The 44^th year of the Nashville Film Festival has easily been one of the best yet with Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences panels and events, a Celebration of Kurdish films, and plenty of premieres and celebrities. There’s still plenty to do on this final day of NaFF so let’s not reminisce just yet. There are still movies to see! The Closing Night Film promises to be a real crowd pleaser. Unfinished Song, starring Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave tells the story of an older man who has given up on new experiences, until he is introduced to a seniors’ singing group.

Today is also a great day to catch up on some screenings you may have missed earlier in the festival or that had sold out. FOLK is a documentary that follows folk singers from three generations in an attempt to find their place in the world doing what they love to do. It’s a film for fans of a good story, not just folk music. If you haven’t seen any short films, or still want to see more, at 4:30 today NaFF will be presenting a collection of  animated, narrative, documentary and experimental award winners from this year..

Finally if you’re a passholder please join us to celebrate our 44^th year at the Closing Night party, starting at 8:30 in the Hospitality tent. This is your last chance to meet some of the filmmakers that crafted the films that have been on display this week. There’s also no question that conversations about what might be coming in 2014 will come up as we all enjoy a drink and a dessert.

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Three films won two awards each: Breakfast with Curtis, directed by Laura Colella, This is Martin Bonner, directed by Chad Hardigan, and Nairobi Half Life, directed by David “Tosh” Gitonga. The winner of the Bridgestone Narrative Competition, taking the Grand Jury Prize was If You Die, I Will Kill You, from Kurdish director, Hiner Saleem.

Speaking for the Bridgestone Narrative Jury,  Juror Darren Dean said, “As much about self-discovery as it is about freedom from culture and loneliness and even love, this film lets us in on a little secret: It’s o.k. to be alone. Portraying lives absent of love and friendship as easily becoming prisons, this stunningly shot, compellingly acted film is a testament to the lengths we will go to to set ourselves free. At times this film is both heartbreaking and heartwarming and is always tinged with a bit of dark humor. Going a long way to showing us there is much more to look forward to, it is an honor and a very happy coincidence to present this year’s Best Feature Narrative during The Nashville Film Festival’s Celebration of Kurdish Film making.”

The Bridgestone Narrative Jury went on to name Paul Eenhorn Best Actor  for his portrayel of the title character in This is Martin Bonner. Of his performance, the jury noted: This actor’s understated performance is pitch-perfect. Fraught with subtlety and a hand-wringing undertow, this is an internalized gem. In a film that allows its audience to explore its empty spaces, it is a pleasure to fill those spaces with Eerhoorn’s honest portrayal of Martin Bonner.”

The 2013 Nashville Film Festival hosted 263 films from 49 countries, in categories ranging from  Narrative Feature, Documentary, Short Films, Music City, New Director, Special Presentations, Graveyard Shift, Tennessee First, and World Cinema. All of the films were selected from over 3,004 submissions, a record number for NaFF.

The Nashville Film Festival Award winners:

BRIDGESTONE NARRATIVE COMPETITION
Winner:  If You Die, I Will Kill You, directed by Hiner Saleem
Honorable Mention: Breakfast With Curtis, directed by Laura Colella
Best Actor: Paul Eenhoorn in This is Martin Bonner
Best Actress: Jane Adams in All the Light in the Sky

Louise LeQuire Award for Best Screenplay: Pit Stop, written by Yen Tan, David Lowery
Best Use of Music: 3 – Sebastián Del Muro Eiras
Original Song:  “The One That Got Away” by Neil Oldham, from I Used to be Darker
Special Jury Prize for Promising Actor: Silas Yelich in The Cold Lands
Special Prize Best Ensemble: Cast ofBreakfast with Curtis

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Winner: Far Out Isn’t Far Enough – The Tomi Ungerer Story directed by Brad Bernstein
Honorable Mentions (tie):
Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling
After Tiller directed by Martha Stone and Lana Wilson
Special Jury Prize for Vigilance in Filmmaking: These Birds Walk, directed by Omar Mullick

NEW DIRECTORS COMPETITION

Winner: Nairobi Half Life, directed by David “Tosh” Gitonga
Honorable Mention: Out in the Dark, directed by Michael Mayer
Best Actor: Joseph Wairimu in Nairobi Half Life
Best Actress: Gina Piersanti in It Felt Like Love
Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble: Cast of This is Where We Live

GIBSON MUSIC FILMS/MUSIC CITY COMPETITION
Winner: Die Thomaner: A Year in the Life of the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig, directed by Günter Atteln
Honorable Mention: Muscle Shoals, directed by Greg “Freddy” Camalier
Special Jury Prize for Cultural Significance: This Ain’t No Mouse Music, directed by Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling

