Trilith Studios: How Marvel's Georgia Production Studio Is Giving Back (Exclusive)

Whenever one hears about a Marvel film or television show in production, it's likely happening in Atlanta. And if that's the case, that means the project is being filmed at Trilith Studios which is located in Fayetteville, Georgia (minutes South of Atlanta) and known for producing Marvel films such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame. To show appreciation for the city of Fayetteville, the town of Trilith and Trilith Studious recently gave back to the community by hosting the Reel People Care Gala. PopCulture.com attended the Gala on March 3 and spoke to Trilith President and CEO Frank Patterson and President of Trilith Rob Parker about the gala which raised $882,748 for local charities. 

"I love this night because ... you might imagine, we spend all year preparing for this event," Patterson exclusively told PopCulture. "We get to meet and spend a lot of time with the nonprofits. And when you see the impact that they have in our county, it's amazing. They're doing the heavy lifting, right? From the food bank to the battered women's shelter, to the emotional support animals. I mean, it's amazing what's going on in our county. So tonight we get to dress up and celebrate that, right? And the purpose of this event really is to be the storytelling event for our nonprofits. And every single penny that we raise here goes directly to the nonprofits. There's no overhead costs."

The 2023 Reel People Care Gala highlighted 15 non-profit organizations that serve the South Metro Atlanta community, including (AVPRIDE) Association of Village Pride, Bloom, Christian City, ClearWater Academy, Coco's Cupboard, The Eden Project, Fayette Fire Foundation, Fayette Senior Services, The Forest School, Leap for Literacy, Midwest Food Bank, Piedmont Fayette Hospital, Promise Place, Southern Conservation Trust and Two Sparrows Village." Before the gala began, attendees got to take pictures with notable items seen in films such as the Captain America shield (the entire cast signed that) and cars from Zombieland: Double Tap, Hawkeye, The Walking Dead, Stanger Things and Doom Patrol. 

"The commitment to philanthropy was here from the beginning," Parker said. "This desire to make sure that the... In addition to impacting this, the community through the studio, through the work, the jobs, all those kinds of things, that we were also impacting the community. The decision was made to do that through the local nonprofits. They were already here. So, rather than reinvent and create a new organization and that kind of thing, we set up the Reel People Gala to support real people."

Trilith Studios launched in 2013 but was called Pinewood Atlanta Studios before being renamed in October 2020. In 2016 the Town of Trilith (called Pinewood Forest at the time) was launched, and it's a community for mostly those who are working on films and TV shows at Trilith Studios.