The 49th Annual Atlanta Film Festival + Creative Conference presented byRendezvous (ATLFF) revealed newly added key programming, including the Closing Night Presentation, talent appearances, and the full lineup of Marquee screenings and Special Presentations for the 2025 event. The 11-day film festival and educational conference will take place Thursday, April 24 through Sunday, May 4, 2025, with screenings primarily held at the Plaza Theatre and Tara Theatre in Atlanta.
On Saturday, May 3, the Closing Night Presentation of A24’s “Friendship,” a comedy film written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, will take place at the Plaza Theatre at 7:00pm. The film stars Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson and chronicles a suburban dad as he falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor.
Today’s announcement includes Marquee screenings of“The Surfer,” starring Nicolas Cage, “Ricky,” directed by Rashad Frett, and documentary “Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted.” Newly announced talent expected to attend the festival include actor and SNAFU author Ed Helms, “Red Clay” Co-Screenwriters and Executive Producers Tauheed “2 Chainz” Epps and Omar Epps, “Come See Me in the Good Light” Director and producer Ryan White and producer Jessica Hargrave,“Desperately Seeking Susan” filmmaker Susan Seidelman, and “Metropolitan” filmmaker Whit Stillman. The Special Presentation lineup features collaborations with Atlanta Sustainable Fashion Week, the Atlanta Convention and Visitor Bureau, Seed & Spark, RE:IMAGINE and more.
The screenings and events announced today join the previously announced lineup of more than 132 official selections and Marquee screenings, including the Opening Night Presentation of the Georgia-filmed narrative feature, “Color Book.” Previously announced talent appearances at the 2025 festival include Kerry Washington, Will Catlett, Jeremiah Alexander Daniels, David Fortune, Billy Payne, and Ambassador Andrew Young.
Atlanta Film Festival will again offer a mix of in-person and virtual screenings. Screenings will be primarily held at the Plaza Theatre (1049 Ponce De Leon Ave NE) and The Tara Theatre (2345 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30324), with additional screenings and events held at The Rialto, The Supermarket, and Scout Atlanta. Most official selections will be available to watch virtually following the in-person events; the virtual screenings and events will be presented via Eventive.
The full schedule of selected films, Marquee screenings and Special Presentations is now available here and through the ATLFF 2025 app. Festival badges and individual screening tickets are also now available for purchase.
CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION
Friendship
directed by Andrew DeYoung
United States // 2024 // English // 101 mins
A suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor, but Craig’s attempts to make an adult male friend threaten to ruin both of their lives.
#NarrativeFeature, #Marquee
NEWLY ADDED MARQUEE SCREENINGS
Come See Me in the Good Light
directed by Ryan White
United States // 2025 // English // 104 mins
An unexpectedly funny and joyful love story, poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley navigate life and mortality in the face of an incurable diagnosis.
#DocumentaryFeature, #Marquee
*Director and producer Ryan White and producer Jessica Hargrave are expected to attend.
Ricky
directed by Rashad Frett
United States // 2025 // English 112 mins
Newly released after being locked up in his teens, 30-year-old Ricky navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration, and the complexity of gaining independence for the first time as an adult.
#Marquee
The Surfer
directed by Lorcan Finnegan
United States // 2024 // English // 103 mins
A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. When he is humiliated by a group of locals, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising and pushes him to his breaking point.
#NarrativeFeature, #Marquee
*Lorcan Finnegan expected to attend
Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
directed by Isaac Gale, Ryan Olson, David McMurry
United States // 2024 // English // 95 mins
Cult musician Swamp Dogg and housemates Moogstar and Guitar Shorty have turned their suburban LA home into an artistic haven. They journey through the turbulent music business, forming a special friendship transcending eras.
#DocumentaryFeature, #Marquee
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
A Cappella Books presents: SNAFU with Book Talk
written by Ed Helms
A Cappella Books and the Atlanta Film Festival are thrilled to welcome actor, comedian, writer and host of the hit podcast “SNAFU” Ed Helms to the historic Tara Theatre for a hilarious and history-packed evening in celebration of his new book, “SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups.” Spanning from the 1950s to the 2000s, “SNAFU” dives deep into some of America’s most entertaining historical misfires. With stories like planting nukes on the moon and training cats to be CIA spies, Helms unpacks the decision-making (or lack thereof) behind these misadventures. Filled with sharp humor, “SNAFU” is a wild ride through time that not only entertains but offers fresh insights that just might prevent history from repeating itself again and again.
#SpecialPresentation
*Ed Helms will attend for Book Talk conversation
ACVB Presents: Colors of Atlanta
An Academy Award®-qualifying event that showcases bold storytelling from around the world. This year’s featured documentaries follow 12 visionary photographers as they capture the city through food, history and the faces that define its culture. While a single image can tell a story, the deeper narrative behind each frame comes to life in this stunning visual journey. Experience the premiere of four new features on April 28, 2025, at the Plaza Theatre.
Reserve your ticket HERE.
