggles the eggs across the Canadian border and has even been caught by border patrol.
 

The Murder Ballad of James Jones

directed by Jesse Kreitzer
USA, 2014, English, 3:54
In 1993, Chicago bluesman and Howlin' Wolf protégé James "Tail Dragger" Jones murdered fellow musician Boston Blackie during an on-stage performance. Two decades later, James shared his story.
 

One Year Lease

directed by Brian Bolster
USA, 2014, English, 11:00
Told almost entirely through voice mail messages, “One year Lease” documents the travails of Brian, Thomas and Casper as they endure a year-long sentence with Rita the Cat-loving landlady.
 

Unmappable

directed by Diane Hodson, Jasmine Luoma
USA, 2014, English, 22:47
This meditative portrait of iconoclastic psychogeographer and convicted sex offender Denis Wood will unveil the inner workings of a man whose work is lauded as poetic, artful and innovative – a man who unapologetically pushes boundaries both personally and professionally.
 

What’s in a Name

directed by Daniel Robin
USA, 2014, English, 12:00
Daniel Robin is mistakenly booked for a flight under the name Robinowitz (which was actually his grandfather’s name). This coincidence leads him to examine his Jewish identity.

 

The Bigger Picture

Animation Short Competition

Bar

directed by John Hartman
USA, 2014, 1:44
A thirsty traveler stumbles upon a bar in the woods, but nobody seems eager to let him in.
 

The Bigger Picture

directed by Daisy Jacobs
UK, 2014, English, 7:05
Two brothers struggle to take care of their elderly mother.
 

The Fog of Courage

directed by John R. Dilworth
China/Spain/USA, 2013, English, 7:00
A cowardly dog named Courage must rescue his lovely owner, Muriel, from a vengeful supernatural fog. Eustace, Muriel's greedy husband, refuses to return the gold necklace belonging to the Fog's long lost love.
 

Garbanzos

directed by Ammar Nassri
USA, 2014, English, 3:19
A farmer wakes up early to go get the last garbanzos in the universe. On his way back, he is faced with several obstacles that he needs to overcome in order for him to bring the garbanzos to his little daughter.
 

IOA

directed by Gabriel Möhring
Switzerland, 2013, German, 2:12
A vowel reciting speaking machine describes in a soliloquy its miserable existence as a tool of a despotic singing-teacher.
 

Kamakura

directed by Yoriko Mizushiri
Japan, 2013, 5:00
A snow hut in the middle of the rice paddy. Now, let's see what to do, in the space full of whiteness and quietness, until the Spring comes. Until the snow hut melted, and lose shape.
 

Meanwhile

directed by Stephen McNally
United Kingdom, 2014, English, 5:00
Five minutes in the lives of four strangers whose troubling lives intertwine in the final scene.
 

Never Stop Cycling

directed by Colin Lepper
Canada, 2014, English, 3:32
In order to continue his comfortable, routine life, a creature must make the journey into a strange living world.
 

Nude and Crude (Pene e Crudité)

directed by Mario Addis
Italy, 2014, 4:00
Fantastical hallucinatory moments of passion, cruelty, loneliness, dis-connection and love unfold humorously in a simple and innocent form but with deep, sometimes dark meanings.
 

One Night in Hell

directed by James Hall, Jason Jameson
UK, 2014, English, 7:06
A devilish and spectacular animation short that tells the story of a skeleton's journey into a stereoscopic hell.
 

Starlight

directed by Tamarind King, Shir Wen Sun, Marisa Tontaveetong, Yu Ueda
USA, 2014, English, 3:51
A feral cat explores the bizarre landscape of the last drive-in theater in Atlanta, Georgia.
 

Tatuapé Mahal Tower

directed by Carolina Markowicz, Fernanda Salloum
Brazil, 2014, Spanish, 9:35
After a betrayal, Argentinian scale modeler Javier Juarez Garcia decides to change his life and travel around the world, figuring out many possibilities that he did not know about. But he never forgot about his real goal—come back and take revenge from the ones who disappointed him.
 

Two Films About Loneliness

directed by Will Bishop-Stephens, Christopher Eales
UK, 2014, English, 6:00
Two neighbours turn to technology in a quest for companionship and acceptance.

ATLFF Now a Qualifying Festival for Documentary Short Academy Awards

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

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

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