NashFilm Archive | Official Selections & Winners from past festivals Nashville Film Festival

2018 Festival

2018 Program Guide

Documentary Feature Competition
Chef Flynn | directed by Cameron Yates | USA | 83 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Circles | directed by Cassidy Friedman | USA | 82 min. | US Premiere
Crime + Punishment | directed by Stephen Maing | USA | 111 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Crossroads | directed by Ron Yassen | USA | 76 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Dark Money | directed by Kimberly Reed | USA | 99 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Every Act of Life | directed by Jeff Kaufman | USA | 93 min. | Southeast US Premiere
hillbilly | directed by Sally Rubin & Ashley York | USA | 87 min. | World Premiere | Closing Night Selection
Inventing Tomorrow | directed by Laura Nix | USA | 104 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Minding the Gap | directed by Bing Liu | USA | 98 min. | Tennessee Premiere
A Murder in Mansfield | directed by Barbara Kopple | USA | 87 min. | Tennessee Premiere
On Her Shoulders | directed by Alexandria Bombach | USA | 94 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland | directed by Kate Davis & David Heilbroner | USA | 120 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Weed the People | directed by Abby Epstein | USA | 97 min. | Southeast US Premiere
The World Before Your Feet | directed by Jeremy Workman | USA | 96 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Zero Weeks | directed by Ky Dickens | USA | 85 min. | Southeast US Premiere

Music Films/Music City Feature Competition
Bathtubs Over Broadway | directed by Dava Whisenant | USA | 87 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Fatherhood| directed byBen Gregor | United Kingdom | 76 min. | Southeast US Premiere
If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd | directed by Stephen Kijak | USA | 94 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Industrial Accident - The Story of Wax Trax! Records | directed by Julia Nash | USA | 95 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Loud Krazy Love | directed by Trey Hill & Scott Mayo | USA | 87 min. | Southeast US Premiere
The Potential of Noise - Conny Plank | directed by Stephan Plank & Reto Caduff | Germany | 92 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Satan & Adam | directed by V. Scott Balcerek | USA | 75 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Stay Human | directed by Michael Franti | USA | 93 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Steven Tyler: Out on a Limb | directed by Casey Tebo | USA | 96 min. | World Premiere | Opening Night Selection

Special Presentations Features
Benched | directed by Robert Deaton & George Flanigen | USA | 110 min. | World Premiere
Blindspotting | directed by Carlos López Estrada | USA | 95 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Brampton's Own | directed by Michael Doneger | USA | 91 min. | World Premiere
Breath | directed by Simon Baker | USA | 115 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Daphne & Velma | directed by Suzi Yoonessi | USA | 77 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Eighth Grade | directed by Bo Burnham | USA | 94 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Fail State | directed by Alexander Shebanow | USA | 94 min. | Southeast US Premiere
First Reformed | directed by Paul Schrader | USA | 108 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Harold and Maude | directed by Hal Ashby | USA | 91 min.
Hot Summer Nights | directed by Elijah Bynum | USA | 120 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary | directed by Steven Spielberg | USA | 127 min.
Leave No Trace | directed by Debra Granik | USA | 108 min. | Tennessee Premiere
On Chesil Beach | directed by Dominic Cooke | United Kingdom | 110 min. | Tennessee Premiere
One Vote | directed by Christine Woodhouse USA | 78 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Rosemary's Baby 50th Anniversary | directed by Roman Polanski | USA | 137 min.

Special Presentations Documentary Features
Hal| directed by Amy Scott | USA | 90 min. | Tennessee Premiere
It All Begins with a Song: The Story of the Nashville Songwriter | directed by Chusy | USA | 80 min. | World Premiere
THE KING | directed by Eugene Jarecki | USA | 115 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Lost In America directed by Rotimi Rainwater | USA | 85 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Got to Be Me | directed by Samuel D. Pollard | USA | 100 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Turning Point | directed by James Keach USA 82 min. | World Premiere

Tennessee First Feature Competition
Other Versions of You | directed by Motke Dapp USA 95 min. | World Premiere
Rukus | directed by Brett Hanover USA 87 min. | Tennessee Premiere
Stage 5 | directed by Alex Westrick USA 116 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Straight Up: Kentucky Bourbon | directed by Eric Byford USA 73 min. | World Premiere
Strategy and Pursuit | directed by Matt Riddlehoover USA 92 min. | Southeast US Premiere
Television Pioneer: The Story of Ross K. Bagwell, Sr. | directed by Kristen Dye USA 77 min.
Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace | directed by Richard Gentile USA 93 min.

NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Prison Logic, directed by Romany Malco (USA)
Honorable Mention - When She Runs, directed by Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck (USA)
Best Actor - Romany Malco in Prison Logic (USA)
Best Actress - Elise Van't Laar in Craving (Netherlands)
Best Screenplay - Angels Wear White, written by Vivian Qu (China)
Best Music - Prison Logic (USA)
Audience Award - Prison Logic (USA)

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Minding the Gap, directed by Bing Liu (USA)
Honorable Mention - Inventing Tomorrow, directed by Laura Nix (USA)

NEW DIRECTORS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Thunder Road, directed by Jim Cummings (USA)
Honorable Mention - Still, directed by Takashi Dosher (USA)
Honorable Mention - The Marriage, directed by Bierta Zeqiri (Kosovo)
Audience Award - Mountain Rest, directed by Alex O. Eaton (USA)

MUSIC FILMS/MUSIC CITY COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Satan & Adam, directed by Scott Balcerek (USA)
Honorable Mention - If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd, directed by Steven Kijack (USA)
Audience Award - If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd, directed by Steven Kijack (USA)
Audience Award - Stay Human, directed by Michael Franti (USA)

GRAVEYARD SHIFT COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Mickey Reece's Alien, directed by Mickey Reece (USA)
Honorable Mention - Zerzura, directed by Christopher Kirkley (Niger / USA)
Best Actress - Cate Jones in Mickey Reece's Alien (USA)
Best Actor - Jacob Ryan Snovel in Mickey Reece's Alien (USA)
Best Actor - CJ Jones in Door in the Woods (USA)

TENNESSEE FIRST COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Rukus, directed by Brett Hanover (USA)
Audience Award - Other Versions of You, directed by Motke Dapp (USA)

ANIMATION COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, directed by Benjamin Renner & Patrick Imbert (France)

NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - The President's Visit, directed by Cyril Aris (Lebanon / Qatar) - Academy Award Qualified
Outstanding US Short - Debris, directed by Juilo O. Ramos (Peru / USA)
Honorable Mention US Short - Emergency, directed by Carey Williams (USA)
Outstanding International Short - Icarus, directed by Nicolas Boucart (Belgium)
Honorable Mention International Short - Miss Wamba, directed by Estafania Cortes (Spain)

ANIMATION COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Weekends, directed by Trevor Jiminez (Canada) - Academy Award Qualified
Honorable Mention - Hybrids, directed by Florian Brauch, Kim Tailhades, Matthieu Pujol, Romain Thirion & Yohan Thireau (France)

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - '63 Boycott, directed by Gordon Quinn (USA) - Academy Award Qualified
Honorable Mention - Tightly Wound, directed by Shelby Hadden (USA)
Honorable Mention - While I Yet Live, directed by Maris Curren (USA)

EXPERIMENTAL COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Green Screen Gringo, directed by Douwe Dijkstra (Netherlands / Brazil)
Honorable Mention - Strangers, directed by Eve Duhamel & Julian Vallee (Canada)

STUDENT COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Schoolyard Blues, directed by Maria Eriksson-Hecht (Sweden)
Honorable Mention - Lunch Time, directed by Alireza Ghasemi (Iran)

GRAVEYARD SHIFT COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Socks on Fire: Uncle John and the Copper Headed Water Rattlers, directed by Bo McGuire (USA)
Honorable Mention - Paralys, directed by John Boisen & Björn Fävremark

TENNESSEE FIRST COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Best TN Narrative - Hunter, directed by Hilary Bell (USA)
Honorable Mention - Best TN Narrative - The Order, directed by Chad Cunningham (USA)
Grand Jury Prize - Best TN Documentary - Clarksville, 1937, directed by Karen Bullis & Kathy Lee Heuston (USA)
Grand Jury Prize - Best TN Student Short - Pilots, directed by Jason Luckett

YOUNG FILMMAKERS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Suburbia, directed by Alex Alford & Zak Denley (USA)

WINNERS – SCREENWRITING COMPETITION 2018

THE NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES SCREENWRITING COMPETITION WINNERS

May 21, 2018 (Nashville, TN) – The Nashville Film Festival announces the winners of their 5th annual Screenwriting Competition. The winners were selected from over 1,400 submissions from all over the world and include feature-length screenplays, short screenplays, and teleplays.

