Any creative hoping to put their work into the running for a 2027 Southeast Emmy Award will want to read on.
Georgia Entertainment sat down with 2026 Southeast Emmy winners to learn more about their award-winning content and their journeys to getting it on-screen and into the running.
First, we spoke with George Hirthler of Atlanta Story Partners (ASP), writer, director and executive producer of the Emmy-winning documentary “The Games in Black and White,” which corresponds to the 30th anniversary of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Hirthler and his ASP business partner, Bob Judson, won four Southeast Emmy Awards for the film, including Documentary-Historical, Writer-Long Form, Editor-Long Form Content and Graphic Arts-Motion Graphics. In addition, the documentary made its debut in 2025 at the 49th annual Atlanta Film Festival.
Another 2026 Southeast Emmy winner is “chefATL,” a Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) student-produced docuseries that explores Atlanta’s culinary and cultural scenes and the stories behind them. The docuseries premiered in summer of 2025 on WABE-TV Channel 30, a hybrid PBS member station that operates alongside NPR.
Student showrunner Jaden Lanfrank of the Emmy-winning chefATL episode, #102-Global Soul, which garnered the Lifestyle-Long Form Content award, told us about his team’s work. On-air talent Chef Deborah VanTrece of Atlanta’s Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours restaurant also shared her experiences working on the winning episode under the direction of SCAD’s student team and their faculty lead, Quinlan Orear, chair of film and television.
Inside “The Games in Black and White”
Hirthler met Judson in the 1980s and their joint creative journey began.
“Bob was managing director at Crawford Communications, the leading post-production house in Atlanta at that time, and I was a writer-producer doing commercials and corporate films,” Hirthler remembers. “I would sometimes do finished post-work over there, and I met Bob.”
In 1989, the two connected through George’s work on Atlanta’s bid book for the Olympic Games in 1996. And on Sept. 18, 1990, Atlanta won the right to host the summer games.
Creative life happened in the interim, and Hirthler became a leading expert on Pierre de Coubertin, the historic visionary behind the Olympics and its mission to unite the world in friendship through sport. Hirthler also wrote a 565-page fictionalized biography about de Coubertin called “The Idealist,” which was purchased by Oscar-nominated producer Mark Minten.
Next, Hirthler began to incubate an idea for “The Games in Black and White.”
“I called Bob [Judson], who is one of the most admired film production experts out of the South, and said, ‘I need to have a drink with you and talk about film production,’” Hirthler says. “So we had a drink at Houston’s off West Paces Ferry and I said, ‘No one’s done a documentary on the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, and that would be a great thing to do.’”
Instantly, Judson was all-in. So the next day, Hirthler began writing a treatment about Ambassador Andrew Young and 1996 Olympic CEO William Porter “Billy” Payne and their partnership and vision to bring the Olympics to Atlanta.
In 2020, Hirthler and Judson took the documentary into production, bringing Payne and Young together on-screen.
“We interviewed Billy and Andy separately and asked them about the motivation to come together and do the bid,” Hirthler says. “And then we put them on chairs sitting next to each other and engaged them in dialogue, which became a central part of the film.”
The story they crafted was about Atlanta’s enduring civil rights history and how Payne and Young’s work exemplified it in working together to win the 1996 Olympic bid. As Hirthler puts it, “I saw that the Games became, in many ways, an extension of the civil rights movement.”
It was a story Hirthler was honored to tell alongside his trusted friend. “Bob and I had a good 35-year friendship, but we had never partnered up and actually done a project like this, which was self-funded through the first 17 interviews,” he notes.
They used free production space at Georgia State and shot interviews there with Martin Luther King III, Shirley Franklin, Bob Holder and others. When their personal investment was exhausted, they secured the rest of the funding from a corporation.
The road to production is oftentimes circuitous for independent filmmakers, and Hirthler and Judson found that to be true when COVID-19 hit and slowed their project.