#SpecialPresentation
Atlanta Sustainable Fashion Week presents: Fashion Meets Film: The 2025 Zero Waste Fashion Show
In partnership with Atlanta Sustainable Fashion Week, Fashion Meets Film: The 2025 Zero Waste Fashion Show will take place on April 25 at The Supermarket Atlanta. This groundbreaking event blends fashion, film, and conscious creativity, featuring the debut of the College Football Playoff Upcycled Collection, crafted from repurposed game-day materials.
#SpecialPresentation
Coherence
directed by James Ward Byrkit
United States, United Kingdom // 2013 // English // 99 mins
Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.
#NarrativeFeature, #SpecialPresentation
Desperately Seeking Susan
directed by Susan Seidelman
United States // 1985 // English // 104 mins
Plazadrome and the Atlanta Film Festival present: “Desperately Seeking Susan” (1985) with director Susan Seidelman in attendance. In the film, a bored New Jersey suburban housewife’s fascination with a free-spirited woman she has read about in the personal columns leads to her being mistaken for the woman herself. A book signing will take place ahead of the screening with the director and author Marya E. Gates on Saturday, May 3 at 12pm at the Plaza Theatre.
#NarrativeFeature, #SpecialPresentation
*Susan Seidelman expected to attend
The Games in Black & White
directed by George Hirthler and Bob Judson
United States // 2025 // 100 mins
Centered around the inspirational friendship of icons Andrew Young and Billy Payne—the most successful Black and White partnership in the American South in the civil rights era—“The Games in Black & White” presents the first comprehensive look at Atlanta’s Olympics from bid to legacy and the city’s transformation that followed.
#DocumentaryFeature, #SpecialPresentation
*Ambassador Andrew Young and Billy Payne expected to attend
Metropolitan
directed by Whit Stillman
United States, Spain // 1989 // English // 98 mins
A group of young upper-class Manhattanites are blithely passing through the gala debutante season, when an unusual outsider joins them and stirs them up.
#NarrativeFeature, #Special Presentation
*Walt Stillman expected to attend
Plaza presents: Rocky Horror Picture Show with LDOD
directed by Jim Sharman
United States // 1975 // English // 93 minutes
In this cult classic, sweethearts Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon), stuck with a flat tire during a storm, discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a transvestite scientist. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker (Meat Loaf) and a creepy butler (Richard O’Brien). Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named “Rocky.”
LDOD was founded to perform screen accurate productions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show every Friday night as an alternative entertainment source for the metro Atlanta area.
#SpecialPresentation
RE:IMAGINE Presents ‘Reel Connections: Spring’—A Celebration of Atlanta’s Rising Filmmakers
As part of the Atlanta Film Festival, Reel Connections: Spring will feature a curated selection of student work, short films from RE:IMAGINE programs, and work from local artists, offering a platform for fresh perspectives in storytelling. Attendees will also gain insight from an esteemed panel of students, teaching artists, and HBCU Fellows, who will share their journeys and experiences in the industry.
#SpecialPresentation
Seed & Spark Sustainability Summit
Presented by Dolly Card, IMDb Pro, and the Trilith Institute, the Seed & Spark Sustainability Summit is a FREE one-day educational event focused on bringing the local independent film community together and thriving as a storyteller living in the Southeast.
#SpecialPresentation
Shadow Force
directed by Joe Carnahan
United States // 2025 // English // 104 minutes
Kyrah (Kerry Washington) and Issac (Omar Sy) were once the leaders of a multinational special forces group called Shadow Force. They broke the rules by falling in love, and in order to protect their son, they go underground. With a large bounty on their heads, and the vengeful Shadow Force hot on their trail, one family’s fight becomes all-out war.
#NarrativeFeature, #Marquee
*Kerry Washington expected to attend
Withdrawal
directed by Aaron Strand
United States // 2025 // English // 93 mins
Artistic lovers, Viv and Jay, have become trapped in a vicious cycle of codependent heroin
addiction. But when Viv’s wealthy parents hire an interventionist to take Viv to rehab, the couple
decides to set off on their own with the help of a suboxone prescription… all they have to do is
survive a harrowing night through drug withdrawal. As the hours tick by, the couple is faced with
an ever-increasing array of physical, mental, and emotional torments that sends them searching
through their fractured memories trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
#NarrativeFeature, #SpecialPresentation, #GeorgiaFilm, #WorldPremiere
NARRATIVE SHORTS
Red Clay
directed by Christian Nolan Jones
United States // 2025 // English // 22 mins
In early 2000s Atlanta, Nook struggles to define a future for himself, aside from the world perpetuated by his mother’s addiction.
#NarrativeShort #GeorgiaFilm
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About Atlanta Film Festival
The Atlanta Film Festival is an Academy Award-qualifying festival and the area’s preeminent celebration of cinema. As one of the largest and longest-running festivals in the country, ATLFF welcomes an audience of over 28,000 annually to discover hundreds of new independent, international, animated, documentary, and short films, selected from 8000+ submissions from all over the world. It is also the most distinguished event in its class, recognized as Best Film Festival by Creative Loafing, Sunday Paper, 10Best, and Atlanta Magazine. The 2025 Atlanta Film Festival will take place from April 24 – May 4 and is presented by Rendezvous.
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.