October 7-9 —The Multicultural Sci-Fi Organization hosted the first annual Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival this year, sponsored by HBO, IMAX, Georgia Tech, The CG Brothers, and more.

This year’s festival kicked off with a special Westworld mixer and episode screening, hosted by HBO at Atlanta’s SCADShow, followed by a discussion panel on the show, its morality, and the concept of robotics in the history and future of humanity.

Screenings of short live-action and animation films were held at the Georgia Tech Ferst Center, hosted by MCSFO’s Amanda Ray, with audience voting for the live-action sci-fi shorts.

Awards were presented at the Regal Atlantic Station IMAX theater, with awards for the Audience Choice for Best Sci-Fi Short (The Sweetening by Grace Rowe), Best CGI Sci-Fi short (Last Day of War by Dima Fedotov), and the IMAX Big Picture In Focus Award (awarded to Atlanta filmmaker Tim Glover, for his film N-Touch). Special screenings included Sunspring, written by the artificial intelligence Benjamin (a name chosen by the A.I. itself) and directed by Oscar Sharp (who joined in the post-screening panel discussion with A.I. researcher Ross Goodwin), and Voyage of Time, written and directed by Terrence Malick and narrated by Brad Pitt.