The Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF), one of the country’s largest Academy Award-qualifying film festivals, will celebrate its 40th birthday April 1–10. Welcoming an audience of almost 25,000 attendees, the fest receives more and more submissions every year, topping 4,000 in 2016.
A first wave of six features and 12 short films was announced recently, showcasing filmmaking talent from Bangladesh, Canada, India, Pakistan, Palestine, South Africa, the United States, and beyond.
ATLFF’s 2016 Screenplay Competition also named five pilot finalists and 12 screenplay finalists; the winners receive a three-day immersive retreat and one-on-one development with industry professionals. Congrats to screenwriters Heidi Willis (“Black Sunday”), John Pisano-Thomsen (“Dietrich Danzig”), Erik Adolphson (“Lemon Made”), and pilot scribe Mike Makowsky (“Cold Spring Harbor”)!
Congratulations are also in order for the filmmakers whose ATLFF 2015 official entry “Bear Story (Historia de un oso)” took home the Academy Award for best animated short Feb. 28. The Gabriel Osorio Vargas-directed short was the very first Chilean film to win an Oscar.
This year’s ATLFF will occur as the chief annual operation of the Atlanta Film Society (ATLFS), an organization dedicated to promoting film education in the country. For tickets to and more information on the biggest celebration of film in the Southeast April 1–10, visit atlantafilmfestival.com.
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