GROUND ZERO TENNESSEE SPIRIT AWARDS
Feature: Nashville 2012, directed by Jace Freeman & Sean Clark
Short Narrative: Wild Sands, directed by Warren Lewis Allen and William Scott Stewart
Documentary: Another Corner, directed by Josh Harrell

SHORT FILM AWARDS

Best Live Action Short: Hatch, directed by Christoph Kuschnig
Live Action Short – Honorable Mention: Peter at the End, directed by Russ Lamoureux

Best Animated Short: Oh, Willy, directed by Sunil Narkar
Animated Short – Honorable Mention: Noodle Fish, directed by Jin Man Kim

Best Documentary Short: A Story for the Modlins, directed by Sergio Oksman
Documentary Short – Honorable Mention: I Think this is the Closest to How the Footage Looked, directed by Yuval Hameiri and Michal Vaknin

Best Experimental Short: Workers Leaving the Factory (Again), directed by Katharina Gruzei
Experimental Short – Honorable Mention: Salmon, directed by Alfredo Covelli

Best Student Short: I Think this is the Closest to How the Footage Looked, directed by Yuval Hameiri and Michal Vaknin
Student Short – Honorable Mention: Behind the Mirrors, directed by Julio O. Ramos

Watkins Young Filmmaker Short Film Award: The Purple Story, directed by Mateusz Madry

OTHER SPONSORED AWARDS

Film Musician Secondary Market Fund (FMSM) Award
This is Martin Bonner, directed by Chad Hardigan and composed by Keegan DeWitt

NPT Human Spirit Award
Remote Area Medical, directed by Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman

Women in Film & Television Award
Words of Witness, directed by Mai Iskander

Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Award (NAHCC)
A Lovely Day, directed by Kerry Gawryn

2013 Nashville Film Festival Beacon Award
Butch Spyridon, Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp.

Nissan North America – NaFF Presenting Sponsor
In North America, Nissan’s operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program and has been recognized as an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year in 2010, 2011, and 2012 by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at NissanUSA (http://www.nissanusa.com/) .com and InfinitiUSA.com (http://www.infinitiusa.com) .

Nashville Film Festival (NaFF), April 18 – 25, 2013, presented by Nissan, brings the world to Nashville in an 8-day celebration of film. Attended by filmmakers and industry insiders, and open to the public, NaFF screens more than 200 films from nearly 50 countries.  NaFF celebrates the diversity of the human voice and vision by curating program segments to include Latino, Black, GLBT, Jewish and Kurdish films. Founded in 1969 by Mary Jane Coleman, it is one of the oldest (44-years) film festivals in the U.S.  As an Academy Award Qualifying Event, NaFF draws filmmakers and celebrity guests to its red carpet at the Regal Green Hills Stadium 16. The Festival annually garners notice from the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal online, MovieMaker Magazine, Film Festival Today, IndieWire, Variety, Billboard, New York and Script Magazine.

More information on each film and film stills are available at www.nashvillefilmfestival.org/press.

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by Stephen Lackey, contributor

Mike Young attends NaFF every year as a Gold Level Member. He makes the festival one of his major yearly vacations. He’s a Nashville native but he takes the entire eight days of the festival off work and sees as many films as he can handle. This year he has seen nearly 20 films. So he’s the perfect candidate to share what’s great about NaFF. The problem is getting him to narrow his answer to just list of three. After a bit of discussion and painful consternation Mike finally gave up his answers:

“Seeing the films, meeting filmmakers, and hanging out with festival friends.” Even though that’s technically three answers he would feel himself a failure if he didn’t squeeze in some love for his favorite film Post Tenebras Lux. In his words “I’m still not sure what it’s about but I loved it.”  In our description we call this film a “challenging portrait of family life.” The film also won the award for best directing at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

Get tickets for award winners and added screenings of the festival now!

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by Stephen Lackey, contributor

If you’ve seen Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, then you have some idea of what to expect from the Edgar Wright produced Sightseers screening tonight at NaFF.   Wright tends to produce films that are in his wheelhouse, and this one is right in his sweet spot. The film is directed by Ben Wheatley who previously directed Kill List, which by the way, is another must-see film.

Sightseers is a darkly funny tale of a couple (Steve Oram and Alice Lowe) who set out on what seems to be a simple road trip.  They are sweet and ordinary as they explore the English countryside.  However, after they have a chance encounter with an irate local the normal vacation takes a savage and funny turn.  While the story is delivered with classic British humor it is still violent. The Guardian says, “The chilling and transgressive flourishes are carried off with deadpan confidence; it’s a distinctive and brutally unsettling piece of work.”