Below are the winners in each category:

Grand Jury Prizes:

Grand Jury Prize – Feature: Queens by Max Sokoloff

Grand Jury Prize – Short: True Blue by Phil Yuhas

Feature Screenplays

Action/Adventure Feature: Suckerfish City by William Rodemeyer

Comedy Feature: Queens by Max Sokoloff

Drama Feature: Blue on Blue by David Dasilma

Family/Animation Feature: Spirit Halloween by Billie Bates

Historical Feature: Southern Knights by Scott Bloom & Myra Turley

Inspirational Feature: Get a Life by Nicole Fairbrother

Music-Inspired Feature: Hard Candy Christmas by Nick Abdo

Science-Fiction Feature: Moon Rush by Matt O’Reilly

Tennessee Feature: Green Card Gay by KD Amond

Thriller/Horror Feature: Dream Screen by Steven Epp

Short Screenplays

Comedy Short: Mama of Dada by Anna Hopkins

Drama Short: True Blue by Phil Yuhas

Genre Short: Sergio: A Scorpion’s Tale by Shaun Radecki

Tennessee Short: Night of the Swingin’ Dead by Jason K Allen

Thriller/Horror Short: The Storyteller by Patrick Nash

Young Screenwriter Short: Hiding Spot by Sam Wilson

Teleplays

30-Minute Teleplay: OMG by Terry Milner

60-Minute Teleplay: Radicalized by Bandar Albuliwi

Full 2018 Festival Gallery

All 2018 Videos

2018 Youtube Playlist

2017 Festival

2017 Program Guide

The 48th Nashville Film Festival named winners across multiple categories at three ceremonies at Regal Hollywood 27, the festival's flagship theater. The big winner was Ian MacAllister McDonald's Some Freaks, which took home the Grand Jury Prize in the Narrative Competition as well as Best Actress for Lily Mae Harrington and Best Music. The winning short films in the Narrative, Animated and Documentary Shorts competitions were all qualified to submit to the 2018 Academy Awards, provided they meet all other eligibility requirements. The selection included 303 films representing 56 nations chosen from over 5,500 entries from 125 nations.

The winners are as follows:

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Audience Award: Step, directed by Amanda Lipitz (USA)

SPECTRUM

Audience Award: The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, directed by Jennifer M. Kroot (USA)

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Some Freaks, directed by Ian MacAllister McDonald (USA)
Honorable Mention: Play the Devil, directed by Maria Govan (Trinidad & Tobago)
Audience Award: The Migrumpies, directed by Arman T. Riahi (Austria)
Best Actor: Pyotr Skvortsov for his performance in The Student (Russia)
Best Actress: Lily Mae Harrington in Some Freaks (USA)
Best Screenplay: Play the Devil, written by Maria Govan (Trinidad & Tobago)
Best Music: Some Freaks, Composer Walter Sickert; Music Supervisor, Dan Wilcox (USA)
Special Jury Prize for Overall Film Aesthetics: Flowers of Evil, directed by Antti J. Jokinen (Finland)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Unrest, directed by Jennifer Rhea (USA)
Honorable Mention: Quest, directed by Jonathan Olshefski (USA)
Audience Award: Augie, directed by James Keach (USA)
Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Filmmaking: Small Talk, directed by Hui-Chen Huang (Taiwan)

NEW DIRECTORS FEATURE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: The Eremites, directed by Ronny Trocker (Germany)
Honorable Mention: La Soledad, directed by Jorge Thielen Armand (Venezuela)
Audience Award (tie): Bomb City, directed by Jameson Brooks (USA)
Audience Award (tie): Girl Flu, directed by Dorie Barton (USA)
Special Jury Prize for Performance: Dave Davis for is performance in Bomb City (USA)

MUSIC FILMS/MUSIC CITY COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape, directed by Zack Taylor (USA)
Honorable Mention: Score: A Film Music Documentary, directed by
Matt Schrader (USA)
Audience Award: The Last Songwriter, directed by Mark Barger Elliott (USA)

GRAVEYARD SHIFT FEATURE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: A Closer Walk with Thee, directed by John C. Clark & Brie Williams (USA)
Honorable Mention: Birdboy: The Lost Children, directed by Pedro Rivero | Alberto Vázquez (Spain)
Audience Award: Show Yourself, directed by Billy Ray Brewton (USA)
Best Actor: A.J. Knight for his performance in A Closer Walk with Thee (USA)
Best Actress: Suela Bako, in Bloodlands (Albania / Australia)

ANIMATED FEATURE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Reveangance, directed by Bill Plympton (USA)
Audience Award: Window Horses (The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming), directed by Ann Marie Fleming (Canada)

TENNESSEE FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Kandyland, directed by Seth Graves (USA)
Audience Award: Wild Man, directed by Jacquie Phillips & Stefanie Black (USA)

EPISODIC COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize - Long Form: The Nest, directed by Filipe Matzembacher & Marcio Reolon (Brazil)
Grand Jury Prize - Short Form: Guest Appearances, directed by Elizabeth Guest (USA)
Audience Award: Long Live Death, directed by Sebastian Marka (Germany)
Special Jury Prize: Tatanka Means, for his performance in The Minutes Collection (USA)

NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: What Tears Us Apart, directed by Hu Wei (France) (Qualified for Academy Award Consideration)
Best American Short Film: American Paradise, directed by Joe Talbot (USA)
Honorable Mention - American Short Film: A Funeral for Lightning, directed by Emily Kai Bock (USA / Canada)
Best International Short Film: Import, directed by Ena Sendijarevic (Netherlands)
Honorable Mention - International Short Film: Thank You Mr. Imada, directed by Sylvain Chomet (France)
Audience Award: 4:15 PM The End of the World, directed by Gabi Virginia Sarga & Catalin Rotaru (Romania)

ANIMATED SHORTS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Garden Party, directed by Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Theophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, Lucas Na (France) (Qualified for Academy Award Consideration)
Honorable Mention: Kaputt/Broken - The Woman's Prison at Hoheneck, directed by Volker Schlecht & Alexander Lahl (Germany)
Honorable Mention: E is for Evolution, directed by Paul Kusmaul (Belgium)
Honorable Mention: The Absence of Eddy Table, directed by Rune Spaans (Norway)
Audience Award: Nowhere Line: Voices from Manus Island, directed by Lukas Schrank (Australia)

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Refugee, directed by Emily Moore & Joyce Chen (USA)
Honorable Mention: Moriom, directed by Francesca Scalisi & Mark Olexa (Switzerland / Bangladesh)
Audience Award: The Streets Are Ours: Two Lives Cross in Karachi, directed by Michelle Fiordaliso (USA / Pakistan)

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: The Edge of Alchemy, directed by Stacey Steers (USA)
Honorable Mention: The Reflection of Power, directed by Mihai Grecu (France)
Audience Award: The Reflection of Power, directed by Mihai Grecu (France)

COLLEGE STUDENT SHORTS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: The Art of Not Appearing, directed by Pernille Rivedal Hellevik (Norway)
Honorable Mention: The Alan Dimension, directed by Jac Clinch (United Kingdom)
Special Jury Prize for Performance: Lucy Chappell in Spilt Milk (United Kingdom)

GRAVEYARD SHIFT SHORTS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: I Am the Doorway, directed by Robin Kasparik (Czech Republic)
Honorable Mention: Pearlies (Quenottes), directed by Pascal Thiebaux & Gil Pinheiro (Canada)
Special Jury Prize for Exuberance, Vision and Naughtiness: Ghosting the Party, directed by Carlos Alberto Fernandez Lopez
Audience Award: Hand Fart, directed by Stanley Wong & Travis Ashkenasy

TENNESSEE FIRST SHORTS

Grand Jury Prize - Narrative Short: A Funeral for Lightning, directed by Emily Kai Bock
Grand Jury Prize - Documentary Short: Still Sophie, directed by Caroline Knight
Grand Jury Prize - Student Short: Millennium Girl, directed by Grayson Propst
Tennessee Horizon Audience Award: Martha, directed by Taylor Burgess

YOUNG FILMMAKERS SHORTS COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Jouska, directedy Wynter Rhys
Audience Award: Recess, directed by Brett Elam

The Nashville Film Festival announces the winners of their 4th annual Screenwriting Competition.
The winners were selected from over 1,300 submissions from all over the world including feature-length screenplays, short screenplays, and teleplays. Winners were chosen by a team of 27 industry professionals including agents, writers, producers, and directors for companies such as APA Agency, Bob’s Burgers, and Voltage Pictures.

