Photos | Atlanta Film Festival’s IMAGE Awards Gala honors Will Packer, Josh Brolin and more at 50th anniversary celebration

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Film Festival closed out its 50th anniversary weekend in style Friday night, gathering filmmakers, actors and industry leaders at Assembly Atlanta for the IMAGE Film Awards Gala. The evening recognized seven honorees whose work has shaped Georgia’s film industry — and the room reflected just how much that industry has grown since the festival began in 1977.

Producer Will Packer received the Ossie Davis Award and became the namesake of the festival’s brand-new Will Packer Award, which recognizes excellence in producing. Speaking with 11Alive on the red carpet at the ceremony, Packer said the recognition from his home market meant everything.

“I will forever love Atlanta. It means a lot to get an award from an institution like this that has done so much for film throughout the southeast, throughout the country,” Packer said. “This is a market that’s given so much to me, and I’ve tried to give back to it.”

On having an award named after him, Packer didn’t hold back. “There’s cool, and then there’s having your own award cool. And so this is a different level of cool.”

The inaugural Will Packer Award went to Atlanta-based producer Alex Orr (Idiots, Atlanta, Chad Powers), whose film Idiots opened the festival on April 23.

The full list of 2026 IMAGE Film Awards Gala honorees:

• Will Packer – Ossie Davis Award
• Josh Brolin – IMAGE Film Award
• Carrie Preston – IMAGE Film Award
• Georgia Entertainment – IMAGE Film Award
• Hilton Howell, Chairman & CEO of Gray Television – IMAGE Film Award
• David Cross – Rebel Award
• Alex Orr – Will Packer Award (inaugural recipient)

Additional honorees recognized in conjunction with festival screenings included Danielle Brooks (New Mavericks Award), Mckenna Grace (Phoenix Award) and RZA (Originator Award).

Scroll through the gallery for some of the red carpet moments from the night.