50TH ANNUAL ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2026 JURY AND SCREENPLAY WINNERS
- Mandisa A. Johnson, MS, MFA
- 11 hours ago
- 10 min read
Atlanta, GA (May 18, 2026) — The 50th annual Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) announced the winners of its 2026 Jury and Screenplay Awards during the festival’s awards brunch at the historic Plaza Theatre.
Hosted by ATLFF Executive Director Chris Escobar, alongside programmers Jennica Carmona, Astin Rocks, Jon Kieran, and screenplay competition director Melissa Simpson, this year’s ceremony recognized outstanding achievements across documentary, narrative, animation, screenwriting, and Georgia-produced filmmaking.
“Celebrating 50 years of the Atlanta Film Festival makes this year’s awards especially meaningful," said Chris Escobar. “These filmmakers and writers represent the bold creativity, diverse perspectives, and fearless storytelling that continue to define independent cinema and shape the future of our industry.”
As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, the Atlanta Film Festival honored an extraordinary group of artists, producers, executives, and cultural innovators whose work has shaped both the entertainment industry and Georgia’s thriving creative community, including Will Packer, Josh Brolin, Carrie Preston, Danielle Brooks, David Cross, McKenna Grace, RZA, and more. Awards were presented throughout the festival’s Legacy Screenings, special conversations, and at the annual IMAGE Film Awards Gala on May 1 at Assembly Atlanta.
This year’s awards were selected by a jury of 24 filmmakers, critics, programmers, educators, and industry leaders from across the cinematic landscape.
A full list of jurors and film information for all award winners and honorable mentions is below.
The 50th annual Atlanta Film Festival + Creative Conference took place from April 23-May 3, 2026.
More information can be found at https://www.atlantafilmfestival.com/.
2026 ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS
2026 Special Award Honorees
Ossie Davis Award:
Presented To: Will Packer
IMAGE FILM Award:
Presented To: Josh Brolin
IMAGE Film Award
Presented To: Carrie Preston
IMAGE Film Award
Presented To: Hilton Howell
IMAGE Film Award
Presented To: Georgia Entertainment
New Maverick Award
Presented To: Danielle Brooks
Rebel Award
Presented To: David Cross
Phoenix Award
Presented To: McKenna Grace
The Originator Award
Presented To: RZA
The Will Packer Award
Presented To: Alex Orr
2026 Jury Award Winners
Best Documentary Short (Academy Award®-Qualifying)
Winner: Industrial Havana (Habana Industrial)Directed by Ainhoa Ordoñez
Special Jury Mention: Warmis Sobre Ruedas
Directed by Olivera Kamenarovska and Galilea Berthon
Best Narrative Short (Academy Award®-Qualifying)
Winner: FREAKDirected by RJ Sanchez
Special Jury Mention: JESUS IS COMING (TO TAKE THE CHURCH AWAY)Directed by Cameron Clay
Best Animated Short (Academy Award®-Qualifying)
Winner: The Undying Pain of Existence
Directed by Oscar Jacobson
Special Jury Mention: Sweet DreamsDirected by Ben Rinehardt
Best Cinematography
Presented by Panavision
Winner: Dwarf Neon Mayfield
Cinematography by Leland Nally
Special Jury Mention: Starjuice
Cinematography by Joji Baratelli
Best Documentary Feature
Winner: Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon
Directed by Khoa Ha and Victor Velle
Special Jury Mention: THEYDREAM
Directed by William Caballero
Best Narrative Feature
Winner: VALENTINA
Directed by Tatti Ribeiro
Georgia Feature Award
Winner: RIVERKEEPER
Directed by Jason Goldman
Special Jury Mention: FROGTOWN
Directed by Costa Karalis
Georgia Short Award
Winner: What Are Grandchildren Made Of?
Directed by Lindsey Susor
Special Jury Mention: Parable of the OtherDirected by Joshua Cleveland
Reel South AwardPresented in association with Reel South
Winner: Birth of Trap Music
Directed by Christopher Scholar
2026 Screenplay Competition Winners
ATLFF also honored outstanding emerging writers during its annual screenplay awards presentation.