Grand Jury Prizes:

Grand Jury Prize – Feature Screenplay:

The Secret of Shangri-La by Lisa Gold

Grand Jury Prize – Short Screenplay:

Del Rio, Texas by Raj Trivedi

Feature Screenplays:

Best Comedy Feature:

The Anklebiter by Andrew Jones

Best Drama Feature:

The Low Road by Darren McInerney

Best Action/Adventure Feature:

Duel of the Immortals by Michael Gibrall

Best Family/Animation Feature:

The Secret of Shangri-La by Lisa Gold

Best Historical Feature:

A Man Called White by Randy Hines

Best Inspirational Feature:

The Moonbeam Fisherman by John Dummer

Best Music-Inspired Feature:

The Jack-O-Lanterns by Dan Goforth

Best Science-Fiction Feature:

Alien in my Pocket by Joe Borriello

Best Tennessee Feature:

Café New York by Katy Chevigny-Smith

Best Thriller/Horror Feature:

The Sand Reckoner by Christopher Colpitts

Short Screenplays:

Best Comedy Short:

Anatomically Modern Human for President by Amanda Martinez

Best Drama Short:

Del Rio, Texas by Raj Trivedi

Best Genre Short:

Fly! by Dave Chan

Best Tennessee Short:

The Morning After by Conway Preston

Best Thriller/Horror Short:

Gone by David Cramer

Best Young Screenwriter Short:

Ruth(less) by Lauren Marie Miller

Teleplays:

Best 30-Minute Teleplay:

Millennial Rules by Heidi Putallaz

Best 60-Minute Teleplay:

Blood Oath by Jake Bottiglieri

In 2017, the Nashville Film Festival's 48th year, the VR & 360 Film Competition was launched to curate and spotlight quality VR & 360 Film experiences. On the final day of the 2017 festival, April 29th, each of the competition finalists were exhibited on site at the Regal Hollywood 27 Cinemas. The competition awards included high performance computers from AMD (Grand Jury Prize & Honorable Mention) as well as awards certificates & festival laurels.

View the winners of the 2017 NashFilm VR & 360 Film Competition:

GRAND JURY PRIZE WINNER

Invasion by Baobab Studios

Invasion! VR & 360 Film Grand Prize Winner Awards

Prizes

1) "The Beacon" award statue by Alan Lequire
2) High Performance computer by AMD
3) Award Certificate
4) Festival Laurels
5) Qty (2) All-Access Passes to the festival and Creators Conference

HONORABLE MENTION

I, Philip directed by Pierre Zandrowicz

I, Philip 2017 VR & 360 Film Competition Honorable Mention Awards

Prizes

1) High Performance computer by AMD

2) Festival Laurels

3) Qty (2) All-Access Passes to the festival and Creators Conference

FINALISTS (in alphabetical order)

Asteroids by Baobab Studios

Asteroids 2017 VR & 360 Film Competition Finalist Awards

Prizes

1) Festival Laurels

2) Qty (2) All-Access Passes to the festival and Creators Conference

The Rock Presents: "Escape From Calypso Island" by Scott Brown

Escape from Calypso Island 2017 VR & 360 Film Competition Finalist Awards

Prizes

1) Festival Laurels

2) Qty (2) All-Access Passes to the festival and Creators Conference

VAIN: This Party Sucks directed by Maggie Levin

Vain 2017 VR & 360 Film Competition Finalist Awards

Prizes

1) Festival Laurels

2) Qty (2) All-Access Passes to the festival and Creators Conference

Full 2017 Festival Gallery

All 2017 Videos

2017 Youtube Playlist

2016 Festival

2016 Program Guide

Special Presentations

High profile films featuring familiar names and rising stars making their Nashville premieres.

American Epic/United Kingdom, USA (Director: Bernard MacMahon)
AMERICAN EPIC takes us on a journey across time to the birth of modern music, when the musical strands of a diverse nation first combined, sparking a cultural renaissance that forever transformed the future of music and the world. Cast: T Bone Burnett, Jack White, Nas, Alabama Shakes, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Steve Martin, Edie Brickell, Beck, Elton John, Taj Mahal, The Avett Brothers. Three Night Closing Spotlight Event.

The Bristol Sessions (Work-in-Progress)/USA (Director: )
Cast: .

Hunt for the Wilderpeople/New Zealand (Director: Taika Waititi)
Raised on hip-hop and foster care, defiant city kid Ricky gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside. He quickly finds himself at home with his new foster family: the loving Aunt Bella, the cantankerous Uncle Hec, and dog Tupac. When a tragedy strikes that threatens to ship Ricky to another home, both he and Hec go on the run in the bush. As a national manhunt ensues, the newly branded outlaws must face their options: go out in a blaze of glory or overcome their differences and survive as a family. Cast: Julian Dennison, Sam Neill, Rachel House, Rima Te Wiata, Oscar Knightley, Rhys Darby.

The Innocents/Poland, France (Director: Anne Fontaine)
In 1945 Poland, a young French Red Cross doctor who is sent to assist the survivors of the German camps discovers several nuns in advanced states of pregnancy during a visit to a nearby convent. Cast: Lou de Laâge, Agata Buzek, Agata Kulesza, Vincent Macaigne, Anna Próchniak, Klara Bielawka.

Little Men/USA (Director: Ira Sachs)
Jake is a quiet, sensitive middle schooler with dreams of being an artist. He meets the affably brash Tony at his grandfather's funeral, and the unlikely pair soon hit it off. The budding friendship is put at risk, however, when a rent dispute between Jake's father and Tony's mother threatens to become contentious. Cast: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina Garcia, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri, Alfred Molina.

The Lobster/Greece, United Kingdom, Ireland (Director: Yorgos Lanthimos)
In a future world, single people are arrested and have 45 days to find a mate or they face being transformed into an animal and released into the woods. Cast: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Lea Seydoux, Olivia Colman, Ben Whishaw.

Louder than Bombs/Norway, France, Denmark (Director: Joachim Trier)
The fractious family of a father and his two sons confront their different feelings and memories of their deceased wife and mother, a famed war photographer. Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Isabelle Huppert, Gabriel Byrne, Amy Ryan, David Strathairn, Devin Druid.

Love & Friendship/Ireland, Netherlands (Director: Whit Stillman)
Lady Susan Vernon takes up temporary residence at her in-laws' estate and, while there, is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica -- and herself too, naturally. Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, Emma Greenwell, Justin Edwards, Tom Bennett, Jemma Redgrave, Stephen Fry. Day One Spotlight.

Morris from America/USA, Germany (Director: Chad Hartigan)
The romantic and coming-of-age misadventures of a 13-year-old American living in Germany. Cast: Craig Robinson, Carla Juri, Lina Keller, Markees Christmas, Jakub Gierszal, Levin Henning.

Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You/USA (Director: Rachel Grady, Heidi Ewing)
A look at the life, work and political activism of one of the most successful television producers of all time, Norman Lear. Cast: John Amos, Adrienne Barbeau, Valerie Bertinelli, Todd Bridges, George Clooney, Dabney Coleman.

