ATLFF '14 Hit LIMO RIDE is On the Road to Distribution—And You Can Help!
LIMO RIDE was a two-time sell-out world premiere huge hit at the 2014 festival. BUY THE MOVIE. FUND THE RELEASE.
Atlanta Film Festival alumni Gideon Kennedy and Marcus Rosentrater are taking the next step in distributing their film "Limo Ride!" Not only is their film amazing, but they have a kick-ass Kickstarter to promote their project. The campaign is not to produce the movie (it’s already done, crazy! Not to mention it had its world premiere at the 2014 ATLFF), it is to distribute the film and backers get a copy of "Limo Ride" just by donating!
Care to know more? "Limo Ride" follows ten friends re-accounting a tale of well-mannered debauchery. The reenactment of their 24-hour excursion through possession, trespassing, kidnapping, assault, intoxication and indecency, ultimately being stranded in the middle of nowhere is too good to be a lie, and you will want to be a part of it. Make these Georgia/Alabama filmmakers’ dream a reality and back the experimental documentary comedy and travel with them from Mobile, Alabama to the annual Polar Bear Plunge at the Gulf Coast.
The Bureau of Creative Works Spotlights 12 Indie Filmmakers—Including ATLFF Alum!
The BUREAU of CREATIVE WORKS is a year long film experiment with 12 independent filmmakers, including ATLFF award-winner Leah Myerhoff. Check out the Kickstarter campaign!
12 independent filmmakers, 12 original short films.
The BUREAU of CREATIVE WORKS is a year long film experiment. We will give 12 independent filmmakers a small budget to produce 12 original short films. In joining The BUREAU, you become an integral part of a community of film-enthusiasts, and, most importantly, a community that doesn't simply curate the hard-work of artists after-the-fact, but instead, directly contributes to the earliest stages of creative work.
As filmmakers and film enthusiasts, we share a responsibility to not only create and encourage quality films, but to provide a sustainable environment where filmmakers will feel supported and have access to the tools that they need to experiment and share their stories.
Quality films don't happen in a vacuum, they require a supportive and collaborative environment.
One of the 12 filmmakers is ATLFF '14 Narrative Feature Jury Award-winner Leah Myerhoff ("I Believe in Unicorns"). Two more spots are open in the BUREAU, maybe they can be Atlanta filmmakers!
MovieMaker Magazine Names ATLFF as One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World
After being featured in MovieMaker Magazine's 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee, we are excited to announce that they have also included us on this year's list of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World!
For the last two years, the Atlanta Film Festival has made MovieMaker Magazine's list of the 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee. This is quite a tremendous honor, and one we hope to repeat every year in the future.
Today, however, we are excited to announce an even greater honor—MovieMaker has included us on their list of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World! While it is always cool for someone to tell you that you are cool, this list is so important to us because it is compiled by a list of filmmakers and industry professionals. These people experience a lot of film festivals all across the globe and for them to consider us one of the top 25 coolest—we are just so grateful!
Congratulations to all the festivals mentioned! We couldn't be happier to be in your company.
ATLFF '13 and '14 Alum Erik Mauck Needs Your Help to Make His Next Feature, "Dough!"
The filmmaker behind "The Road to Livingston," which played ATLFF '14, is making a new narrative feature—"Dough"—and needs your help to fund the project!
After playing the 2013 Atlanta Film Festival with documentary short film "See the Dirt," filmmaker Erik Mauck followed it up with a feature documentary, "The Road to Livingston," that was an official selection at ATLFF '14. Now, Mauck is making a new narrative feature, "Dough," but needs help financing the post-production.
In "Dough," Adam is a man at a crossroads. He's turning thirty but still works delivering pizzas— the same job he held since he was a teenager. Outside of work, his activities of smoking pot and hanging out with friends have done little to inspire growth and maturity. Although he has been able to amass many of the comforts of adulthood, including his own place, for the first time Adam questioning where his future is headed. But how do you grow up when you're already an adult?
