Heading into its third year, the Athens Film Festival will hit the college town over four days at the end of August.
The festival will run from Aug. 27-30, featuring over 130 films from more than 30 countries, according to the festival’s website. One of the marquee screenings is the world premiere of “Changes: The Story of Sugar,” about the Athens-formed rock band Sugar. Members of the band will stick around for a Q&A after the fact, according to the event page.
“They just reunited this year,” Athens Film Festival Executive Director Chuck Griffin said. “The documentary goes through their past, but also shows them today and how they reformed.”
Griffin started the Athens Film Festival in 2024, spurred on by the number of film festivals he’d seen come and go to the city over the years. Born and raised in Athens and an alumni of the University of Georgia, Griffin thought he had the know-how to make it work.
“Why not me?” he remembered thinking. “I have a love for this town and an understanding of what this town represents as far as what a festival could be and what its identity is.”
As a city, Athens’ identity is inseparable from college football. But its status as a college town has also helped forge the city’s artistic identity, said Griffin. Athens is the home of the Georgia Bulldogs, but it’s also the birthplace of bands like R.E.M., Widespread Panic, and the B-52’s. It’s the home of arts festivals like AthFest, and the Wild Rumpus Halloween Celebration. It’s a place where grassroots arts movements pop up all the time.
“People congregate here to celebrate art,” Griffin said.
Griffin also believes that Athens is the premiere “audience town,” meaning that there aren’t only artists looking to work, but the crowds needed to keep them coming back. One thing that he thinks makes the Athens Film Festival special is that the audience is primarily made up of everyday people.
“I’ve found that the majority of our audience is community-based,” he said. “They’re not exactly filmmakers, or industry pros, or involved in the industry in any way.”
Because a large segment of their crowds come from the surrounding area, Griffin wanted to keep ticket prices as low as possible. Individual tickets for screenings at the Athens Film Festival run from $12-20, while an all-access pass for the whole weekend is $90. Tickets can be purchased online.
In addition to the movies, there will also be workshops and panels with industry experts throughout the weekend. Events include a film scoring class from composer and UGA assistant professor Dr. Trinity Vélez-Justo and, according to Griffin, a workshop with Damon Russell, the Oscar-winning producer of the short film “Curfew.”
The full schedule for the Athens Film Festival can be found online.
