Truly a Struggle..

So in our recent assignment to go forth and meet with experienced individuals in the fields of Festivals. I was already set up with a challenge, because the person assigned to me was dodging Shannon on all forms of communication, hoping I could be a little more successful, I found that I too was to be ignored. So saddened that I wouldnt be able to talk to this person, I've put my hope for now in to the Marketing Director of the Atlanta Film Festival. 
So! Lets dig into the research I found after looking into them a little deeper. The Atlanta Film Festival, started in 1976 (so celebrating their 40th year next year!), is held at Atlanta's Plaza Theater with a secondary stage at the 7 stages and will be held again April 1st to the 10th. Their missions is as follows: 
"The mission of the Atlanta Film Festival is to lead the community in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image. It works to bring filmmakers and audiences together through year-round screenings, events, and networking opportunities."
Which is a pretty broad statement honestly, however check under their history page and you'll find the following statement which might show a clearer view on what they look for. 
"We actively seek films that reflect and feature LGBTQ (Pink Peach), female (New Mavericks), ethnically diverse, or experimental themes" 
In this statement they even give titles of past films screened there that fit the description of what they look for specifically. When you then look at the page of past films they've screened they mean what they say, as the page is just a splash of subjects of different races and gender litter across the page. Now on to some nitty gritty details, they take submissions through Withoutabox and Film Freeway. Their deadlines are as follows: the early bird is June 20th (prices are 35 for feature, 25 for short, 15 for show pilot/experimental short/pupperty short/music video), regular deadline is Sept 18th (prices are 45 for features, 35 for short and 15 again for the remaining categories), their late deadline is Oct 23 (prices are 55 for feature, 45 for short and still 15 for the others), and their Withoutabox extended deadline is Nov 6 (prices are 90, 80 and still 15). There is no student category and for submissions they take either two dvds or a private vimeo link with a password. At their last festival they screened about 92 films with shorts blocks than ran from an hour and 145 minutes to two hours, with about 8 to 6 films per block. Guest passes are purchased through eventbrite with discounts available for students/seniors and military patrons. Their sponsorship varies from big industry and local art/cultural staples, but a lot of them are local staples that promote the city as a whole. With their puppetry section they definitely stand out by having an entire section dedicated to puppetry focused shorts and features. Also with it's second location this film festival promotes a bit of a walking tour of local atlanta watering holes for first time visitors of the city.
Now when looking at the page at self it's pretty bland and could use a more eye catching visual when one visits their page. It's however very easy to navigate and find what I need to find, I like how for their films page the image on its individual bio page fits behind the festival's logo. So I would take that idea and turn into an animated gif  of past films screened for the main page. And with that wraps up my research on the Atlanta Film Festival.