Erik Mauck, has been making film and video projects in Austin, Texas since 2003, including his two ATLFF officially selected films. He has received support from the Austin Film Society through the Texas Film Production Fund and his work has been broadcasted and screened around the world. "Dough" is expected to be completed by September and made available to the public this Fall.
Puppetry Short Films, Live Events and Special Presentations Abound at ATLFF
The Atlanta Film Festival has a long-standing love affair with puppetry—with short films, special presentations, live events and more all showcasing the best puppet offerings each year. Submit your puppetry short now!
The Atlanta Film Festival has a long-standing love affair with puppetry. A city devoted to the art form, Atlanta is home to the Center for Puppetry Arts, the nation’s largest organization dedicated to puppetry. In November, the Center will open its brand new 14 million dollar expansion, The Worlds of Puppetry Museum. It will feature two galleries—one devoted to the Global Collection and one dedicated to the Jim Henson Collection, the world’s most comprehensive collection of Henson’s puppets and artifacts.
For the last several years, puppetry shorts, special presentations, live events and installations have counted among ATLFF's most popular attractions—and we owe an immense deal of gratitude to Beau Brown, our special Puppetry Programmer. Working with Elizabeth Leary, Beau helps curate and plan ATLFF's striking puppet programing.
Beau is Director of Atlanta's Puppet Slam, The Puckin' Fuppet Show; officially recognized and sponsored by the national Puppet Slam Network. Additionally, Beau works as the Community Coordinator for the Center for Puppetry Arts, the Puppetry Track Director for Dragon Con and the National Puppet Slam Curator and Host. As a filmmaker and lead puppeteer for New Puppet Order, Beau has made several short films—many of which have been seen in ATLFF's annual Touch the Puppet Head presentation.
In 2015, ATLFF had an exceptionally strong puppetry program. While our puppetry shorts block boasted films from Australia, Spain, USA and the United Kingdom, we also featured Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams, a selection of short puppet films by independent artists exploring their hand made craft specifically for the camera. If you made it to our spectacular "Game of Thrones" party, you saw many puppets making their way through the crowd—including a larger-than-life dragon!
Since 2013, the Touch the Puppet Head special presentation has been a consistent late-night hit at each ATLFF. Mixing live performances with eccentric puppet films, Touch the Puppet head has seen performances by Lee Bryan, Raymond Carr, Gavin Cummins, Alex Griffin, Jason Hines, Joshua Holden, Charles Kelso, Charles Pillsbury, Carla Rhodes, Dana Samborski, Gregg Van Laningham and Zeb L. West, among others. In 2015, the world premiere of ATLFF's first independent TV pilot showcase, "Pepper's Place," took place at Touch the Puppet Head.
What will 2016's Puppetry Program look like? That's up to you! Submit your puppetry short films now and maybe we can pull some strings.
We are now accepting submissions for the Puppetry Short category and all other categories for the 2016 Atlanta Film Festival. The Regular Deadline is September 18.
Animated Shorts Compete for Oscar Eligibility at ATLFF
At the 2015 Oscars, two ATLFF official selections competed for the Best Animated Short award. As an Academy Award®-qualifying festival, will our winning film from this year go on to receive a nomination?
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!
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.
Animated Feature Films Find a Welcome Home at ATLFF
Animated features have become a staple in recent years at ATLFF, signifying a healthy and growing animation industry in Atlanta and beyond.
Animated features have become a staple in recent years at the Atlanta Film Festival, signifying a healthy and growing animation industry in Atlanta and beyond. Animation studios pump out family-friendly blockbusters every few weeks at your local cinemas, but the indie animated scene is working hard to produce beautiful and complex features and short films and ATLFF is pleased to showcase as much as we can.
