Overview The Atlanta Film Festival is an 11-day festival and creative conference that qualifies short films for all three Academy Award short categories, and it marked its 50th edition in 2026 by opening with Macon Blair's IDIOTS and closing with Boots Riley's I Love Boosters at the Plaza Theatre. The 2026 program held more than 150 films drawn from submissions across 100-plus countries, with strands such as New Mavericks for women filmmakers, Pink Peach for LGBTQ film and CineMás for Latin American work, and an online festival follows the in-person run. The nonprofit Atlanta Film Society runs it and programs film year-round. On site Screenings center on the Plaza Theatre, its main venue from 2013, and in 2026 the Tara Theatre as well. Opening and closing nights come with parties, and the IMAGE Film Awards gala was held at Assembly Atlanta in 2026. The Creative Conference runs master classes, panels, demos and presentations for directors, writers, actors, producers, animators and game designers, and the week fills in with filmmaker lounges, happy hours, networking events and advance screenings of major releases. Audience The festival says it serves two distinct audiences, and the program splits along that line: screenings and guest appearances for film fans, and the Creative Conference for working filmmakers, writers and crews. Christopher Escobar, who led the festival in 2026, called it the city's annual convening of the film community. The online festival adds a remote audience; it logged more than 8,000 streams in 2024. Talent and Influencers In 2024 Ewan McGregor made a surprise appearance at a May 4 screening of The Phantom Menace for a Q and A, Michael Showalter took the Rebel Award for The Idea of You, and Bill Duke received the Ossie Davis Award. The 2026 honorees were Will Packer, Josh Brolin, Carrie Preston, David Cross, Mckenna Grace, Danielle Brooks and RZA, and T.I. came out for The Birth of Trap Music. Past IMAGE Film Award honorees include Spike Lee, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Cicely Tyson and Tyler Perry Studios. Track record The festival grew out of IMAGE, the Independent Media Artists of Georgia, and held its first edition in 1977 in the Piedmont Park Bathhouse. Ray McKinnon's The Accountant, an Oscar winner for live-action short in 2002, came back for the 2026 legacy screenings. The festival received nearly 11,000 submissions in 2024, and it puts its annual economic impact on the city at $3 million. Its screenplay competition draws more than 1,300 entries a year, and winners go on a three-day writers' retreat at Serenbe. Brand presence Sponsorship runs across eight levels, from Presenting down to Film. Sponsors appear in the pre-roll before screenings and on the printed sponsor board, and can present a weekend screening block, the opening or closing film and party, the filmmaker lounge, a conference session or a happy hour. Levels include on-site activation, sampling and speaking time, and on the online festival sponsors can run clickable ads beside the digital film pages. In-kind support is credited at half its cash value.