Sing Street/Ireland (Director: John Carney)
With 1980s Dublin mired in recession, Conor’s parents move him from a comfortable private school to a rough inner-city public school where the scrappy 14-year-old forms a band. Mentored by his older brother, a dropout who’s hip to cool tunes, Conor starts to compose lyrics and the glam-ish band finds its “no covers” groove. Renaming himself Cosmo, he convinces the mysterious, über-cool Raphina to star in their music videos (and tries to win her heart in the process). Cast: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Lucy Boynton, Jack Reynor, Aidan Gillen, Mark McKenna.

Smokey & the Bandit/USA (Director: Hal Needham)
The Bandit is hired to run a tractor trailer full of beer over county lines in hot pursuit by a pesky sheriff. Cast: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleason, Mike Henry, Paul Williams. Special (almost) 40^th Anniversary Presentation.

A Tale of Love and Darkness/Israel (Director: Natalie Portman)
A drama based on the memoir of Amos Oz, a writer, journalist, and advocate of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Cast: Natalie Portman, Makram Khoury, Shira Haas, Neta Riskin, Gilad Kahana, Mor Cohen.

Weiner/USA (Director: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg)
An examination of disgraced New York Congressman Anthony Weiner's mayoral campaign and the landscape of today's political landscape. Cast: Anthony Weiner. Centerpiece Spotlight.

Spectrum

Compelling, challenging stories crafted by the filmmakers who are setting trends in contemporary world cinema.

The Alchemist's Cookbook
82 | United States | Tennessee Premiere

Suffering from delusions of fortune, a young hermit hides out in the forest hoping to crack an ancient mystery, but pays a price for his mania.

Directed by: Joel Potrykus | Written by: Joel Potrykus
Starring: Ty Hickson, Amari Cheatom, Fiji

Produced by: Andrew Corkin, Joel Potrykus, Bryan Reisberg, Ashley Young
Cinematography by: Adam J. Minnick | Edited by: Joel Potrykus

April and the Extraordinary World
105 | France | Tennessee Premiere

1941, France. When scientists begin to vanish mysteriously. Avril (Marion Cotillard), a teenage girl, goes in search of her missing parents.

Directed by: Christian Desmares, Franck Ekinci | Written by: Franck Ekinci, Benjamin Legrand, Jacques Tardi
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Philippe Katerine, Jean Rochefort, Olivier Gourmet, Marc-André Grondin, Bouli Lanners

Produced by: Michel Dutheil, Franck Ekinci, Marc Jousset
Cinematography by: | Edited by: Nazim Meslem | Music by: Valentin Hadjadj

A Blossom of Love in Gannan
94 | China | North American Premiere

An ethnic Han Chinese doctor Wan Peng from the metropolitan city reluctantly arrives in the majestic grassland steppes to provide medical services to rural Tibetan herders in 1968.

Directed by: Liqiang Gao | Written by: Bensheng LI, Moyong Xiao
Starring: Huailong Li, De Ji, Guoyi Chen

Produced by: Ping Hao, Hongyang Pan
Cinematography by: Peng Gao | Edited by: | Music by: Meng Liang

Cemetery of Splendor
122 | Thailand | Tennessee Premiere

Cemetery of Splendor tells of a lonesome, middle-age housewife who tends a soldier with sleeping sickness and falls into a hallucination that triggers strange dreams, phantoms, and romance.

Directed by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Written by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Starring: Jenjira Pongpas, Banlop Lomnoi, Jarinpattra Rueangram, Petcharat Chaiburi, Tawatchai Buawat, Sujittraporn Wongsrikeaw

Produced by: Charles de Meaux, Simon Field, Hans W. Geissendörfer, Keith Griffiths
Cinematography by: Diego García | Edited by: Lee Chatametikool

Chevalier
99 | Greece | Tennessee Premiere

In the middle of the Aegean Sea, six men on a fishing trip on a luxury yacht decide to play a game. During this game, things will be compared. Things will be measured. Songs will be butchered, and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry.

Directed by: Athina Rachel Tsangari | Written by: Efthymis Filippou, Athina Rachel Tsangari
Starring: Giannis Drakopoulos, Kostas Filippoglou, Yiorgos Kendros, Panos Koronis, Vangelis Mourikis, Nikos Orphanos

Produced by: Maria Hatzakou, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos
Cinematography by: Christos Karamanis | Edited by: Matthew Johnson, Yorgos Mavropsaridis

Dheepan
115 | France | Tennessee Premiere

Dheepan is a Sri Lankan Tamil warrior who flees to France and ends up working as a caretaker outside Paris.

Directed by: Jacques Audiard | Written by: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré
Starring: Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby, Vincent Rottiers, Faouzi Bensaïdi, Marc Zinga

Produced by: Pascal Caucheteux
Cinematography by: Éponine Momenceau | Edited by: Juliette Welfling | Music by: Nicolas Jaar

He Hated Pigeons
80 | Canada | Southeastern US Premiere

He Hated Pigeons is a slow-burning odyssey about love and loss featuring newcomer Pedro Fontaine.

Directed by: Ingrid Veninger | Written by: Ingrid Veninger
Starring: Pedro Fontaine,

Cristobal Tapia Montt, Vanessa Ramos

Produced by: Ingrid Veninger
Cinematography by: Dylan Macleod, c.s.c. | Edited by: | Music by: Ohad Benchetrit, Justin Small

Hearing Implant
90 | China | North American Premiere

Directed by: Junliang Fang | Written by: Min Cun
Starring: Zhibo Yuan, KunLin Li, Jing Li, LanWu Wang

Produced by: Ping Hao, Hongyang Pan
Cinematography by: | Edited by: | Music by:

Lo and Behold, Reveries in a Connected World
100 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

Werner Herzog's exploration of the Internet and the connected world.

Directed by: Werner Herzog | Written by:
Starring: Kevin Mitnick, Lucianne Walkowicz

Produced by:
Cinematography by: | Edited by: Marco Capalbo

Nai River
98 | China | North American Premiere

A household struggles against their circumstances, but the family stays bonded by hope and love. Nai River is a testiment to the perseverance of the human spirit.

Directed by: Bin Luo | Written by: Bin Luo
Starring: Xiaoxia Chen, Xuan Zhu, Leyi Zhao, Xiaoli Fang, Siqi Dai

Produced by: Qing Han, Haipeng Liang

A Noble Spirit
105 | China | North American Premiere

In the summer of 2001, Jumei Duoji had just graduated from the Sichuan Tibetan School. He was assigned to work in a village in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan province, China, which is known for its harsh conditions.

Directed by: Yue Miao | Written by: Zhuomadawa
Starring: Awangrenqing, Shuying Jiang, Jin Chen

Produced by: Jian Tang, Shiping He

Norjmaa
102 | China | North American Premiere

During WWII, a Mongolian shepherd, Norjmaa, finds two injured soldiers, one Japanese, one Russian. She takes them into her yurt and treats them with traditional Mongolian medicine. However, when the two men recover, they seem to have only one thing on their minds - murdering each other.

Directed by: Bayin | Written by: Bayin
Starring: Badema

Produced by: Batumengke

Presenting Princess Shaw
80 | Israel | Tennessee Premiere

Presenting Princess Shaw examines loneliness, anonymity and connectivity in the Internet age, where showbiz dreams remain but a mouse-click away for even the most hardscrabble striver.

Directed by: Ido Haar | Written by: Ido Haar
Starring:

Produced by: Liran Atzmor
Cinematography by: Ido Haar | Edited by: Ido Haar

Promise
90 | China | North American Premiere

Directed by: Lin Sheng, Yong Li | Written by: Ting Liu, Jiajun Fang, Huiming Fu
Starring: Hui Yu, Wei Pu (Hani), Li Long (Hani), Shuli Yang, Qiying Guan

Produced by: Feng Xu

Sunset Song
135 | United Kingdom, Ireland | Tennessee Premiere

With World War I impending, the daughter of a Scottish farmer struggles to discover her path.

Directed by: Terence Davies | Written by: Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Terence Davies
Starring: Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan, Kevin Guthrie, Jamie Michie, Daniela Nardini, Jack Greenlees

Produced by: Roy Boulter, Sol Papadopoulos, Nicolas Steil
Cinematography by: Michael McDonough | Edited by: David Charap, Ruy Diaz

Tickled
92 | New Zealand, USA | Tennessee Premiere

Journalist David Farrier stumbles upon a mysterious tickling competition online. As he delves deeper he comes up against fierce resistance, but that doesnt stop him getting to the bottom of a story stranger than fiction.

