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The Nashville Film Festival isn’t huge, like Sundance or Toronto. Nor is it tiny, like the many regional festivals that have sprouted in the past 10 years like mushrooms after rain. What the Nashville Film Festival is, mostly, is ours. It reflects our identity as Music City, with an ever-expanding section of films devoted to bluegrass, country and beyond. It has a makeup as diverse as our own population, with selections targeted to Nashville’s thriving Mexican and Kurdish communities. Its audiences—celebrities, college kids, churchgoers, out-of-towners—could be the line outside Pancake Pantry any given Saturday.
There’s just a lot more of it. Last year, for the first time in its 39-year history, the Nashville Film Festival broke the 20,000 attendance mark. When it opens this Thursday, April 17, for a week’s run at Regal’s Green Hills megaplex, another boost in attendance is likely. Whether you’ve been every year since the festival was called Sinking Creek, back at Vanderbilt throughout the 1970s, or you’re going for the first time, you could probably use some help sorting through the crowds, the tickets, and above all, dozens of different programming blocks devoted to features, documentaries, panels and workshops.
If so, you’re in the right place. Below, the Scene’s writers offer previews of this year’s NaFF attractions day by day, pointing out films you shouldn’t miss (as well as some you can safely skip). Along with those, we offer some practical tips for getting the most out of the festival. First, buy advance tickets, either at the downstairs Green Hills festival office or online at nashvillefilmfestival.org. Weekday matinees rarely fill to capacity, but weekend shows (especially at night) or any film featuring visiting celebrities will sell out long before showtime. The same is often true of movies showing only once at the festival: Usually, that means the film is something special, or at least has theatrical distribution. Plan accordingly.

nashvillescene.com