Or, if you’ve been watching films all week, then you may be in the mood to get out of the theater for a while. NaFF is hosting a hardcore movie geek trivia contest at local watering hole The Crow’s Nest. The game is free and open to the public and the trivia is all movie based. The winning team gets ten movie vouchers and $50 in Crow’s Nest gift cards!

Check the schedule for movie tickets and more details!

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One of the best aspects of NaFF is just how customized an individual experience can be. A film fanatic can literally spend every minute in a theater seeing all sorts of films. A hardcore documentary fan can see docs aplenty, both features and shorts. Horror fans can get their scare on in the Graveyard Shift section. If you’re a filmmaker looking to meet other professionals and learn from them you can take part in the panels and workshops and network at the VIP tent and special events. Most attendees tend to dip there toe in a little of all of the above.  Tony Youngblood, a regular attendee and hardcore film fan, stopped for a moment between films to share with us three things he loves about the festival:

“My favorite things about the Nashville Film Festival are: number one, easy access – it’s all in one theater location, you don’t have to go all around town and worry about finding parking and being late. You can just watch one movie, go grab a bite at the mall and go in and see the next movie.  Number two, the selection is as good as some of the big festivals around the world. If you like international cinema, they got you covered. If you like American cinema, if you like to see stars coming down the red carpet they’ve got everything covered for those people. Number three – well it’s local, you don’t have to travel to Toronto or Sundance:  you can drive 15 minutes away from your house and come check it out.”

NaFF is still in full swing after an amazing weekend. Now’s your chance to catch some second showings of films you may have missed along with all of the great films that have yet to screen!

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by Stephen Lackey, contributor

Actor-turned-filmmaker Richard Speight, Jr. took some time from the NaFF Red Carpet to talk to us about his directorial debut, America 101, screening as a part of the Tennessee First Shorts 2 on Wednesday, April 24 at 5:00 pm.

Richard Speight, Jr. is a name you might not recognize but there’s a good chance you’ll know his face. He’s appeared in television series such as Justified and Supernatural and films such as Thank You for Smoking, Noobz, and Band of Brothers. Speight lives in Nashville and has attended NaFF in previous years as what he terms “a lurker” just quietly seeing films and enjoying the festival.

“I didn’t know what film to make till I had this idea.” Speight says of America 101.  “The plan is to stay in the world of writing and directing. I’ve always been involved in the writing side so the directing side is a bit new but I loved the experience of filming America 101 so I’m definitely going to be back at it.”

Speight believes that as a writer/director he is being taken more seriously than when he represented films as an actor. “When you’re the writer/director people are more interested in hearing what you have to say, because I feel like festivals are so supportive of the making of movies and as an actor when you go to a festival you certainly are an important part of the film, but you showed up long after the sweat equity and the hard labor of getting the financing of creating the idea, getting it on paper, and assembling the team, so you are just part of the process. When you are the producer, writer, director…you started out with nothing and came out of it with a complete structure so you sort of are the boots on the ground that built the whole thing. I think that’s why festivals are so gracious towards the filmmakers.”

Since Speight has been to NaFF both as an attendee and now as a filmmaker, he really understands the NaFF experiences from both angles:  “I really think (NaFF) is a very well run festival . Everyone is really really nice. They’re excited to have you. I’ve had some great experiences at other festivals but they feel a little bit disjointed, like… who knows what’s going on. I always feel like the Nashville Film Festival is just a well-oiled machine and consequently it’s really fun and relaxing to be a visitor and be a filmmaker involved in it, and Nashville as a city is such a great city to host this kind of event. It already understands entertainment at a high level because of the music involvement and so switching avenues and going the film side is a natural fit for this city. This is a very warm welcoming city with a lot to do and a lot to show the emerging filmmakers.”

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by Stephen Lackey, contributor

One of the most fascinating, emotionally challenging, and unique experiences you can have at the Nashville Film Festival is seeing the short documentaries that screen before the feature films and in the Documentary Shorts Showcase. In this year’s short documentary selections at the festival,  you can learn how a woman decides to take adversity and turn it into art, see medical miracles happen, learn about bicycles redesigned specifically to fit a woman’s body, and meet a completely camera shy world renowned photographer. These brief vignettes offer the opportunity to learn about something new as well as be entertained. There’s an old adage about a great film causing you to laugh and to cry. You can expect nothing less with these short docs. Here are just three of the films in the Documentary Shorts Showcase that are truly fascinating:

A Story for the Modlins: After appearing in Rosemary’s Baby, Elmer Modlin fled with his family to a far off country and shut himself away in a dark apartment for 30 years.