Feature Screenplay Winners
Susan Polk — Amen & Ameen
Jack Padgett — Stormrunner
James Taing and Brian Kazmarck — Ghost Mountain
Pilot Screenplay Winner
Kalos Chu — Imposter
Short Screenplay Winner
Lisa Marie Tedesco — Olivia Colman Says My Farts Don’t Stink
2026 Audience Award Winners
Feature Audience Award
Winner: Frogtown
Directed by Costa Karalis
Short Audience Award
Winner: The Boys and the Bees
Directed by Arielle Knight
JURORS
Animated Short Competition
Patrick Zimmerman and Nidhi Reddy
Patrick Zimmerman and Nidhi Reddy are filmmakers and visual artists based in Austin, Texas. They co-own a boutique film and animation studio, Liminal House, where they've worked on a series of animated documentaries for PBS, visual effects for independent films, motion graphics for commercial clients, and their own short film productions. Their most recent animated short, Rajas & the Wolf Girl, premiered at Atlanta Film Festival in 2025. Coincidentally, they are also married with two cats.
Phil Davis
Phil Davis is an animator, filmmaker, and sound artist residing in Baltimore, MD. He was raised in rural New Hampshire where he learned how to throw rocks, pop wheelies, and collect insects. He holds a BFA in Film Art from Syracuse University and a MFA in Imaging and Digital Arts from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is currently a professor of Digital Art & Design in the department of Art + Design at Towson University. He is also the founder and director of programming for the Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival in Baltimore.
Linda Mcneil
Linda has a background as an illustrator and an Animation Director and has worked with clients such as Mailchimp, Vans, Big Cartel, Airbnb and Ted. In 2021, she co-founded Ok Motion Club, a female owned animation studio in Atlanta, GA. She also works on illustration based projects like murals and public art in Atlanta.
Cinematography Competition
Logan Lynette Burroughs
Logan Lynette Burroughs is an imagemaker born and bred in Georgia, however, currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. They received their BFA in Photography, and since then have expanded their practice to video composition and moving image. Their work is rooted in the desire of preserving Black stories in their relationship to ritual, connection, continued perseverance, and evolution. They hope this current documentation gives a genuine look at where a people and place existed, and how they breathed.
Logan’s work has screened and exhibited at the 8th Floor (NY), Millennium Film Workshop (NY), Atlanta Center of Photography (GA), North Carolina Museum of Art (NC), New Orleans Film Festival (LA), New Museum (NY), Fridman Gallery (NY), Full Frame Film Festival (NC), Atlanta Film Festival (GA), National Black Arts (GA), and others.
Ashley Salman
Chilean-American Filmmaker. Her main inspiration comes from Non Fiction, Experimental, and Analogue work. In 2023 she premiered her first short doc "Prelude of a Story" with a successful festival run in +45 international film festivals, and distribution by Reel South Docs & PBS.
Alvin McBean
Acknowledging the power of a single photo has made Alvin a revenant image-maker, whether crafting stills or motion pictures. His visual work has been awarded at festivals like SXSW,Atlanta Film Festival and streamed on networks like Netflix, Hulu, and PBS. Always seeking light, approaching every project delicately and with conviction.
Documentary Feature Competition
Katie Pham
Katie Pham is a born-and-raised New Orleanian, and connects the dots at Gusto Moving Pictures through field producing, archival research and distribution. As a producer, her focus is on films rooted in Southern experiences, whether it be quirky portraits or reckoning with history.
Ann Rose
Ann Rose is a Peabody Award-winning, Emmy®-nominated producer and editor. She spent a decade as a production exec at television networks and went on to work in the independent media communities as well as in branded and digital content creation. She crafts bold stories around daring real-world characters that provoke, question, and celebrate our world. Her credits include Hulu's DIANE VON FURSTENBERG: WOMAN IN CHARGE, the National Geographic series PHOTOGRAPHER, and Netflix's SURVIVING DEATH.
