Founding

In 1968, the Atlanta International Film Festival was launched, becoming Atlanta's first major film event. It operated until 1974 when the organizers were no longer able to finance the operation. Two years later, a group of independent filmmakers and artists established Independent Media Artists of Georgia, Etc. (IMAGE) as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1976. The IMAGE Film & Video Center opened that year as the first media arts center in the state of Georgia, providing much-needed equipment access, networking, information dissemination, and support to local filmmakers. A year later, the inaugural Atlanta Independent Film & Video Festival launched on May 14, 1977 at the Piedmont Park Bathhouse.

Academy Award Qualification

For decades, ATLFF has been an Academy Award-qualifying event for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. After AMPAS changed the rules for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) qualification, ATLFF became Oscar-qualifying in all three short film categories in 2015. The winners of the Best Narrative Short Film, Best Animated Short Film and Best Documentary Short Film Jury Prizes go on to be eligible for the respective shortlists for their Oscar categories. Ray McKinnon's The Accountant won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2002 after qualifying at the 2001 Atlanta Film Festival.

IMAGE Film Awards Gala

On June 7, 2001, the organization launched the annual IMAGE Film Awards Gala as a separate event attached to the annual film festival. Recognizing individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to building the state's film industry and community, the awards were named in honor of the organization's founding name. Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies hosted the first reception where founding IMAGE Executive Director Gayla Jamison, Georgia Governor Zell Miller, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Gary Moss, and Crawford Communications were the inaugural honorees.

The IMAGE Film Awards Gala continued for eight years until 2008, when the Atlanta Film Society paused the program for over a decade. It returned again on April 3, 2019 at the Fox Theatre's Egyptian Ballroom attached to the 43rd annual ATLFF, where Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, Actor/Musician/Producer Tip "T.I." Harris, Director Corporate Responsibility & Civic Affairs at Turner Broadcasting and Georgia Representative Betsy Holland, and "The Walking Dead" Executive Producer Tom Luse were honored.

Other IMAGE Film Award recipients include Dallas Austin, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, the Georgia Film Office, Diane Ladd, Spike Lee, Will Packer, Parker Posey, Burt Reynolds, Michael Stipe, Tyler Perry Studios, and Cicely Tyson.^[5]

Notable discoveries

Spike Lee may be considered ATLFF's first great filmmaker discovery. Lee made his first film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn, while a mass communications student at Morehouse College with the encouragement of his mentor, Dr. Herb Eichelberger, a co-founder of the Atlanta Film Society (then known as IMAGE). The festival was the first to screen the film, where it won a jury prize of $25. After winning the jury prize, Lee decided to pursue a career as a filmmaker. ATLFF also screened Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, which won Lee a 1983 Student Academy Award. He was honored in 2005 with the inaugural Ossie Davis Award, in 2009 with a 20th-anniversary screening of Do The Right Thing, and in 2019 with the Originator Award.^[6]

When ATLFF revived its annual Screenplay Competition in 2008, Athens-native James Ponsoldt was among the inaugural winners. Ponsoldt later went on to serve as a mentor for the Screenwriter's Retreat (the main prize of the Screenplay Competition) and his film The Spectacular Now was the Closing Night presentation of the 2013 ATLFF.

Stella Meghie's debut feature Jean of the Joneses won the 2011 ATLFF Screenplay Competition and went on to be the first winning screenplay to be produced and play the festival. The film premiered at the 2016 South by Southwest Film Festival and then played ATLFF, with Meghie in attendance alongside stars Sherri Shepherd, Taylour Paige and Erica Ash.

Additionally, ATLFF has played the first works of Heidi Ewing, David Gordon Green, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Tina Mabry, Ray McKinnon, Victor Nuñez, Robert Rodriguez, RuPaul, David O. Russell and more.

Midtown

In 2007, the festival partnered with the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema to centrally locate the festival to Midtown, dubbed the "Heart of Atlanta’s Arts" and home to a wide array of restaurants, bars and shops. The change allowed the festival more opportunities for panels, screenplay readings, film discussions and after-parties.

Highlands and Little Five Points

After 6 years centered at Landmark, the festival moved its home base to Atlanta's oldest continually operating cinema, The Plaza Theatre on Ponce de Leon Avenue, and added 7 Stages Theatre as a secondary venue. Taking advantage of the Poncey-Highland and Little 5 Points areas, the change pushed the event to be more of a walkable festival. The move was praised by locals and introduced out-of-town guests to Atlanta's unique neighborhoods. In the years since, ATLFF has reactivated the historic Hilan Theatre on North Highland Avenue in Virginia-Highland and incorporated several local landmarks as venues, such as The Highland Inn & Ballroom, The Church at Ponce & Highland, Ponce City Market, The Hotel Clermont and Dad's Garage Theatre Company.

ATLFF Screenplay Competition and Screenwriter's Retreat

Since 2008, ATLFF has hosted an annual Screenplay Competition that attracts over 1,300 submissions each year. Three feature film screenwriter winners attend a 3-day Screenwriter's Retreat at Serenbe where professional mentors help them workshop their scripts and get ready for the next stages of production. Winning screenplays also are featured at the festival in a staged table read. Additional prizes are also offered to winning episodic and short film scripts.^[8]

Out on Film and Pink Peach

For years the Atlanta Film Festival organization produced Atlanta's Out on Film gay film festival. In the Fall of 2008 the Atlanta Film Festival gave Out on Film to the LGBTQ community. Out on Film became an independent, 501(c)(3) gay/lesbian operation. Since 2008, the festival has included the Pink Peach track, highlighting LGBTQ films and filmmakers.

From 2008 to 2015, there was a Pink Peach Jury Award annually given to a feature film. Since 2016, LGBTQ films in competition are considered for the general jury prizes.

New Mavericks

In 2013, the festival featured a shorts block titled New Mavericks, featuring films by female filmmakers with strong female leads. This began an annual tradition and in 2015, the New Mavericks program was expanded to include feature films and an annual New Mavericks prize.

SOUND+VISION

In 2012, the festival partnered with the Goat Farm Arts Center and indieATL to introduce a special, mostly-outdoor event featuring music videos, art installations and live musical performances called SOUND+VISION. The evening is an example of the types of elements film festivals continue to add as they look to redefine themselves, connect with audiences and innovate. An estimated 1,200 people attended in its inaugural year, dropping to just under 800 in 2013, due to inclimate weather. In 2014, the event drew over 1,500 attendees, and eclipsed 3,000 attendees in 2015. In 2016, the event moved to Ponce City Market and again to 787 Windsor in 2017. After a year break, SOUND+VISION returned and took place on the BeltLine and in Historic Fourth Ward Park in 2019.