THE 2025 ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL & CREATIVE CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES FIRST WAVE OF FILMS
ATLANTA, GA (March 3, 2025) – The Atlanta Film Society (ATLFS) is pleased to announce the first wave of films programmed for the upcoming 49th Annual Atlanta Film Festival & Creative Conference (ATLFF), slated for April 24 through May 4, 2025. Each year, this first wave announcement acts as the earliest glimpse at the upcoming festival and represents the exciting programming choices to come.
This first wave, selected from the over 7000+ film & screenplay submissions, consists of three documentary features and three narrative features.
“As always, we’re excited to offer this first small taste of our whole program, which will be 150+ films strong. The range and breadth of topics and tones on offer in these 6 films is an indicator of the vast variety to be expected from this year’s ATLFF”
For the fourth consecutive year, ATLFF has received over 7,000 submitted works with over 35 countries being represented. These first selections of films will be joined by over 150 others selected from submitted works when the entire lineup is released later this month.
GIANT’S KETTLE
Narrative Feature
Directed by Markku Hakala & Mari Käki
Finland, No dialogue, 71 minutes
Two people struggle to connect with each other and the world. It’s as if the whole world was drained of love, chugging along on mere duties and bureaucratic inertia, passing over the baggage of the generations. Then, during the family trip the reality itself starts to make way for the surreal and the facades start to fall down. Something is about to emerge from the depths of the subconscious... Giant’s Kettle is a love story without love, a cinematic journey into the unconscious, an epic tragicomedy of the mundane, and a mystery in a world emptied of mystery.
MONGRELS
Narrative Feature
Directed by Jerome Yoo
Canada, English/Korean, 110 minutes
In rural Canada in the 1990s, a Korean family – a widower, his teenage son, and young daughter – attempts to find their way in a new land while navigating the darkness of their grief. Sonny, a huntsman, is enticed by an old friend to immigrate to Canada where he is hired to eradicate the feral canines plaguing their town in exchange for shelter. Hajoon navigates what it means to be a man and young Hana, missing her mother, dreams up ways to make her return.
REMOVAL OF THE EYE
Narrative Feature
Directed by Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan
United States, English, 92 minutes
New parents Ram and Kallia are at their wits' end with their sleepless baby Niko. Their world is further upended when Kallia's father suffers a freak accident, and they become primary caretakers for her ailing mother, Katerina, who lives downstairs. Convinced that the family's misfortunes have been caused by the evil eye, Katerina insists on performing an ancient exorcism to save the family, to Kallia and Ram's dismay. As chaos brews, the couple are tossed between the pressures of modern parenting, age-old superstitions, and the brutal market for creative work.
WANDERING FLAVIO
Documentary Feature
Directed by Marie Liesse
France, French, 60 minutes
Flavio, a visually impaired teenager, is in his final year at the Lycée Buffon in Paris, preparing for his baccalauréat. Passionate about trains and music, he is planning to study law. On the eve of his baccalaureate, he has to decide which path to take.
WE ARE INSIDE
Documentary Feature
Directed by Farah Kassem
Arabic, Lebanon, 180 minutes
"After more than a decade, Farah returns home to Tripoli, Lebanon, to care for her aging widowed father, Mustapha only to find her city in crisis. Their generational differences often lead to clashing perspectives on the country’s instability, making it difficult to communicate with each other. But within this lack of understanding there’s humor and a will to understand.
There’s a secret refuge: Mustapha’s weekly all-male poetry club, where a small group of stubborn yet lovable men gather to share poems in classical Arabic over sweets and with an agreement to disagree about everything. In order to connect with her father, Farah decides to join the club and address Mustapha in verses to connect with the poet in him. As Mustapha’s health deteriorates and the October 2019 revolution erupts nationwide, poetry becomes their chance for one last conversation."
THE DEATH TOUR
Documentary Feature
Directed by Stephan Peterson, Sonya Ballantyne
Canada, English, 89 minutes
"Each winter, when the lakes freeze over, a motley gang of professional wrestlers leaves Winnipeg on a one-of-a-kind wrestling trip through remote Indigenous neighborhood of Northern Manitoba. Wrestling insiders call it the ‘Death Tour’ - both for the physical hardships endured on the road and the emotional toll it takes on those who experience it. Famous for its star-studded alumni, the trip offers wrestlers a rare taste of fame and a chance to see if they have what it takes to make it in professional wrestling. This deeply personal documentary travels through Canada’s frozen North and into the wrestlers’ minds as they battle the elements, each other, and the impacts of our colonial past."
For images from the First Wave films, please click here. More information on the Atlanta Film Festival can be found at www.AtlantaFilmFestival.com.
ATLFF Logos can be found at https://www.atlantafilmfestival.com/visual/
About the Atlanta Film Festival
The Atlanta Film Festival, now in its fifth decade, is an Academy Award-qualifying festival and one of the region’s largest and longest-running preeminent celebrations of cinema in the Southeast United States. More than 27,000 festival attendees are expected to enjoy independent, animated, documentary, and short films selected from more than 9,000 submissions from 100 countries at the 2023 event. The Atlanta Film Festival is the chief annual operation of the Atlanta Film Society (ATLFS), one of the oldest and largest organizations dedicated to the promotion and education of film in the United States, which enriches the community through screenings, classes, workshops, and other events year-round. It is also the most distinguished event in its class, recognized on USA Today’s ‘10Best Film Festivals’, as well as the 'Best Spring Festival' by Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 'Best Film Festival' by Creative Loafing and Atlanta Magazine, and one of the '25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World' by MovieMaker Magazine. Major funding for the Atlanta Film Society is provided by Mailchimp, the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners through the Fulton County Arts & Culture Department, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Motion Picture Association, Panavision, and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. www.AtlantaFilmFestival.com