AWARDS & PRIZES – ATLANTA EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
ATL EXP honors films and creators who break structure, twist form, and push new ideas. These awards recognize the best of experimental cinema across every style.
Best Short
Top honor. Awarded to the film that hits the hardest through vision, craft, and impact.
Best Experimental Narrative
For storytelling that moves, surprises, or unsettles. Linear or not. Bold, strange, emotional, or dreamlike.
Best Experimental Documentary
For documentary work that uses experimental structure, visual style, or point of view. Creative nonfiction, poetic doc, or hybrid forms.
Best Experimental Horror
For films that lean dark. Surreal dread, psychological tension, visual nightmares, or anything that distorts the genre in a new way.
Innovation Award
Given to the film that pushes new methods. Could be handmade techniques, mixed media, or AI driven work that breaks form.
The Mindbender
Awarded to the film that gets under your skin. Strange, disorienting, hypnotic, or unforgettable.
Best Handmade / Analog Short
For work created through physical or analog processes. Painted film. Collage. Direct animation. Hand-crafted visuals.
Best AI Short
For films that use artificial intelligence as part of the creative process. Visuals, animation, editing, story, or hybrid methods.
Creator of the Year
Presented to an artist whose work, on screen or across multiple projects, defines the spirit of ATL EXP. Fearless, inventive, original.
Audience Choice
Voted on by the crowd during the live event.
Each winner receives a custom crystal trophy. A reminder that your wild, rule-breaking film found its people.
