Cobb International Film Festival 2026: Atlanta’s Award-Winning Filmmaker Naseer Haider Siddiqui Returns to the Festival That Changed His Career
Naseer Haider Siddiqui / Black Bird headshot or Exfil award moment
Every August, downtown Marietta turns into one of Georgia’s biggest gatherings of independent filmmakers. The Cobb International Film Festival returns for its 12th year, running August 6 through 9, 2026, at the historic Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre in Marietta, Georgia. Presented by Long Shot Productions and East Coast Talent Agency, the festival has become a fixture on metro Atlanta’s arts calendar and a launchpad for filmmakers from around the world.
This year the festival carries extra weight for us. In 2025, our founder Naseer Haider Siddiqui, known professionally as Black Bird, won a VFX award at the Cobb International Film Festival for his short film Exfil. It is a moment we are still proud of, and one we wanted to properly document as we head back into festival season.
Naseer Haider Siddiqui is the Founder and CEO of Black Bird Motion Media, an Atlanta-based creative studio specializing in visual effects, film production, animation, and drone cinematography. With more than 22 years of international experience spanning Pakistan, the UAE, and the United States, he has worked as a Visual Effects Supervisor, Director, Producer, Writer, and Editor across film, commercials, documentaries, and branded content.
He is also the Founder of Projex Studio Middle East, Black Bird Motion Media’s sister company based in Dubai, UAE since 2005, offering 3D animation, visual effects, drone filming, and video production across the Middle East. Between the two studios, his team covers full-service production and post-production on two continents.
His industry recognition includes serving as a Jury Member for the VES Awards and the Hollywood International Film Festival (HIFF-DC), and he is a member of both VES (Visual Effects Society) and SMPTE. His work and story have been featured in CanvasRebel Magazine, Voyage ATL Magazine, Shoutout Atlanta, Gulf Today, and NEXT TV. His full filmmaking credits and reel are listed on his IMDb profile and his FilmFreeway profile. You can also read his full bio on the Black Bird Motion Media team page.
Exfil: The Film That Won at Cobb
Exfil is a short action thriller following an ex-military operative trying to leave a life of war behind. What makes the project stand out is that Naseer wrote, directed, shot, edited, and handled every visual effect on it entirely by himself, shooting the whole film over just 9 days. It was his first fully self-executed production after years of leading much larger crews on commercial and studio work.
Exfil went on to earn multiple international awards in 2025, including recognition for its visual effects at the Cobb International Film Festival in Atlanta. Naseer has said that standing on that stage and sharing how the project was built solo, in front of filmmakers and industry professionals from around the world, was one of the proudest moments of his career.
What to Expect at the 2026 Festival
The Cobb International Film Festival has grown a long way since its early days as the Marietta International Film Festival. Here is what is on the schedule this year:
● Over 100 independent films, including features, shorts, and documentaries from breakout international and local Georgia filmmakers
● The 100-Hour Film Race and Gala, where filmmakers write, shoot, and edit an entire film in just 100 hours before it screens for a live audience
● Industry panels and workshops led by working professionals, covering financing, producing, and distributing independent film today
● An awards gala honoring excellence across categories like Best Local Film, Lifetime Achievement, and top international and domestic honors
The festival has a history of welcoming well known names too, with past guests and honorees including Matthew Modine, Robert Patrick, Chandler Riggs, and Georgia’s own Gregory Alan Williams. Single-day, weekend, and full festival passes are available now at cobbfilmfestival.com, with screenings running all four days at the Strand Theatre, 117 N Park Square, Marietta, GA.
Why Atlanta Matters So Much to the Film Industry
Festivals like Cobb do not happen in a vacuum. They exist because Georgia, and Atlanta specifically, has become one of the most important production hubs in the country. Georgia’s film tax incentive program has drawn in productions of every size for over a decade, and the state now has millions of square feet of soundstage space, more than almost anywhere outside Hollywood.
Trilith Studios (formerly Pinewood Atlanta Studios), located in Fayetteville just south of Atlanta, sits on roughly 700 acres with dozens of soundstages and a dedicated virtual production volume called Prysm Stage. For much of the past decade, Trilith was the primary home for Marvel Studios productions filmed in Georgia, including projects in the Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers, and Black Panther franchises, along with many other studio films and shows. The industry here has shifted in the last year or two as some productions moved overseas, but Trilith remains one of the largest production facilities in the world and is actively growing its virtual production and content creation space.
Tyler Perry Studios, built on a former Confederate army base in southwest Atlanta, is one of the largest studio lots owned by a single individual in the country, with a dozen soundstages and standing sets ranging from a replica White House to full built-out neighborhoods. Assembly Atlanta in Doraville adds 19 more soundstages and several filmable building facades, and Three Ring Studios in Covington rounds out the region with roughly 250,000 square feet of production space after a major expansion.
This concentration of studios, crew talent, and infrastructure is exactly why Atlanta has earned the nickname “Y’allywood,” and why it remains one of the best places in the country to shoot a film, a series, or a branded production. It is also why festivals like Cobb International matter so much locally. They give independent filmmakers working right alongside this big-studio ecosystem a real stage of their own.
Bringing That Same Craft to Every Project We Touch
The same skills that go into a festival-winning VFX shot, careful compositing, motion design, color, and sound, are exactly what we bring into commercial work every day. Whether it is an Atlanta corporate video production, a branded documentary, or full 3D animation for a stage or trade show floor, our approach does not change: tell the story well, and make it look like it belongs on a festival screen.
If you are working on a corporate video production, a documentary film, or need custom animation and motion graphics for an event, our animation and motion graphics team at Max AVP can build content for your stage, screens, and brand story. You can also see the full range of visual storytelling and VFX work through Black Bird Motion Media and its sister studio, Projex Studio Middle East. And if your event needs a single partner to handle the entire show, from AV and lighting to staging and live streaming, our event production services cover it end to end.
See You at the Strand
Congratulations to every filmmaker screening at this year’s Cobb International Film Festival. We will be there again, this time cheering on a whole new group of storytellers stepping onto the same stage that meant so much to us in 2025.
