Atlanta Underground Film Festival
Atlanta Underground Film Festival
AUFF is Atlanta’s underground film festival with more than twenty years of history in Georgia’s indie scene. It presents strange, raw and outsider cinema from local and international filmmakers.
About Atlanta Underground Film Festival
AUFF
For 23 years, the Atlanta Underground Film Festival has supported real independent filmmaking in Atlanta. It’s a home for underground films, fresh ideas, and artists who take risks and make work in their own style.
The 23rd Annual AUFF runs August 7 to 9, 2026 at Limelight Theater in Atlanta. Each year, the festival screens underground films, indie shorts, features, documentaries, animation, and experimental work from around the world. The focus is simple. Show films that sit outside the mainstream and keep Atlanta’s underground film community active.
Filmmakers submit to AUFF because the festival respects independent voices. Audiences attend because they want raw storytelling, strange surprises, and films that stand out. The weekend includes parties, mixers, and chances to meet filmmakers and local film fans.
After more than two decades, AUFF remains a key independent and underground film festival in Atlanta and Georgia. If you’re submitting a project or looking for something different on screen, this is where underground film lives.
Festival Awards
Best Feature Film
Awarded to a feature that captures the raw, fearless spirit of underground cinema.
Best Short Film
Given to a short that stands out with a clear voice and original style.
Best Director
For a filmmaker whose direction brings the film to life in a memorable way.
AUFF Spirit Award
For the film that best reflects the DIY energy and risk-taking at the heart of underground film.
Underground Visionary
For a filmmaker with a strong voice and fresh perspective we want to see more of.
Mindbender
For the film that pushes boundaries and takes the audience somewhere strange or unexpected.
Best Emerging Filmmaker
Awarded to a new filmmaker whose work shows real promise and a strong point of view.
Best Local Short Film
For a standout short made in Georgia or by a Georgia-based filmmaker.
Best Local Feature Film
For a standout feature made in Georgia or by a Georgia-based filmmaker.
Audience Award
Picked by the crowd. The film that hit hardest with our audience.
Jury Award
Chosen by the festival jury, this award goes to a film that stood out for its craft, vision, or impact. Something that truly deserves recognition.
Winners in each category will receive a custom crystal trophy to mark their achievement.
Why filmmakers submit to AUFF
• The festival has more than twenty years of history in Atlanta’s underground film scene.
• It supports independent voices and gives space to films that don’t fit traditional categories.
• The audience shows up for strange, raw, and original work.
• Filmmakers get real engagement from audiences who have been coming for over 20 years.
• The event includes mixers and parties that make it easy to meet other filmmakers.
• AUFF screens shorts, features, docs, animation, and experimental films from Georgia and around the world.
• The festival has a long reputation in Atlanta for supporting outsider and underground cinema.