Shana Swanson
Shana Swanson is an Emmy, Peabody and DuPont Journalism Award winning and nominated producer known for bringing diverse and compelling projects to life. With a career spanning multiple genres, she combines creative vision with practical execution to consistently deliver high-quality productions. Recognized for her keen eye for talent and storytelling, her versatility ranges from indie films to large-scale productions, showcasing her expertise in all stages of production. Passionate about collaboration, she works closely with filmmakers to ensure each project reaches its full potential. She continues to push boundaries, solidifying her status as a leading producer in contemporary film and television. Shana is currently a Supervising Producer at ITVS and is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA). Shana has a BFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Documentary Short Competition
Joshua Minsoo Kim
Joshua Minsoo Kim is a music and film critic, film programmer, and educator based in Chicago. He is the editor-in-chief of Tone Glow, a publication dedicated to music and film coverage.
Pisie Hochheim and Tony Oswald
Pisie Hochheim and Tony Oswald are a married filmmaking duo based in Nashville, TN. They have directed four short films together which have played around the world garnering awards from many Oscar-qualifying festivals. Pisie edited the HBO docu-series NUCLEAR FAMILY which played at Telluride Film Festival, and was nominated for a Peabody and an Independent Spirit Award. Her other editing work has streamed on Hulu, Netflix, and PBS. She is currently editing Marnie Ellen Hertzler’s latest documentary ETERNITY ONE. Tony produced three feature-length films by director Brandon Colvin, including A DIM VALLEY, starring Robert Longstreet and Whitmer Thomas which was distributed by Altered Innocence. They co-produced and developed the documentary KINFOLK by Nicole Craine, executive produced by Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst. NEWVILLE is their feature directorial debut. It won “most promising U.S. project” at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, a Jacob Burns Film Center Residency, and was featured in Variety in 2025.
Isis Masoud
Isis Masoud is a casting director, actor, director, producer, and founding member of the nonfiction hotlist, a new initiative finding new pathways forward for nonfiction stories. Working in commercials for over a decade, she has produced work for clients including Apple, Facebook, Visa, NFL, Under Armour, Ancestry.com, Uber, Disney, CVS, IBM, Google, J.P. Morgan Chase, SnapChat, Mazda, and more. She is also the Webby Award-winning director and choreographer of The Last Goodbye. She has choreographed and performed alongside Nas at Radio City Music Hall, appeared in the Netflix series Bloodline and feature films such as Rock of Ages, True Love Blooms and South Mountain. Most recently she worked as a story producer and casting director for Volvo: American Love Stories, a brand sponsored Doc Series for Amazon Prime.
Georgia Feature Competition
Selina Lewis Davidson
Selina Lewis Davidson -Emmy-nominated & Sundance award-winning Producer - she has produced more than 15 nationally broadcast documentaries, including Hard Road Home (PBS), Occupation:Dreamland (The Sundance Channel) Hell House (The Sundance Channel) and Family Name (PBS). She Co-directed Acts of Reparation 2024. ATLFF 2025 Best Georgia feature film winner.
Win Marks
Win Marks is a filmmaker based in Atlanta, Georgia. His debut feature premiered at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival. For years he managed a lighting rental house and now works in art department. In his spare time you can find him reading short books and eating pie for breakfast.
Erika Lee
Erika is an award-winning writer, director and co-founder of Honey Head Films. Her immersive, character-driven debut feature, A Song for Imogene, earned multiple awards on the festival circuit, including Sundance ReFrame recognition for gender equity in filmmaking.
Georgia Short Competition
Giovanni Tortorici
Giovanni Tortorici is a filmmaker-playwright based in Brooklyn. In his films and plays, he explores themes of identity and memory through magical realism, most recently he’s been engaging with stories that blend documentary and fiction together. He is also learning tennis so he can say he's "learning tennis.”