Directed by: David Farrier, Dylan Reeve | Written by:
Starring: David Farrier, Hal Karp, Dylan Reeve, David Starr

Produced by: Carthew Neal
Cinematography by: Dominic Fryer | Edited by: Simon Coldrick

The Youth Times
90 | China | North American Premiere

Directed by: Yijun Liu | Written by: Qingwei Wang
Starring: Ning Wang, Yan Ding, Wang Xi, Zixuan Wang, Jianuo Li

Produced by: Xiaoming Liu, Baoqing Zhang
Cinematography by: | Edited by: | Music by:

Tennessee First Competition

Homegrown cinema representing all corners of the Volunteer State. These films compete for Best Feature, Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Student Short. The winning feature film receives a $1,000 cash prize and each of the winning short films receive a $500 cash prize. The Tennessee Horizon Audience Awards presented by Native Magazine are give to the Best Feature and Best Short Film, selected by your vote!

The Dust Storm
96 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

Brennan was a stranger in Nashville, a broken musician currently working for a soul sucking corporation. Everything changes when he finds himself reunited with Nora, the girl who crushed his heart a decade prior. Now for one weekend, a romance will be reborn and tested all while encompassing, the intoxicating world of the city’s music scene.

Directed by: Ryan Lacen, Anthony Baldino | Written by: Ryan Lacen
Starring: Colin O'Donoghue, Kristen Gutoskie, Chris Carmack, Jim O'Heir, JT Hodges, Valerie Jane Parker

Produced by: Sonja Mereu, Shannon E. Riggs, Justin Mickelson, Cory Scott Allen
Cinematography by: Tim Sutherland | Edited by: Ben La Marca | Music by: Kat Meoz

Josephine
81 | USA | World Premiere

During the Civil War, a desperate soldier's wife joins the Army of Tennessee to find her missing husband.

Directed by: Rory Feek | Written by: Rory Feek, Aaron Carnahan
Starring: Alice Coulthard, Boris McGiver, Jessejames Locorriere, Linds Edwards

Produced by: Aaron Carnahan, Erica Arvold
Cinematography by: Bryan Allen

Mom Jovi
85 | USA | World Premiere

A group of middle-aged women from around the world use Skype and Facebook to build lasting friendships centered around a mutual love for rock band Bon Jovi.

Directed by: Rachel Lambert

Produced by: Denis Deck, Tameron Hedge, Jason Gigax
Cinematography by: John Matysiak

The Polar Bear Club
82 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

A group of elderly men jump into a frozen lake in Minnesota every week to feel alive. The freezing water and painful cold brings each man a renewed feeling of youth and adventure, a feeling they wouldn't give up for anything. After after one of the group dies during the outing, the group's faith in what they are doing is shattered. All the men are suddenly confronted with the reality of their own mortality and the realization that the hardest choices have yet to come.

Directed by: Brett Price | Written by: Ben Zschunke, Brett Price
Starring: W. Scott Parker III, Bernie Ask, William Studer, Ed Pilkington, John Edel, Evan Cable

Produced by: Connor Carroll, Kirk Slawek, Ben Zschunke
Cinematography by: Spencer Goodall, Drew Valenti | Edited by: Brett Price | Music by: Matt Wilcox

Soul
100 | USA | North American Premiere

Chase, an artist, grieving from the murder of his lover Alexis, descends down a path of vengeance. Guided by visions of his lost love, he must find her killers before losing his grip on sanity.

Directed by: James King | Written by: Casey Fuller
Starring: Casey Fuller, CJ Perry, Megan Murphy, Justin Miles, Dave Ogle, Gary Willis

Produced by: Joel Hartz, Casey Fuller, James King, Nate Griffin
Cinematography by: James King | Edited by: James King | Music by: Jason Morant

What's the Matter with Gerald?
98 | USA | World Premiere

A thirty-something trust fund baby (Jacob York) is referred to an eccentric healer (Kathy Cash) - much to the chagrin of his very practical partner (Jonathan Everett).

Directed by: Matt Riddlehoover | Written by: Matt Riddlehoover, Dustin Tittle
Starring: Jacob York, Kathy Cash, Jonathan Everett, Angel Luis, Daniel Chioco, Claudia Church,

Produced by: Cameron McCasland, David Peters
Cinematography by: Josh Ickes | Edited by: Matt Riddlehoover

Bridgestone Narrative Competition

The Bridgestone Narrative Competition brings the newest films from around the world created by established filmmakers. Filmmakers compete for cash and prizes of up to $4,000 with winners selected by a jury of industry professionals.

collective:unconscious
78 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

In collective:unconscious, five of independent film's most adventurous filmmakers join forces to literally adapt each other's dreams for the screen.

Directed by: Lily Baldwin, Frances Bodomo, Daniel Patrick Carbone, Josephine Decker, Lauren Wolkstein | Written by: Jamal Batts, Lily Baldwin Frances Bodomo, Daniel Patrick Carbone, Mariama Diallo, Lauren Wolkstein, Dan Schoenbrun
Starring: Frank Mosley, Will Blomker, Lily Baldwin, Tonya Pinkins, Daniel Ryan, Ryan Cassata

Produced by: Dan Schoenbrun, Daniel Patrick Carbone, Chanelle Elaine, Kara Elverson, Andrew Houchens, Elizabeth Rao, Zachary Shedd, Valerie Steinberg, Laurie Thomas
Cinematography by: Nick Bentgen, Chananun Chotrungroj, Zachary Galler Dagmar Weaver-Madsen, H. Paul Moon | Edited by: Lily Baldwin, Josephine Decker, Colin Elliott Vanessa McDonnell, Nick Paley, Christopher Radcliff, Lauren Wolkstein | Music by: Mark degli Antoni, Timothy Korn, Dale Lazar Roger Paul Mason, Brian McOmber, David Osit

Demimonde
88 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

The story of three women – a famous prostitute, her housekeeper and their new maid – living in Budapest of 1910s, whose passionate, bizarre and complex relationship can only lead to one thing: murder.

Directed by: Attila Szász | Written by: Norbert Köbli
Starring: Patrícia Kovács, Dorka Gryllus, Laura Döbrösi, János Kulka

Produced by: Tamás Lajos, Tamás Mink
Cinematography by: András Nagy | Edited by: László Hargittai | Music by: Gergely Parádi

Fireworkers
91 | USA | World Premiere

After the secret illness and sudden suicide of a childhood friend, six 30-somethings are summoned to her childhood home and, upon arrival, are faced with her incomplete bucket-list and dying request that they each cross off one item. As the friends struggle to resolve her last wishes, they confront the truth of their friendships, their pasts, and themselves.

Directed by: Christina Bennett Lind | Written by: Christina Bennett Lind
Starring: Christina Bennett Lind, Heather Lind, Gene Gallerano, Michael Izquierdo, Drew Denny, Jeff Barry

Produced by: Christina Bennett Lind, Gene Gallerano, Jeff Barry,Michael Izquierdo, Drew Denny
Cinematography by: Will Basanta | Edited by: Christina Bennett Lind | Music by: Estelle Bajou

Five Nights in Maine
82 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

A young African American man, reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to seek answers from his estranged mother-in-law, who is herself confronting guilt and grief over her daughter’s death.

Directed by: Maris Curran | Written by: Maris Curran
Starring: Teyonah Parris, Dianne Wiest, Rosie Perez, David Oyelowo, Bill Raymond, Hani Furstenberg

Produced by: Maris Curran, Carly Hugo, David Oyelowo, Matthew Parker
Cinematography by: Sofian El Fani | Edited by: Ron Dulin

Free in Deed
98 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

Free in Deed depicts one man’s attempts to perform a miracle. When a single mother brings her young boy to church for healing, this lonely pentecostal minister is forced to confront the seemingly incurable illness of the child… and his own demons as well.

