ATLFF Celebrates Women in Film with New Mavericks Film Series at Synchronicity Theatre
In partnership with Synchronicity Theatre, the Atlanta Film festival is proud to present the 2015 New Mavericks Film Series, aimed to support women involved in various aspects of the Atlanta film community to achieve a strong voice in the local industry.
In partnership with Synchronicity Theatre, the Atlanta Film festival is proud to present the 2015 New Mavericks Film Series. The film series stems from our year-round program that supports women involved in various aspects of the Atlanta film community to achieve a strong voice in the local industry. Expanded from the festival’s acclaimed female-directed shorts block, New Mavericks meets on the third Wednesday of every month at Java Vino to provide networking opportunities, educational programs, opportunities for professional development, and more.
The upcoming film series will feature opening and closing night films, an animation workshop, an educational film screening on the history of the female filmmaker, and a block of local short films—all directed by women. Purchase a series pass below to get a discount on admission, access to all screenings and hangouts, discounts from area restaurants, and opportunities to win prizes!
AUGUST 21st & 22nd
OPENING NIGHT Friday, Aug. 21st @ 8pm
CHILDREN'S ANIMATION WORKSHOP & SCREENING Saturday, Aug. 22nd @ 12pm
THE HERSTORY OF THE FEMALE FILMMAKER Saturday, Aug. 22nd @ 2:30pm
FEMLANTA Saturday, Aug. 22nd @ 5pm
I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS Saturday, Aug. 22nd @ 5pm
(Q&A Director Leah Meyherhoff)
Take Advantage, Man. Take Advantage of Plaza Theatre Foundation's "Friday" Screening
"Clueless" already sold out two screens this week. Get your tickets to the 20th anniversary of "Friday" now!
In the second of three summer series screenings, ATLFF and The Plaza Theatre Foundation are presenting "Friday" next Wednesday, August 5th at 7:30 PM!
Get your tickets to "Friday" now! Pay what you can.
Doors open at 7:00 PM.
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.
Homespun Series to Spotlight Atlanta's Bustling Art Scene at The Plaza on July 30
The Homespun Series returns to the Plaza Theatre on July 30, showcasing three brand new documentary short films focusing on Atlanta's eccentric and busy art scene. ATLFF members get in free!
Homespun is a curated series of short documentary films profiling unique individuals around the metro Atlanta area. Partnered by the Atlanta Film Festival, the series features local filmmakers who highlight the characters and neighborhoods that give Atlanta its distinctive culture. Through these individual character studies, Atlanta will be revealed as the Homespun phenomenon it has become.
There is no doubt that the arts scene in Atlanta is thriving. Any native Atlantan can tell you that our streets are exploding with art—from colorful murals lining our underpasses, to community-inspired and public-transportation projects, to a multitude of galleries featuring a wide range of performance and visual craft. This installment of Homespun will showcase a few of the artists working in and around the metro area who bring their innovative and sometimes homegrown creations to our city.
Admission: $10; Free for ATLFF Members
(ATLFF Members: Click Enter Promotional Code below and input the email address associated with your festival membership for complimentary tickets.)
Low
Directed by Alex Zhuravlov & Arkia Jahani
The film focuses on The LOW Museum, located in downtown Atlanta. The gallery was created by three artists who've turned their residential home into an exhibition space. The LOW is dedicated to cultural undercurrents and underground art scenes in the city. The gallery founders visit WRAS 88.5 college radio station to discuss their mission and to learn more about the station's current situation. The following day Jordan Stubbs presents his work "You Tell Me" at the LOW; a collection of interactive sculptural installations that are made from found objects.
Inside the Abyss
Directed by Adrienne Lee
"Inside The Abyss" is an exploration of human character. Danny Abyss is a young, ambitious and up-and-coming tattoo artist from Atlanta, Georgia. He firmly believes in dedication and living his life to the fullest potential. Danny's beliefs are revealed through the sacrifices he makes to grow as a tattoo artist, the people he encounters, and his unwavering commitment to his craft.
Kyle Brooks
Directed by Whitney Reed
Kyle “BlackCatTips” Brooks is a neofolk artist living in Atlanta, GA. A painter for over 15 years, Brooks has become a mainstay in the Atlanta art scene. While his work follows in the folk tradition by speaking to contemporary issues, his inspiration comes from the things he sees everyday—bugs, animals, and odd Atlanta folk walking down the road. Many of his commissioned pieces can be seen in storefront windows, restaurants and metro homes; but Atlantans are also just as likely to see one of his whimsical paintings nailed to a utility pole in an East Atlanta neighborhood.
Roll with the Homies Back in Time to Plaza Theatre Foundation's Screening of "Clueless"
Tickets are going fast for "Clueless." It's kind of a Baldwin.
In the first of three summer series screenings, ATLFF and The Plaza Theatre Foundation are presenting "Clueless" next Wednesday, July 29th at 7:30 PM!
Get your tickets to "Clueless" now! Pay what you can.
Doors open at 7:00 PM.
WIFTA is Looking for Submission for its Summer Series at Ponce City Market!
Women in Film and Television Atlanta is hosting a summer film series in September and is now looking for submissions!
Women in Film and Television Atlanta is hosting a summer film series in September and is now looking for submissions! Check out the categories and submit your film today. There is $1000 in prize money plus the chance to get your film screened at Ponce City Market!
Vote for ATLFF in Creative Loafing's Best of ATL 2015!
Vote for ATLFF as Atlanta's number one film festival in Creative Loafing's annual Best of ATL survey!
Vote for ATLFF as Atlanta's number one film festival in Creative Loafing's annual Best of ATL survey! Voting ends this Sunday!
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.
Georgia Lawyers for the Arts Offering a Free Seminar on How to Produce a Film Using Union Actors
Learn the basic how-to's for handling SAG-AFTRA contracts in order to work with union actors and non-union actors on the same production in this FREE seminar!
SAG-AFTRA Contracts in a Right to Work State: How to Produce a Film Using Union Actors
July 27, 2015, 12:00 -1:00 p.m.
King Plow Arts Center
887 W. Marietta St. NW Suite J-101
Atlanta Georgia 30318
Presented By: Laura Powell, GLA Summer Intern
Given the recent boom of the Georgia entertainment industry, Ms. Powell will be discussing the basic how-to's for handling SAG-AFTRA contracts in order to work with union actors and non-union actors on the same production. Ms. Powell has experience in the entertainment industry producing and working as an actor under SAG-AFTRA contracts.
Laura obtained her Bachelor of Science from The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and her Juris Master from Emory University School of Law. Laura begins her second year of law school at Vanderbilt University Law School in August and plans on returning to Atlanta after graduation.