Georgia's Iconic Film Locations

The Georgia film industry is on the rise, and if celebrity sightings are any indication, the state will continue showing up in movies and television shows. Here are some of the notable movies and TV shows that have filmed in the Peach State.

The Hunger Games

Swan House & Atlanta Motor Speedway

The popular Hunger Games trilogy filmed portions of the second two films in Georgia. Audiences may recognize the Swan House, part of the Atlanta History Center, as the president's house and Atlanta Motor Speedway as the site of the Quarter Quell chariot parade. The Goat Farm, nearly hidden in plain sight in West Midtown Atlanta, was the site of a stage built for the film's reaping scene.

The Walking Dead

Senoia & Atlanta

The AMC series that has garnered a cult-like following has been filmed almost entirely in Georgia. Atlanta visitors might recognize an important filming location from The Walking Dead's first season: the roof of the old Norfolk Southern headquarters on the edge of downtown. The historic Fairlie-Poplar district in downtown was the site of a giant battle of “walkers,” while Morris Brown College doubled as an abandoned veterinary campus in season four.

Grantville, which is located in western Georgia, was an ideal setting for the series’ post-apocalyptic scenes in season three. Another key town for the series' filming is Senoia, where visitors can visit the train tracks and bridge from season four, as well as The Woodbury Shoppe, which has Daryl’s motorcycle and a replica of Michonne’s katana sword on display.

Driving Miss Daisy

Atlanta's Druid Hills Neighborhood

The 1989 Academy Award-winning film was set in and filmed in Atlanta, with a house on Lullwater Road in the historic Druid Hills neighborhood serving as the title character's (played by Jessica Tandy) home. The Temple, a historic downtown Atlanta synagogue on Peachtree Road, is Miss Daisy's place of worship. (Incidentally, the fictional building was bombed, and the actual temple had the same fate in 1958.) A speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. was filmed in the Georgian Ballroom at the Biltmore at 817 Peachtree Road.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Juliette

Although this iconic Southern movie is set in the fictional town of Whistle Stop, Alabama, it was filmed in Juliette, Georgia, where the Whistle Stop Cafe is still thriving and serving you-know-what. For a slightly morbid reminder of the movie's importance to the tiny town, the cemetery has two graves marked with the names of Buddy Threadgood and Ruth Jamison, and a grave by the barbecue pit reads, "Here lies Frank Bennet of Valdosta, 'The secret was in the sauce.'"

Forrest Gump

Savannah

This epic Academy Award winner for best picture opens with a feather floating through the air right in front of one of Savannah's oldest places of worship, the Independent Presbyterian Church. Tom Hanks, as Forrest Gump, spends much of the movie telling the tales of his life, sitting on a bus stop bench in the town’s Chippewa Square. The famous bench (and suitcase he was carrying) is preserved in the Savannah History Museum.

The Vampire Diaries

Atlanta area & Covington

The WB Network's hit vampire show filmed in Atlanta, Decatur and Covington. Glenridge Hall in Sandy Springs was the original "Salvatore Boarding House," though because they used the location so often, they recreated the interior of the home on the show’s sound stages in Decatur.

For many more details about how to see Georgia's filming locations, visit ExploreGeorgia.org/film.