For the second time in a row, Elements of Madness will officially be covering Atlanta Film Festival so, ahead of the festival start, here’s a few films that I’m hoping to see or recommend to keep an eye out for in wider distribution.
**These recommendations are primarily based on reading the summaries and finding them intriguing. If I’m able to cover (or EoM has covered previously), the titles will be hyperlinked with a review – so be sure to check back.**
Atlanta Film Festival 2025 takes place in Atlanta, Georgia from April 24th – May 4th, 2025.
Acts of Reparation
Official Synopsis:
Acts of Reparation follows two friends as they explore what reparations means to them. Selina, who is Black, and Macky, who is white, have been friends and filmmaking partners for 25 years. Genealogy nerds, they travel south to reclaim and reckon with their roots. In the process they move from awkward outsiders toward belonging to broad kin networks who come along for the ride.
From kitchen tables to porches, lost cemeteries to discovered diaries, their journeys lead to unexpected opportunities that transform their friendship, families and communities. In Monroe, Louisiana, Selina gathers stories from a sisterhood of her great aunties who together sleuth to uncover the buried tales of their ancestors. In Penfield, Georgia, Macky challenges generations of his kin to dismantle privilege they inherited from enslavers and support Black leaders nearby. In Acts of Reparation, we see everyday Americans become the change they want to see in the world.
The Death Tour
Official Synopsis:
The Death Tour follows wrestling hopefuls across remote Indigenous communities in Canada’s far North on ‘the most grueling tour in indie wrestling’. This test of strength and grit will show how far some are willing to go to live their dreams.
Driver
Official Synopsis:
After losing everything, Desiree Wood takes a second lease on life as a long-haul truck driver. Alongside an irreverent group of women truckers, she fights for a life on the road.
Image/trailer
A still from the documentary DRIVER. Photo courtesy of Atlantic Film Festival.
It Ends
Official Synopsis:
Four recent college grads, out for an innocent late night drive, find themselves trapped in a seemingly never-ending hellscape where they are being haunted by mysterious forces. Questions of friendship and existentialism are explored in director Alexander Ullom’s genre-bending first feature, equal parts terrifying and thought-provoking.
A still from IT ENDS. Photo courtesy of The Overlook Film Festival.
Meta Take One
Official Synopsis:
Meta Take One is a high-intensity, black-and-white thriller that plunges viewers into a night-long odyssey, following an obsessive young filmmaker who will stop at nothing to finish his film—even as reality unravels around him. Shot on a mix of 16mm film and digital, the film blurs the lines between creativity and chaos, exploring the cost of artistic obsession.
Mongrels
Official Synopsis:
Mongrels is the portrait of a grieving Korean immigrant family seeking a new life in Canada, amidst a wild dog infestation that devastates a prairie town in the 1990s.
More Beautiful Perversions
Official Synopsis:
A disillusioned teenager in the city follows a stranger to The Woods, and ends up learning about plants, their queerness, and a more beautiful purpose.
OBEX
Official Synopsis:
Conor Marsh lives a secluded life with his dog, Sandy, until one day he begins playing OBEX, a new, state-of-the-art computer game. When Sandy goes missing, the line between reality and game blurs and Conor must venture into the strange world of OBEX to bring her home.
A still from OBEX. Photo courtesy of director Albert Birney.
The Summer Book
Official Synopsis:
Set in the idyllic Finnish coastal landscape, this film adaptation of Tove Jansson’s most beloved novel from 1972 depicts the evolving, magical, and lifelike story of Sophia and her grandmother as they spend their summer on a small island, grieving the passing of Sophia’s mother.
Third Act
Official Synopsis:
Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “The Godfather of Asian American film,” but his son, Tad, calls him Dad. As the filmmaking son of a filmmaking legend, Tad uses the lessons his dad taught him to decipher the legacy of an aging man who was a child survivor of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, a successful photographer who gave it up to tell his own story, an activist at the dawn of a social movement—and a father whose struggles have won his son freedoms that eluded Japanese Americans of his generation. As Parkinson’s Disease clouds his memory, Tad sets out to retrieve his story—and in the process discovers his own. The two have made films together, with Robert always by Tad’s side. Third Act is most likely the last.
