The debate is over: film, entertainment and the broader creative industries are essential drivers of economic growth. Those of us in the industry know it, and most policymakers do too. The evidence is everywhere.
Andy Browne played his first gig with his band The Nightporters – a local group that lit up Atlanta’s punk scene in the 1980s – when he was 14 years old. Now, roughly 40 years later, he’s exploring something a little softer.
The Spruill Center for the Arts announced on Feb. 9 its plans to open Spruill Studios, a new studio facility in the former Chamblee City Hall, focused on providing affordable creative space for artists in metro Atlanta.
Acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns has announced that America’s first major national film festival exclusively for historical documentaries will launch March 4th-8th, in Savannah, GA.
The Georgia Department of Education is creating new fine arts pathways for high school students and advocating for an expansion of fine arts staffing at the elementary level along with the inclusion of AP, IB, and Cambridge fine arts courses for HOPE Rigor credit.
The Woodruff Arts Center—home to the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and High Museum of Art—celebrated a transformative milestone: the grand opening of the all-new Goizueta Stage for Youth & Families and PNC PlaySpace, made possible through a successful $67 million capital campaign and years of visionary planning.
Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute celebrated the filmmakers selected for the 2026 Merata Mita Fellowship and the Graton Fellowship. The fellows were announced at the Sundance Film Festival’s Native Forum Celebration presented by Merrell during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
James Cameron’s Na’Vi sent Sony’s Infected running away from the top spot at the box office as 20th Century Studios’ Avatar: Fire and Ash pulled in $17.2M over the four-day fifth weekend while 28 Days Years Later: The Bone Temple came in below its $20M+ tracking projections with a studio-reported $15M (by the way no other studio sees it there).
The spotlight is officially on Tucker as The Brio Theater, a female, Black-owned performing arts and creative hub, celebrates its highly anticipated grand opening with a series of community events and ribbon cuttings this January.
Even though James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash isn’t as strong as the first two films stateside with an anticipated running four weekend total tomorrow of $342.6M, about -34% behind Avatar: Way of Water, the movie is powerful enough to be the roux of the January box office.