It took only seconds after walking in to a premiere party Friday night for Athens’ first film festival to realize this would be a great boost for our city.

The party at The Club House in downtown Athens, where winners of the Southern Shorts Film Festival were screened, was filled with people, good food, and loads of talent — local and otherwise.

The party included every kind of Southern food imaginable — barbecue, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, pecan pie, Moon Pies, banana pudding and SunDrop. Those on the Art on the Square committee headed by Alissa Rose-Clark put together a very professional party.

Trisha Black with Spirit of Athens, a downtown revitalization group, said at the party bringing film to Athens — with the festival, workshops and college courses, outside filmmakers — would help boost the city’s economy.

After the Alabama Legislature passed its film incentives earlier this year, filmmakers will now be looking for locales in the state to make great films. As Black said, Limestone County has plenty to offer, from a quaint downtown, to picturesque rural settings, to stately antebellum homes.

The film festival held on Saturday drew crowds to McCandless Hall at Athens State University to see both winning entries in the festival as well as three feature-length films and a special presentation of Thomas Beane’s short film “Spirit World of the Shoals.”

Children, whose creativity is encouraged by Art on the Square, could attend free to see animations and children’s films from noon-2 p.m.

This festival will mean more people will enter and attend next year, drawing more interest to our city.

A job well done and we hope it continues.