Best Filmmaker

Giving Tyler Perry all due respect as a phenomenally successful filmmaker, king of all media and coveted employer, is it too much to ask that his films be better? Atlanta-based RAINFOREST FILMS beat Tyler Perry at his own game with This Christmas, an African-American family story with a terrific cast (including Delroy Lindo, Regina King and Idris Elba) and an agreeable moral message that avoided preaching at its audience. Director Rob Hardy and producer Will Packer founded Rainforest Films in 1994. It’s grown beyond the early days of guerilla marketing and low-budget erotic thrillers such as Trois to produce recent success stories such as The Gospel and Stomp the Yard. less...

Laboring in fellow POPFilms director Jacob Gentry’s shadow, DAVID BUCKNER may soon be following in his footsteps if his short films get the attention they deserve. Mixing heartfelt emotion, an astute read on gender tensions and slick effects, Bruckner’s contributions to PushPush Theater’s “Dailies” film events, “Slowly” and “Contents Under Pressure”, stick with you. “www.Item6.com” less...

At the risk of jumping on the bandwagon, Jacob Gentry and his POP FILMS confreres prove that you don’t have to live in New York or L.A. to make films that get noticed. Gentry has wrapped filming and is currently editing his breakthrough feature “Last Goodbye”. Other POP filmmakers offer their continually smart vision on projects for collaborative filmmaking ventures like the local “Dailies Project” and national 48-Hour Film Project, with POP film “The Hap Hapgood Story” winning the Best Film award for the Atlanta leg of the competition. “www.popfilms.org” less...

Georgia native Ray McKinnon made a name for himself in the late ’80s as a character actor at various stages in Atlanta, including Theatre in the Square and Horizon Theatre. And although he’s been in L.A. for a decade now, appearing most recently in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, McKinnon’s heart still is down South. His short film “The Accountant, which he wrote, directed and stars in, was filmed entirely in Georgia and was cast with local actors Walt Grogan and Eddie King. A black comedy about how far a pair of brothers will go to save the family farm, “The Accountant screened this summer at IMAGE’s Atlanta Film & Video Festival, where it won Best Short Narrative Film and the festival’s most prestigious award, the Southeastern Mediamakers Award. IMAGE plans to screen the short again this fall in its Best of the Fest film series. less...