Directed by: Jake Mahaffy | Written by: Jake Mahaffy
Starring: David Harewood, Edwina Findley, RaJay Chandler, Kathy Smith

Produced by: Mike Bowes, Mike S. Ryan, Brent Stiefel
Cinematography by: Ava Berkofsky | Edited by: Jake Mahaffy

The Great & the Small
123 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

A young man gets roped into a heist, has a detective closing in on him, and tries to win back the heart of his girlfriend before it all falls apart.

Directed by: Dusty Bias | Written by: Dusty Bias
Starring: Nick Fink, Ritchie Coster, Melanie Lynskey, Louisa Krause, Ann Dowd

Produced by: Ted Speaker, Melodie Sisk
Cinematography by: Chris Mosson

Hunky Dory
85 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

After his ex-girlfriend disappears, Sidney, a glam rock dilettante, is forced to look after his 11-year-old son full-time. His 'cool dad' facade quickly falls apart and his life goes into full tailspin as he struggles to let go of his rock-and-roll lifestyle.

Directed by: Michael Curtis Johnson | Written by: Michael Curtis Johnson
Starring: Tomas Pais, Edouard Holdener, Nora Rothman, Chad Borden, Peter Van Norden, Chad Hartigan

Produced by: Bernie Stern, Michael Curtis Johnson, Tomas Pais
Cinematography by: Magela Crosignani | Edited by: Max Goldblatt

I Promise You Anarchy
100 | Mexico | Tennessee Premiere

Two teenage lovers in Mexico City become embroiled in the city’s illegal, narco-run blood trade.

Directed by: Julio Hernández Cordón | Written by: Julio Hernández Cordón
Starring: Diego Calva, Eduardo Eliseo Martínez, Shvasti Calderón, Milkman , Martha Claudia Moreno, Gabriel Casanova, Sarah Minter

Produced by: Maximiliano Cruz, Sandra Gómez
Cinematography by: María Secco | Edited by: Mauricio Lenz Claure

It Had to Be You
83 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

Sonia is a quirky, neurotic jingle writer who has always dreamt of a big and exciting life. Surprised by a sudden proposal and subsequent ultimatum from her easy-going boyfriend, Chris, Sonia has three days to decide whether she'll join the ranks of her married friends or take a leap and pursue her fantasies. A whimsical romantic comedy that's raunchy and yet gentle, "It Had To Be You" explores the choices women face today while satirizing cultural expectations of gender and romance.

Directed by: Sasha Gordon | Written by: Sasha Gordon
Starring: Cristin Milioti, Dan Soder, Halley Feiffer, Mark Gessner, Kate Simses, Kyle Mooney

Produced by: Rachel Brenna, Benjamin Kruger, Richard Arlook, Levi Abrino
Cinematography by: Bobby Webster | Edited by: Amanda Laws | Music by: Sasha Gordon

The Lure
92 | Poland | Southeast US Premiere

Two mermaid sisters swim out of the sea into a Warsaw nightclub in what could be the 80ies. They are wild beautiful sexy and hungry for life. While becoming stars practically overnight, one of them falls in love with a handsome young bass player. This will question their sister bonds to the limit and will have them make often cruel and bloody choices.

Directed by: Agnieszka Smoczynska | Written by: Robert Bolesto
Starring: Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Jakub Gierszal, Kinga Preis, Andrzej Konopka, Zygmunt Malanowicz

Produced by: Wlodzimierz Niderhaus
Cinematography by: Kuba Kijowski | Edited by: Jaroslaw Kaminski | Music by: Zuzanna Wronska, Barbara Wronska

Magallanes
110 | Peru, Argentina, Chile |

Magallanes is the story of two people chained to each other by the terrible secret they share; a man and a woman whose only chance of freeing themselves from the overwhelming weight of their past depends on their courage to face it and their willingness to forgive.

Directed by: Salvador del Solar | Written by: Salvador del Solar
Starring: Magaly Solier, Damián Alcázar, Federico Luppi, Christian Meier, Bruno Odar, Tatiana Astengo

Produced by: Salvador del Solar, Amador del Solar
Cinematography by: Diego Jiménez | Edited by: Eric Williams | Music by: Federico Jusid

Middle Man
101 | USA |

When a hapless, unfunny, wanna-be comedian picks up a mysterious hitchhiker on his way to Vegas to audition for the Monte Guy show, he unwittingly becomes trapped in a desert-town killing spree that also has a very unexpected consequence – it improves his comedy.

Directed by: Ned Crowley | Written by: Ned Crowley
Starring: Andrew J. West, Anne Dudek, jim O'Heir, Josh McDermitt, Tracey Walter

Produced by: Bill Fortney, Roger Petrusson
Cinematography by: Richard Buckley

Modern Love
93 | USA |

On the eve of their nuputals, two gay men have their closest friends and family over for dinner. When the wedding plans hit a snag, the group helps the grooms-to-be see that all marriages have their challenges in this timely romantic drama.

Directed by: Joshua Tunick | Written by: Joshua Tunick
Starring: Anthony Rapp, Jonathan Bennett, Alyson Hannigan, Thomas Dekker, Mackenzie Astin, Alona Tal

Produced by: Eric Kops, Dave Perkal, Joshua Tunick
Cinematography by: Dave Perkal

Neptune
102 | USA |

Affected by a classmate's sudden disappearance, an orphan girl, raised in a church on a small island off the coast of Maine, falls into an obsessive mania on her way to discovering herself.

Directed by: Derek Kimball | Written by: Derek Kimball, Matthew Konkel, Douglas Milliken, Matthew Brown
Starring: Jane Ackermann, Tony Reilly, William McDonough III, Christine Louise Marshall, Dylan Chestnutt

Produced by: Allen Baldwin, Derek Kimball, Erin Maddox
Cinematography by: Dean Merrill, Jayson Lobozzo

Song of Songs
76 | Ukraine | Southeast US Premiere

Set in Ukrainian shtetl in the arly 20th century, Song of Songs is the story of a love torn between tradition and modernity.

Directed by: Eva Neymann | Written by: Eva Neymann
Starring: Milena Tsibulskaya, Yevheniy Kogan, Arina Postolova-Tihipko, Karen Badalov, Vitalina Bibliv

Produced by: Igor Kolomoisky, Alexander Tkachenko
Cinematography by: Rimvydas Leipus | Edited by: Pavel Zalesov

New Directors Competition

The New Directors Competition features narrative works created by first-time feature filmmakers. It’s your chance to catch a rising star before they become the next celebrated auteur. The winning filmmaker receives up to $4,000 cash.

The 4th
82 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

It's the 4th of July in LA and Jamie, a down on his luck illustrator who's behind on rent, tries to throw a cookout while his over-bearing roommate Derek is out of town. When Jamie decides to borrow Derek's bike without asking for a quick trip to the liquor store to grab lighter fluid, his entire day and life quickly begin to go up in smoke.

Directed by: Andre Hyland | Written by: Andre Hyland
Starring: Andre Hyland, Johnny Pemberton, Eliza Coupe, Anna Lee Lawson, Paul Oyen, Matty Cardarople

Produced by: Michael J. Rizzo, Andre Hyland, Eric Binns, Shane Bruce Johnston
Cinematography by: Shane Bruce Johnston, Charles J. Gibson

Banana
90 | Italy | Southeast US Premiere

A naïve young soccer fan with a misshapen foot puts everying on the line to win the love of a girl.

Directed by: Andrea Jublin | Written by: Andrea Jublin
Starring: Marco Todisco, Beatrice Modica, Anna Bonaiuto, Giorgio Colangeli, Camilla Filippi, Gianfelice Imparato, Giselda Volodi

Produced by: Olivia Musini
Cinematography by: Gherardo Gossi | Edited by: Esmeralda Calabria | Music by: Nicola Piovani

The Elk
83 | France | Southeast US Premiere

A bizarre creature with an Elk head sitting on a human body, covered in a long raincoat visits a little, isolated town on the edge of a forest.

