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 (Coleman 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 25 - Friday April 28. 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 24 in-person events 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

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

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

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..