In 2014, two-time Academy Award-nominee Bill Plympton brought his latest feature film "Cheatin'" to the Atlanta Film Festival. A dialogue free film, the rapturous artistry and beautiful music propels the film into a league of its own. Earlier this year, ATLFF helped spread the word about Plympton's efforts to crowd fund his next feature film, "Revengeance." We hope that whenever he wraps work on that, we will be among the first to screen it!
Ari Folman's "The Congress" was another example of feature animation at ATLFF '14 and became one of the most attended screenings that year. Folman previously directed the Israeli animated documentary film "Waltz With Bashir," which received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. "The Congress" is a live action/animation hybrid, starring Robin Wright, Jon Hamm and Paul Giamatti. Having also screened at the Cannes Film Festival, "The Congress" was one of 2014's art house hits, playing several festivals and select theaters across the globe.
At ATLFF '15, it was stop-motion animation that held the spotlight. In the Spanish film "Possessed (Pos Eso)," a retired flamenco dancer and a disillusioned priest deal with death and demon possession. The Buried Alive Film Festival partnered with us to present "Possessed," directed by Sam, on the first night of the festival.
Do you have an animated feature or short film that you are ready for the world to see? We are ready to watch it!
We are now accepting submissions for the Animated Feature category and all other categories for the 2016 Atlanta Film Festival. The Regular Deadline is September 18.
Support these ATLFF Alumni through their Crowdfunding Campaigns!
One of our favorite things about hosting an annual film festival, is keeping up with the filmmakers that grace us with their beautiful work! Help these filmmakers from ATLFF '14 and '15 continue their projects or start new ones!
One of our favorite things about hosting an annual film festival is keeping up with the filmmakers that grace us with their beautiful work! Help these filmmakers from ATLFF '14 and '15 continue their projects or start new ones!
Italian filmmaker Vincenzo Cosentino lit up Atlanta during ATLFF '14. He wants to take his film, "Handy," into cinemas everywhere. Jared Callahan, who lives in Atlanta, won all of us over at ATLFF '15 with "Janey Makes a Play." He is raising money for distribution and to put finishing touches on the film. Short filmmakers Daniel Moshel (ATLFF '14) and Brian Lonano (ATLFF '14 and '15) are looking to raise funds for their next projects!
Vincenzo Cosentino
"Handy" (ATLFF '14)
Vincenzo Cosentino is an Italian filmmaker hailing from Sicily who completed his first, self-produced feature film named "Handy," starring Franco Nero. Now, he needs our helping hand. A goal of $30,000 dollars will allow him to release the movie in cinemas. He wants to bring a new and fresh image of Italy with this movie, and to bring people together.
Jared Callahan
"Janey Makes a Play" (ATLFF '15)
"Janey Makes a Play" follows a dynamic 90-year-old playwright as she produces and directs her new original community theatre production for the small town in which she lives. They already hit their goal of $12,000 with 11 days to go so they have moved on to stretch goals! This project, and the needs listed in the video (licensing fees, insurance, festival costs, publicity, etc.) actually cost more than the first goal of 12K. Your contributions will still help cover the finishing costs of the movie AND the filmmakers will support students from Rio Vista pursuing the arts. If they hit $20,000, they can travel to festivals and send the director to a national conference for drama teachers for promotion. If they hit $30,000, they can release this current director's cut of the movie, including every archival clip and song.
Daniel Moshel
"MeTube" (ATLFF '14)
Daniel Moshel's first short, "MeTube" was a viral sensation (not the kind you report to the doctor) and has reached over 1.6 Million Views on YouTube! It was an homage to all the amazingly silly and talented people that create videos from their living rooms every single day around the world. "MeTube 2" is all set to be bigger, bolder and better than the first! This time, they've got an opera house on our side—the Bayerische Staatsoper!