“We started shooting again in October of 2022, and through 2023 we shot and ended with a two-day shoot in Centennial Olympic Park with a crew of about 30 people and our narrator, Gregory Alan Williams, on-camera,” Hirthler says.
Fast-forward to the four Southeast Emmy wins for “The Games in Black and White” on May 16, 2026.
“As a filmmaker, it’s very difficult to judge how the public is going to react to it. It’s a very cool movie, but how will critics react to it?” Hirthler questioned. “We only entered four categories, and we had to pay [to enter]those categories. And when we won all four categories, it was such an exciting night!”
The film earned six additional prestigious awards three nights later at the 47th annual Telly Awards, as well.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games, Tara Atlanta will host a screening for the public on July 18, 2026. Tickets are available for purchase here.
Inside “chefATL” episode #102-Global Soul
Lanfrank came on board chefATL as a student producer, working on five episodes before his work as a showrunner on the Emmy-winning episode, #102-Global Soul.
“I had been one of the longest-running students to be a part of the show,” Lanfrank says.
Each episode of chefATL was shot at SCAD Film Studios in Midtown Atlanta, a 60,000-square-foot studio that once housed WXIA-TV. And all in all, more than 100 students across nine SCAD degree programs have worked on the production.
“Throughout chefATL, I’ve come to realize and appreciate the fact that there are so many stories with these chefs, and you wouldn’t realize it simply by going to their restaurants and having a meal,” Lanfrank says. “Their own stories and different parts of their lives have landed them where they are.”
In the Global Soul episode, Lanfrank and fellow students chronicled the story of Deborah VanTrece, chef and owner of Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours in Atlanta. VanTrece is also a veteran television chef with her own show, “Global Soul Kitchen”.
“Chef Deborah VanTrece had such a wonderful story,” Lanfrank says. “She was a flight attendant, [she has lived all over the world], and she’s been a big part of the soul food community. She was such a warm presence, and she was open to sharing everything that made her journey special.”
In addition, host Jon Goode, an Atlanta poet, author and playwright, helped make the episode an invaluable experience for the students working on it.
“He took so much time to talk to the students and kind of soak up the experience,” Lanfrank says. “And I think that’s when the show thrives, when the talent [is]fully invested with the students and willing to play ball with us.”
When asked about her experience working on the Emmy-winning episode alongside SCAD, Goode and students like Lanfrank, VanTrece says, “What stood out most for me is the level of professionalism. As a chef, I’ve been filmed multiple times [and appeared]on many television shows, and I have my own show. So I’ve been working with people who’ve done this for years.”
The experience she had working with SCAD students, she says, rivaled the work she has done professionally.
“The work of the SCAD students was above and beyond my expectations. They thought of everything, so there was really no disconnect between what I have seen people being paid thousands of dollars for and what these students were accomplishing,” VanTrece says.
Today, following his graduation in 2025, Lanfrank is working in New York in the production office of a Netflix series, where he says the level of professionalism on chefATL helped prepare him for the real-world industry.
“chefATL gave me such a unique experience to learn how to produce and how to create these shows on a massive scale,” he says.
Thinking back on the chefATL Emmy win, Lanfrank adds, “So many people put so much heart and soul into the project and it means so much to me. I worked on chefATL for almost two and a half years, so to be able to have that experience at the [Emmy] ceremony and give the acceptance speech was wonderful.”
While VanTrece was not able to attend the ceremony, she relishes the Emmy recognition just the same.
“As someone who has done more TV than you can imagine, this [Emmy] was a big surprise. I am very happy to be sharing it with Jon Goode and these students that put their heart into this and did such an excellent job of it,” she says. “I’m glad their hard work paid off. And what a way to start your career, with an Emmy!”
Like “The Games in Black and White,” chefATL earned recognition at the 2026 Telly Awards, as well, winning a Silver Telly for Television Series – Food & Beverage.
Find episodes of chefATL here and here.