Directed by: Etienne Labroue | Written by: Etienne Labroue, Marc Bruckert
Starring: Aurélia Petit, Olivier Broche, Délia Espinat-Dief, François Morel, Arsène Mosca, Bernard Montiel

Produced by: Igor Wojtowicz, Les Frères Labroue, Open Books Pictures
Cinematography by: Bruno Romiguière | Edited by: Antoine Moreau | Music by: Etienne Charry

The Fits
72 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

While training at the gym 11-year-old tomboy Toni becomes entranced with a dance troupe. As she struggles to fit in she finds herself caught up in danger as the group begins to suffer from fainting spells and other violent fits.

Directed by: Anna Rose Holmer | Written by: Saela Davis, Anna Rose Holmer, Lisa Kjerulff
Starring: Royalty Hightower, Makyla Burnam, Lauren Gibson, Alexis Neblett, Da'Sean Minor, Inayah Rodgers

Produced by: Anna Rose Holmer, Lisa Kjerulff
Cinematography by: Paul Yee | Edited by: Saela Davis | Music by: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans

Good Funk
73 | USA |

Set in Red Hook, a Brooklyn neighborhood on the verge of gentrification, GOOD FUNK follows three generations of citizens whose lives intersect through acts of kindness both big and small.

Directed by: Adam Kritzer | Written by: Adam Kritzer
Starring: Sameerah Luqmaan, William Nadylam, Kalae Nouveau, Leonay Shepherd, Brooke Alexandra, Nora Armani

Produced by: Harrison Atkins, Adam Kritzer
Cinematography by: Gideon de Villiers | Edited by: Daniel Johnson | Music by: Marc Marder

Spa Night
96 | USA |

A closeted Korean-American teenager takes a job at a Korean spa to help his struggling family, only to discover an underground world of gay sex at the spa that both scares and excites him.

Directed by: Andrew Ahn | Written by: Andrew Ahn
Starring: Joe Seo, Haerry Kim, Youn Ho Cho, Tae Song, Ho Young Chung, Linda Han

Produced by: David Ariniello, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, Kelly Thomas
Cinematography by: Ki Jin Kim | Edited by: Yannis Chalkiadakis

Tamago
77 | Japan | Southeast US Premiere

In a small harbor town at the Southernmost end of Honshu Island of Japan, a highschool girl, Sora, lives alone with her father, Taichi. Sora deals with the pain of being abandoned by her mother. Being a teenager, Sora finds difficulty expressing her gratitude against her father. Sora slowly learns to face her own life choices and starts to dissolve the conflicting emotions. Sora takes a step toward her dream, inspiring others to find their own answers.

Directed by: Koji Hirano | Written by: Koji Hirano
Starring: Mayu Tsuyuzume, Akihiko Yamashita, Hinato Tezuka, Shono Tezuka, Yuriko Shimamura, Michael Hazama

Produced by: Naoko Hiromoto
Cinematography by: Koji Hirano | Edited by: | Music by: Tomoo Nagai

Transpecos
86 | USA |

The contents of one car changes the lives of three border patrol agents at a remote desert outpost.

Directed by: Greg Kwedar | Written by: Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley
Starring: Johnny Simmons, Gabriel Luna, Clifton Collins, Jr.

Produced by: Molly Benson, Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley, Nancy Schafer
Cinematography by: Jeffrey Waldron | Edited by: Alan Canant | Music by: Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner

The Violators
96 | United Kingdom | Southeast US Premiere

When Shelly meets Rachel, two dysfunctional girls from radically opposed backgrounds set off on a collision course that will leave one of them shattered, the other re-born. Set in the forsaken wastelands of Cheshire's little-seen urban overspill in North-West England, The Violators charts a teenage girl's path from battle-hardened cynicism to the hope of a better life.

Directed by: Helen Walsh | Written by: Helen Walsh
Starring: Lauren McQueen, Brogan Ellis, Stephen Lord, Liam Ainsworth, Derek Barr, Callum King Chadwick

Produced by: David A. Hughes, David Moores
Cinematography by: Tobin Jones | Edited by: Kyle Ogden | Music by: David A. Hughes

Documentary Competition

The Documentary Competition features a seletion of the finest non-fiction cinema on offer. The Grand Jury Prize winner receives a cash prize of up to $4,000, selected by a jury of documentary filmmakers, producers, and critics.

Accidental Courtesy: Daryl David, Race & America
97 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

Daryl Davis has an unusual hobby. As a musician he plays with legends like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, but in his spare time he likes to meet and befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Directed by: Matt Ornstein
Starring: Daryl Davis, Frank Ancona, Jeff Schoep, Kwame Rose, JC Faulk, Mark Potok

Produced by: Noah Ornstein, Matt Ornstein, Roberto Alcantara, Laurie Harris
Cinematography by: Sam Gezari, Pete Castagnetti | Edited by: Jason Jones

The Bad Kids
101 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

The Bad Kids is an observational documentary that chronicles one extraordinary principal’s mission to realize the potential of these students whom the system has deemed lost causes.

Directed by: Keith Fulton, Lou Pepe
Starring: Lee Bridges, Jennifer Coffield, Joey McGee, Vonda Viland

Produced by: Keith Fulton
Cinematography by: Lou Pepe | Edited by: Jacob Bricca, Mary Lampson | Music by: Michał Jacaszek

The Bandit
83 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

The Bandit is a film about 70s superstar Burt Reynolds, his best friend, roommate and stunt-double Hal Needham, and the making of their unlikely smash-hit SMOKEY & THE BANDIT.

Directed by: Jesse Moss
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Hal Needham

Produced by: Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine, Danny Breen
Cinematography by: | Edited by: Aaron Wickenden | Music by: T. Griffin

Chicken People
83 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

In a high-stakes world where a single broken feather can mean a shattered dream, Chicken People follows the trials and tribulations of those who breed exotic birds in the world of competitive poultry.

Directed by: Nicole Lucas Haimes
Starring: Brian Caraker, Brian Knox, Shari McCollough

Produced by: Terry Leonard, Caroline Kaplan, Christopher Clements, Julie Goldman
Cinematography by: Martina Radwan | Edited by: Kevin Klauber | Music by: Michael Hearst

Command and Control
95 | USA |

At the heart of America’s nuclear weapons program is an inherent and dangerous tension: How do we balance the need for a nuclear arsenal that can be launched at a moment’s notice, against the protective safeguards—nuclear codes, technological fail-safes, and chain of command protocols—that may risk the capacity to respond rapidly to a nuclear attack?

Directed by: Robert Kenner | Written by: Eric Schlosser, Robert Kenner

Produced by: Robert Kenner, Eric Schlosser, Mark Samels, Melissa Robledo
Cinematography by: Jay Redmond, Paul Goldsmith | Edited by: | Music by: Mark Adler

Holy Hell
100 | USA |

Filmmaker Will Allen documented over 20 years of his life inside a secretive spiritualist community in Southern California…and his way out.

Directed by: Will Allen

Produced by: Will Allen, Tracey Harnish, Alexandra Johnes
Cinematography by: Polly Morgan, Will Allen | Edited by: Will Allen, Sean Jarrett

Hooligan Sparrow
84 | USA |

Traversing southern China, a group of activists led by Ye Haiyan (AKA Hooligan Sparrow) protest a scandalous incident where a school principal and a government official allegedly raped six school girls. Sparrow becomes an enemy of the state, but detentions, interrogations, and evictions can’t stop her protest from going viral.

Directed by: Nanfu Wang | Written by: Nanfu Wang, Mark Monroe

Produced by: Andy Cohen, Alison Klayman, Nanfu Wang
Music by: Nathan Halpern

Learning to See
68 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

In the early 1990's, Robert Oelman left his career in psychology and moved to the Amazon, where he takes striking, photographic images of undiscovered insects.

Directed by: Jake Oelman | Written by: Jerry Aronson
Starring: Robert Oelman, Christian Lopez

Produced by: Jerry Aronson, Jake Oelman
Cinematography by: Tom Lembcke, Jake Oelman | Edited by: Jake Oelman | Music by: Lawrence Shragge

Mother's Wish
85 | Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal |

Ten stories seen and told by women from different parts of the world, connected by the theme of motherhood.