Mr.Christmas: An offbeat, touching portrait of a man who has spent three decades turning his small Northern California home into a beautiful, towering Christmas display people travel across the country to see.

Londoners: A vintage film about modern day London. Shot entirely on a 100 year old wooden hand cranked 35mm camera, Londoners documents modern day London as never seen before.

The Documentary Shorts Showcase screens at 5:00 pm on Saturday, April 20 and again at 9:00 pm on Wednesday, April 24.

The post The Best Stories Are True: Doc Shorts at NaFF appeared first on Nashville Film Festival.

Kick Off

This year NaFF has partnered with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present a very special section of the festival – the Celebration of Kurdish Films.  The line-up of award-winning Kurdish films, panel discussions and a huge party, are all part of NaFF’s continuing initiative to bring world cinema to Nashville film lovers. With a total of 15 films shown as par

t of this event, there’s something for nearly every taste. Rhino Season is a romantic drama,  Trattoria is a coming-of-age film set in a mafia movie formula, and Kick Off is an uplifting story about a group of people living in tragic circumstances coming together to put on a big soccer game. There’s also a selection of short films offering even more variety in scope and story.

NaFF Executive Director Ted Crockett talks about this inaugural event for the festival. “Festivals often try to have a celebrity as a pillar of the festival.  This year, we wanted to create a pillar event that will engage Nashville’s Kurdish population.   Our city is home to the largest Kurdish population in the U.S. and we are so excited to partner with the Duhok International Film Festival from Kurdistan for our incredible 2013 Celebration of Kurdish Film line-up.”

The three day event includes a party at Nashville’s War Memorial building where representatives of the Kurdish films and the Academy will come together to meet Nashville filmmakers and film fans. This party offers NaFF attendees the chance to share stories and learn about Kurdish culture through film over drinks and dinner. This event is not to be missed. Registration for the party is $35, which includes a full meal and a drink ticket. You can purchase party tickets and tickets for the movies and panels online and onsite at the box office.

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NaFF has always put a heavy focus on local films and filmmakers. Every year there are two short film blocks featuring Tennessee films and this year there are a number of Nashville-based features as well. Doug Mallett directed a short film a couple of years ago entitled Worm (which screened at the 2012 NaaFF).  After the film’s completion, the filmmakers felt there was more story to tell, so they spent a year and a half of nights and weekends developing the film into a feature that’s part comedy, part drama, and part science fiction. Doug was ecstatic to have his World Premiere of Worm at NaFF this year.

We caught up with Doug in the NaFF Hospitality tent to talk about his screening.  “This is where we wanted to premiere (the film). We feel pretty lucky just to be accepted but if there’s a place we were going to show the movie for the first time, we wanted it to be here.  You know we made it in Nashville, so it’s all a Nashville crew, all Nashville actors, and the Nashville community has been really good to us.  To be able to premiere it at the Nashville Film Festival means a lot more than if we had shown it anywhere else.”

NaFF has always tried to cultivate a community atmosphere for filmmakers by offering opportunities for them to meet and mingle and that seems to be what Doug and the rest of his team are most excited to do this year. “I love meeting the other filmmakers, the film festival has always been a good way for us to meet people, make friends. Umm, and that’s the plan.”

The post From Short to Feature: Catching Up with the Director of “Worm” appeared first on Nashville Film Festival.

by Stephen Lackey, contributor

Turns out NaFF is the only film festival out of 6,000 in the world to offer a solid track of music-based films and docs, and to honor this genre of film with an award.  That’s just perfect, as we are “Music City”.

“Music City” doesn’t just mean “Country Music USA.” Nashville has grown not only in population but also in musical tastes, so too has the festival. This year continues NaFF’s trend of bringing fantastic films with “Muscle Shoals” and “For the Love of Music: The Story of Nashville.”  “For the Love of Music”, from Nashville’s Convention and Visitors’ Bureau chronicles the evolution of Nashville as Music City from the 1800’s to today. “Muscle Shoals” tells the story of the creation of a sound and style of music crafted through adversity and racism that is as influential today in all genres of music as it was when it first came to be.

“We are thrilled with the music line-up this year,” said Brian Owens, NaFF artistic director. “We’re featuring a film about the music scene in East Nashville, called “East Nashville Tonight,” and another called “Folk” that explores the very interesting lives of folk musicians.  We also have a wildly entertaining film, called “The History of Future Folk” and a  wonderful film that follows a boys choir called “Die Thomaner.” And, that’s only the beginning.

These films are highly anticipated and are already in rush status, meaning they have initially sold out but you might be able to get a ticket directly before a screening. Check with the box office for details. The excitement for these films just further defines how important music is to Nashville and to the Nashville Film festival.

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