Hector Prats i Castro
Film director and screenwriter born in Barcelona, based in New York. His early work directing music videos paved his transition into narrative. He graduated in Directing from the Columbia University Film MFA, and is currently represented by Iconoclast.
Kasey L. Martin
Kasey L. Martin is an Atlanta-based filmmaker whose multidisciplinary practice explores identity, intimacy, and the quiet tensions of everyday life. Her short film Swimming Holes received a Jury Special Mention at the Atlanta Film Festival, 2025. Her work has screened worldwide.
Narrative Feature Competition
Brandon Colvin
Dr. Brandon Colvin is an award-winning narrative filmmaker and an Associate Professor of filmmaking at The University of Alabama.
Max Geschwind
Max Geschwind works in the Media Finance department, which focuses on packaging, sourcing financing for, and/or selling the distribution rights to independently financed films, at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Geschwind, who joined the agency in 2021, is a member of CAA Elevate, a state-of-the-art program for agents and executives in training. He graduated from the University of Southern California with degrees in Cinema and Media Studies and Political Science. Geschwind is based in Los Angeles.
Violet Lucca
Violet Lucca is the author of the book David Cronenberg: Clinical Trials (Abrams, 2024). Lucca was formerly the Vice President of Digital at Harper’s Magazine and, prior to that, served as Digital Producer for Film Comment. (Fortunately or unfortunately, she also hosted both their podcasts.) Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Criterion’s The Current, Art in America, Defector, Discogs, Sight & Sound, Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, Harper’s Magazine online, the Village Voice, and elsewhere.
Narrative Short Competition
Kate Mason
Kate Mason is an LA-based mischief-maker who programs for the New Orleans Film Festival and produces screenings and events at Film Independent. She’s working on her debut feature film, SERIOUS PLAY, a hybrid documentary about juggling. Her alter ego is drag king Squirt Reynolds.
November Nolan
November Nolan is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker with a focus in documentary and queer narratives. Hailing from rural Kentucky, November draws from her experiences as a trans woman from the south to craft deeply personal stories, combining universal themes like loneliness and grief with trans-specific experiences. November’s directorial debut, Everywhere I Look, made its world premiere at BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, and played at festivals such as Palm Springs International ShortFest, Atlanta Film Festival, and Frameline Film Festival. She recently wrapped production on her first narrative short, Darla.
Lauren Thelen
Lauren Thelen has over a decade of experience in the film festival industry, with a career focused on amplifying emerging voices in cinema. As Programming Director of the Nashville Film Festival, she curates engaging lineups that balance entertainment and education, creating meaningful audience experiences while encouraging thoughtful engagement with film. She previously served as Education Manager at Cinema/Chicago and the Chicago International Film Festival, where she developed programs to support aspiring filmmakers and expand access within the industry. Throughout her career, Lauren has been committed to championing independent film and elevating underrepresented perspectives. She is passionate about discovering bold storytelling and creating opportunities for filmmakers to connect with wider audiences.
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About Atlanta Film Festival
The Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) is an Academy Award-qualifying festival and the Southeast’s preeminent celebration of cinema. In 2026, ATLFF marks its 50th anniversary, celebrating five decades of championing independent storytelling and creative voices from around the world. As one of the largest and longest-running film festivals in the country, ATLFF welcomes an audience of more than 28,000 annually to discover hundreds of new independent, international, animated, documentary, and short films, selected from over 5,500 submissions worldwide. The festival has been consistently recognized as a top cultural event, earning honors such as Best Film Festival by Creative Loafing, USA Today 10Best, and Atlanta Magazine. The 2026 Atlanta Film Festival will take place from April 23 - May 3 and is proudly supported by partners including CineFi and the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The Atlanta Film Festival is the flagship annual program of the Atlanta Film Society (ATLFS), one of the nation’s oldest and largest organizations dedicated to the promotion and education of film. ATLFS enriches the community year-round through screenings, classes, workshops, and filmmaker development initiatives.
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