In honor of America’s 250th anniversary, the 57th Nashville Film Festival highlights works that celebrate the nation’s spirit, diversity, resilience, and stories that define the American experience. From untold histories to contemporary voices shaping the future, we’re celebrating films that honor the past and inspire the next chapter of America’s journey.
The Freedom 250 Award is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The America 250 award will be announced at the 57 NashFilm Awards Ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 27.
Nominees for the America 250 Award include:
The Apple Interviews: Apple One: (TN doc short)
Dir. Erik Sharpnack
Synopsis: In honor of the United States of America’s 250th year, The Apple Interviews is a study on what Middle Tennesseans think the American Dream is in 2026. Filmed during the first half of 2026, every interview was conducted the same way. Each person was given an apple and was asked only one question: What is the American Dream? This is only one apple from a larger group. There are more perspectives, more ideas, thoughts, dreams, but this apple felt the most relevant right now.
BUCKSKIN (doc short)
Dir. Mars Verrone
Synopsis: Carroll B. Williams Jr. (1929-2024) was the first African-American to receive a doctorate in forestry and entomology, the first African-American scientist to be hired by the U.S. Forest Service, and among the first African-Americans to be a part of the environmental science and forestry faculties at both Yale and UC Berkeley. Featuring stunning 16mm cinematography, this experimental documentary explores the life and legacy of a groundbreaking scientist through intimate conversation with his daughter and grandchild. The film engages questions around personal and collective memory, the human/nature divide, the ongoing impact of settler-colonialism in the Americas, and the possibilities and limitations of an individual human life in effecting social change. At times, Buckskin is grand in its scope: envisioning how white supremacy has shaped human societies and natural environments alike over nearly a century. At other times, the film is deeply personal: a moving portrait of a fascinating and exceptional person told from the perspective of a loving and curious grandchild.
THE LORRAINE (doc feature)
Dir. Sam Pollard
Synopsis: In the heart of Memphis, Walter and Loree Bailey’s Lorraine Motel was both a thriving hub of Black entrepreneurship and a destination for the greatest musicians of the 20th century—a place where Civil Rights demonstrations were planned, musical hits were written, and Black and white artists created history together. A rare, black-owned establishment, The Lorraine served as a safe haven and sanctuary for Black travelers during the Jim Crow era. Then, on April 4, 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. outside Room 306 cleaved that history in two, and the world forgot everything else.
Urgent yet deeply joyful, THE LORRAINE is both a reckoning with the Civil Rights Movement’s unfinished legacy and a celebration of Black excellence and resilience. Renowned documentarian Sam Pollard uses archival footage and music along with the voices of those who lived it to vividly revive what was lost. The film ultimately becomes a story of reclamation: of people, space, history, and identity. Of transforming trauma into light.
THE LORRAINE reminds us that history is never as neatly resolved as we’re taught to believe, and that the fight for justice is still very much evolving.
STEADFAST & TRUE: THE SEARCY STORY (TN doc feature)
Dir. Barbara Hall
Synopsis: They have made Nashville their home despite the blatant, harsh realities of deep rooted racism and its cruel impact. Rather than take the easy way, they carved a path of lifetime activism. Nashville (aka Music City), is best known as the capital for country music. But what is not as well known, is its history of racism, segregation and ability to divert attention away from the racial issues. However, none of this was lost on the Searcy’s.
Joyce and Walter arrived in Nashville in the 1970’s attended HBC Fisk University and both excelled academically. But more importantly, they devoted much of their skills and energy as they lived out the John Lewis motto – Good Trouble.
Steadfast & True is the story of a remarkable couple who ‘under the radar’ contributed to vast amount of ‘change’ in Nashville and why we are better if we acknowledge and understand what they contributed.
STRAY EMBERS (doc feature)
Dir. Erin Brethauer, Tim Hussin
Synopsis: After saving his home from a historic wildfire that destroyed his town, a California man opens his doors to displaced families and neighbors, determined to stay rooted in a place that could burn again. Filmed over five years, it captures the bonds, challenges, and tensions that emerge when dozens of people and their dogs live together in the aftermath of disaster.
