Created by filmmaker Costa Karalis, the genre-bending narrative feature “Frogtown” will make its highly anticipated Georgia premiere at the Atlanta Film Festival 2026 on Saturday, April 25 at 3:15 PM at the Tara Theatre.
Produced by Reel Friends’ Rocco Shapiro serving as associate producer, Frogtown follows a woman’s obsessive quest to prove the existence of a magical swamp creature she befriended as a child. Set in a small Florida town of 5,000 dreamers and told through the lens of a documentary crew, the film blurs the line between truth and fiction—challenging audiences to question what’s real while reconnecting with their own sense of wonder.
Karalis describes the film as being an “elusive beast,” having been born in Florida and brought to life through years of collaboration with a vibrant local creative community in Atlanta.
“Frogtown is a film with two homes. One home is present in nearly every frame of the movie: the lush, green, sunny, and humid Florida, where I grew up,” says Karalis. “The other exists off screen: Atlanta. This is the place where a loving team dreamed it up, crafted it, and edited—and re-edited—it for a very long time.”
After debating when and where the best setting was to tell this story, Karalis and the team learned that the ATLFF50 would be the perfect place to showcase a film of this gravity and whimsy. Karalis highlights this is a film for everyone and anyone; especially those who believe in the unbelievable and long for their childhood.
Date: Saturday, April 25th 3:15 PM @ Tara Theatre
Tickets: https://atlff26.eventive.org/
The screening will be attended by the filmmaking team and promises to be a celebratory moment for Atlanta’s independent film scene.
