Image Film and Video Center’s 30th Annual Atlanta Film Festival, the South’s premier experience for movie lovers, independent filmmakers and fans, will take place June 9-17 in Downtown and Midtown Atlanta. Celebrating an impressive three decades, this film festival is one of the longest-running in North America and one of the best-attended in the Southeastern United States.



"We are extremely excited to be celebrating our 30th anniversary. This year's program is our finest ever," said Jake Jacobson, the festival’s director. "We have designed the program to appeal to the entire spectrum of filmgoers. There are more women and minority filmmakers included than any other major film festival in America. We have more world and national premieres than ever before, a thrilling blend of state-of-the-art documentary and ground-breaking narrative works. If you remember how great it can be to go to the movies, the 30th Atlanta Film Festival delivers with every film."



The 30th annual festival begins on Friday, June 9 with the opening night screening of Quinceanera at the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts. This work looks at the traditional Latin American celebration that marks the transition from childhood to womanhood, showing what can happen when teenage sexuality, age-old rituals, and real-estate prices collide. It is a powerful comedy-drama, fueled by the racial, class and sexual tensions of a Latino neighborhood in transition. Quinceanera, with Todd Haynes as executive producer, was the unprecedented double-winner of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award as Best Narrative Film. Directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer, along with actor Jesse Garcia, will be at the opening night screening.



During the nine-day festival, over 150 films will be shown at venues around Atlanta, including the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, Cinefest Theater at Georgia State University, Georgia State University Speakers Auditorium, Woodruff Arts Center’s Rich Auditorium, Lefont Garden Hills Cinema and the Center for Puppetry Arts. Some of the festival’s 2006 highlights include:



Music Movies Midtown - Several great new music documentaries on some of North America's living and legendary music artists from the rock, jazz, folk and rap genres
Georgia Grown - A fantastic collection of works by Georgia filmmakers
Animation Extravaganza – An annual audience favorite featuring a selection of animated shorts
Out on Film – A selection of films exploring gay and lesbian topics
Darkness at Noon - A spine-tingling matinee collection of short films focusing on madness, death and horror
Faulkner Festival – A tribute to the rich literary history of the Deep South, featuring three brilliant works related to the Pulitzer Prize-winning legend


The curtain will close on this year’s event on Saturday, June 17 with the world premiere of the film the little Death, a taut and naughty psychological thriller drawing an intricate web of manipulation, mistaken identity, madness, sex and good old holiday murder. Before the film, festival awards will be presented in all categories, including filmmaker honors as well as prizes for best narrative, documentary, short film and student film. For more information on the Atlanta Film Festival, including a complete list of films, venues and show times, please visit www.atlantafilmfestival.com.