Brian Lonano
"Welcome to Dignity Pastures" (ATLFF '14), "CROW HAND!!!" (ATLFF '15)
"Gwilliam" will be Brian Lonano's tenth short film, all of which are low budget and use practical effects like miniatures, puppets and fake blood. "Gwilliam" will test your stomach's endurance and challenge your sexual functioning for weeks after viewing. What could be so disturbing you ask? Let's just say that it's a love story. A terrible, terrible love story between man and goblin (that's right, I said goblin) that will leave you shaking your head in disgust and laughing at the same time.
ATLFF '15: THE SISTERHOOD OF NIGHT Slated to Bring Several Young Stars to Atlanta
Caryn Waechter is scheduled to attend the #NewMavericks screening of her directorial debut, "The Sisterhood of Night," along with two producers and four lead cast members, including Georgie Henley from "The Chronicles of Narnia" and Kara Hayward from "Moonrise Kingdom."
Willa Cuthrell, Olivia DeJonge, AND Georgie Henley in "The Sisterhood of Night"
Over 36 days in 2012, director Caryn Waechter and screenwriter Marilyn Fu completed Kickstarter's second most successful narrative campaign ever funded. Graduates of Columbia University's MFA film program, Waechter and Fu intrigued supporters with the following pledge:
"With your support, we'll have the $$ to start production on The Sisterhood of Night, a feature film and creative entry point into the world of the average (or not-so-average) teenager.
Sisterhood is a modern version of the Salem witch trials, adapted from a short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steven Millhauser (Martin Dressler, "Eisenheim the Illusionist"). The heart of the story is about how teens connect with each other through art, friendship, and the power of secrets. We also promise to do what every movie should—entertain you and take you for a ride. Sisterhood is a provocative and inspiring story that builds a network of creativity for teens to share ideas and visions. You can be one of them."
Thanks to our festival's closing weekend, you can, too. Check out the official trailer:
On March 27th at 7:00pm in The Plaza's main theatre, The Sisterhood of Night will screen for a limited audience and a majority of the starring talent! Director Caryn Waechter, lead actresses Georgie Henley ("The Chronicles of Narnia" film trilogy), Kara Hayward ("Moonrise Kingdom"), and Willa Cuthrell ("Dan in Real Life," "Whatever Works"), actor Evan Kuzma, Exectutive Producer David Urritia, and Producer Elizabeth Cuttrell (both produced "Meek's Cutoff" and "Jesus' Son") are scheduled to attend.
Fortified with the winning submissions of a crew-hosted teen art contest, this fresh and frank star-studded drama (leads Kal Penn, Laura Fraser, and Jessica Hecht also star) is at once an homage to the history of small town uproar in the face of change, a dichotomy of Internet effects on teens and popular media, and a testament to courage and self-discovery.
Don't miss your chance to see this one-time festival screening! Get your tickets now, or become a member and see it for free!
"The Sisterhood of Night" is a standout feature film in ATLFF's third annual New Mavericks film program. A series showcasing films from female filmmakers with strong female leads, 2015 New Mavericks selections have expanded to include feature films for the first time. Follow along with #NewMavericks and check out our Filminism Creative Conference Panel—hosted just hours before "The Sisterhood of Night"—while you're at it!
Watch ATLFF '14 Short CRYSTAL on Vimeo Now
Chell Stephen gave us “Crystal” at ATLFF ’14, and now the film has been released for free on Vimeo.
A hot pink sports bra and slicked back ponytail never looked so good.
Chell Stephen gave us “Crystal” at ATLFF ’14, and now the film has been released online. This pleasingly bold character study follows Stephen’s edgy seventeen-year-old sister, Crystal, in her pursuit to become a pop star. A girl with no tolerance for those whose dreams aren’t quite as big as her own, Crystal gives the middle finger to rural Ontario and finds an escape in her passion for dance.
Chell Stephen has been directing commercials, music videos and short films with Brooklyn-based creative collective, Think/Feel, since 2007.
This week the film premiered on Film Shortage as a Daily Short Pick. Now free on Vimeo, you can get 16 minutes of Crystal in your face, in the best way possible.