L-R: Tadashi Nakamura, Robert A. Nakamura, and Prince in the documentary THIRD ACT. Photo courtesy of Generation Films/Sundance Film Festival.
Vulcanizadora
Official Synopsis:
Two best friends cut a path through the Michigan woods. Derek (Joel Potrykus) is a loquacious bundle of nervous energy in weather-appropriate attire with an overstuffed backpack full of camping gear. Marty (Joshua Burge), quietly determined in street clothes, carries a single bag whose contents and purpose is a cautiously avoided topic. This is not a vacation. They’re on a mission.
The White House Effect
Official Synopsis:
Three decades ago, the world was poised to stop global warming. Using exclusively archival material, The White House Effect tells the dramatic origin story of the climate crisis and how a political battle in the George H.W. Bush administration changed the course of history.
A still from the documentary THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT. Photo courtesy of Atlantic Film Festival.
Withdrawal
Official Synopsis:
Withdrawal is an upcoming feature film written and directed by Aaron Strand. It tells the raw, unflinching story of two star-crossed lovers battling heroin addiction in Athens, GA. Facing rehab, they dream of NYC, but must first survive a harrowing 24-hour withdrawal. Their journey tests love and resilience, highlighting the power of the human spirit.
A still from THE WORLD DROP DEAD. Photo courtesy of Aaron Strand.
The World Drops Dead
Official Synopsis:
Claire struggles to cope as the shock of her father’s suicide ripples through her small Quaker community. Desperate to reunite with the only person who seemed to understand her, she reaches out to her father across the boundary of death.
A still from THE WORLD DROP DEAD. Photo courtesy of Atlantic Film Festival.
Your Tomorrow
Official Synopsis:
With an historic public park set to close for redevelopment, an eccentric yet lovable group of park regulars and staff members live out its final year open to the public while confronting its controversial transformation into a private spa and waterpark.
Filming for nearly 100 days with a fully observational approach, Your Tomorrow documents a transitional moment in the landscape of the city, asking viewers to consider what our modern cities should look like, while shedding light on the values of our generation.
About Atlanta Film Festival:
Now in its fourth decade, the Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF)—one of only two-dozen Academy Award® qualifying festivals in the U.S.—is the area’s preeminent celebration of cinema. ATLFF is one of the largest and longest-running festivals in the country, welcoming an audience of over 28,000 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.
ATLFF screenings often include in-person dialog with filmmakers, providing audiences, artists, and industry professionals with meaningful opportunities to network, interact and engage. Recent festival guests have included Josh Brolin (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Michael Ealy (BARBERSHOP), Jasmine Guy (DIFFERENT WORLD), Gary Anthony Williams (MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE), Pauley Chris Moore (GOOD WILL HUNTING,), Howard Zinn (The Peoples’ History of the United States), Ray McKinnon (THE BLIND SIDE), Walton Goggins (THE SHIELD), Margaret Cho (DROP DEAD DIVA), comedian Jeff Foxworthy, Pauley Perrette (NCIS), Tichina Arnold (EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS), John Sayles (PASSION FISH), Hal Hartley (SIMPLE MEN), Carlos Cauron (RUDO Y CURSI) and Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers).
ATLFF is presented by The Atlanta Film Society (ATLFS), a membership-based 501(c)(3) arts non-profit with a mission to lead the community, both locally and worldwide, in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image. ATLFS presents a diverse slate of year-round offerings for film lovers, filmmakers, and industry professionals. Year-round programs —screenings, parties, panels, workshops, and other educational events –provide a forum for building the community of film lovers and film supporters. By bringing audiences and filmmakers together, the Society has the opportunity to broaden the perspective of both artists and moviegoers.
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Categories: Coming Soon, Recommendation
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