Directed by: Joonas Berghäll | Written by: Joonas Berghäll, Anna Nykyri, Timo Vierimaa

Produced by: Joonas Berghäll, Satu Majava, Jesper Jack, Rodrigo Areias, Stina Gardell
Cinematography by: Heikki Färm, Henrik Ipsen, Tuomo Hutri | Edited by: Timo Peltola | Music by: Jonas Bohlin

Oriented
81 | United Kingdom, Israel | Tennessee Premiere

Oriented follows the lives of three Palestinian friends exploring their national and sexual identity in Tel-Aviv during the Israel-Gaza conflict of 2014.

Directed by: Jake Witzenfeld | Written by:
Starring: Khader Abu Seif, Fadi Daeem, Naeem Jiryes

Produced by: Ruth Cats, Jake Witzenfeld, Yoav Birenfeld
Cinematography by: Omar Sawalha, David Stragmeister | Edited by: Nili Feller | Music by: Aviv Aldema

SEED: The Untold Story
92 | USA | World Premiere

SEED: The Untold Story investigates the dramatic story of seeds, the basis of life on earth. As many irreplaceable seeds are nearing extinction, high-tech industrial seed companies control the majority of the world’s remaining seeds. SEED unveils a David and Goliath battle for the freedom of our most treasured resource.

Directed by: Taggart Siegel, Jon Betz

Produced by: Marisa Tomei, Marc Turtletaub

The Seer: A Conversation with Wendell Berry
81 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

The Seer is a cinematic portrait of farmer and writer Wendell Berry. Through his eyes, we see both the changing landscapes of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture and the redemptive beauty in taking the unworn path.

Directed by: Laura Dunn
Starring: Wendell Berry, Tanya Berry, Mary Berry

Produced by: Jef Sewell, Laura Dunn, Terrence Malick, Robert Redford
Cinematography by: Lee Daniel | Edited by: Laura Dunn | Music by: Kerry Muzzy

Thank You, Del: The Story of the Del Close Marathon
84 | USA |

Del Close was never a household name, but any comedy enthusiast is aware of his impact. From Bill Murray to Chris Farley to Amy Poehler, many of the most famous comedians consider him their mentor. Fifteen years after Del Close’s death, thousands of Improv students, comedy fans, actors, and successful comedians gather to celebrate the most important person in modern comedy that no one knows.

Directed by: Todd Bieber
Starring: Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Del Close, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts

Produced by: Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Julie Gomez
Cinematography by: Denis Cardineau | Edited by: Denis Cardineau, Tessa Greenberg, Zach Goldbaum

To the Moon and Back
85 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

Geopolitical games deny children loving homes as hundreds of U.S. parents are forced to betray their commitments to their children and are left in limbo, unable to realize their dream of becoming a family.

Directed by: Susan Morgan Cooper | Written by: Susan Morgan Cooper
Starring: Miles Harrison, Bill Browder, Gene Weingarten, Jessica Long, Janette Fennell

Produced by: Susan Morgan Cooper
Cinematography by: Quyen Tran | Edited by: | Music by: Kyle Eastwood, Russ Howard III

Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
121 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

Joe Berlinger’sTony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru, captures renowned life and business strategist and best-selling author, Tony Robbins, in a revelatory cinéma vérité film that goes behind the scenes of his mega once-a-year seminar, “Date With Destiny," to give an insider look at how one man can affect millions. Granted unprecedented access, this film is an emotional tour de force, pulling back the curtain on this life-altering and controversial event, the zealous participants and the man himself.

Directed by: Joe Berlinger
Starring: Tony Robbins

Produced by: Joe Berlinger, Kevin Huffman, Lisa Gray
Cinematography by: Bob Richman, Jonathan Furmanski | Edited by: | Music by: Wendy Blackstone

When Two Worlds Collide
103 | Peru |

When Two Worlds Collide captures the hazardous journey of an Amazonian leader confronting rules of the globalisation game created by developed countries in order to protect corporate interests. With the rainforest in jeopardy, this apocalyptic story presents two colliding visions that shape the climate future of our world.

Directed by: Heidi Brandenburg, Mathew Orzel | Written by:
Starring:

Produced by: Taira Akbar
Cinematography by: | Edited by: Carla Gutierrez | Music by: H. Scott Salinas

Gibson Music Films/Music City Competition

The Gibson Music Films/Music City Competition highlights films that celebrate music, musicians, and the impact music has on our lives. The Grand Jury Prize winner receives a cash prize of up to $4,000, selected by a jury of documentary filmmakers, producers, and critics.

Artist & Repertoire
105 | United Kingdom | Southeast US Premiere

A pulsating documentary charting the extraordinary life and career of underground DJ icon, music producer and global trip hop mogul, James Lavelle.

Directed by: Matthew Jones
Starring: James Levelle, DJ Shadow, Joshua Homme, Grandmaster Flash, Ian Brown, Gilles Peterson

Produced by: MJ McMahon, Brian Hoffman, Matthew Jones, Jay Hoffman
Cinematography by: Morgan Spencer, Miguel Medina | Edited by: Alec Rossiter

Colin Hay - Waiting for My Real Life
85 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

Colin Hay - Waiting For My Real Life tells the inspiring story of Colin Hay, acclaimed singer-songwriter and former Men At Work frontman. At once universal and wholly singular, the film asks what happens when the spotlight fades and the fame goes away. From the dizzying heights of multiplatinum rock-stardom to the staggering lows of artistic obscurity and addiction, the film traces Colin’s long, slow climb back to relevance and resonance.

Directed by: Nate Gowtham, Aaron Faulls | Written by: Nate Gowtham, Aaron Faulls
Starring: Colin Hay, Mick Fleetwood, Sia Furler, Zach Braff, Guy Pearce, Serj Tankian

Produced by: Serj Tankian, Aaron Faulls, Elizabeth James
Cinematography by: Aaron Faulls | Edited by: David Mercado

A Fat Wreck
89 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

A Fat Wreck tells the story of Fat Mike (of the legendary punk band NOFX) and his ex-wife Erin Kelly-Burkett, spanning the birth, growth, struggles, and survival of their Fat Wreck Chords music label.

Directed by: Shaun Colon | Written by: Greg Pratt
Starring: "Fat Mike" Burkett, Erin Kelly-Burkett, Chris Shiflett, Laura Jane Grace, Jay Bentley, Ryan Greene

Produced by: Joel Herrera, Justin Wilson, Chris Cutler, Ioannis Hansen
Cinematography by: Justin Wilson, Jonathan Finley | Edited by: Justin Wilson

Honky Tonk Heaven
73 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

The Broken Spoke has hosted country greats like George Strait, Willie Nelson, Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, George Jones and Roy Acuff. A profile of “the last of the true Texas dance halls” and the tenacious family keeping it alive amid rapid urban growth.

Directed by: Brenda Greene Mitchell, Sam Wainwright Douglas | Written by:
Starring: James White, Annetta White, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Dale Watson, Alvin Crow

Produced by: Brenda Greene Mitchell, Michelle Randolph Faires
Cinematography by: David Layton, Lee Daniel | Edited by: Sam Wainwright Douglas

SHU-DE!
83 | USA | World Premiere

Beatboxer from Baltimore, Shodekeh, has spent his life mastering news sounds. When he is invited to take part in a music festival half way around the world in Kyzyl, Tuva in southern Siberia, he happily sets out on a journey to lose his urban blues and discover a new culture all the while wrestling with his sense of self amidst the wilds of Tuva.

Directed by: Michael Faulkner

Produced by: Michael Faulkner, Trey Hudson, Don Barto Sr., Nick Midwig
Cinematography by: Trey Hudson | Edited by: Nick Kovacic

Sidemen: Long Road to Glory
78 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

Sidemen : Long Road To Glory is an intimate look at the lives and legacies of three legendary bluesmen; piano player Pinetop Perkins, drummer Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith and guitarist Hubert Sumlin, all Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf sidemen. The film captures some of the last interviews and final live performances, before their deaths in 2011. The historic live shows are accompanied by performances and personal insights from many of the blues and rock stars these legendary musicians inspired including; Bonnie Raitt, Gregg Allman, Derek Trucks, Shemekia Copeland, Robby Krieger, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Joe Perry, Joe Bonamassa and Johnny Winter.

Directed by: Scott Rosenbaum | Written by: Jasin Cadic, Scott Rosenbaum
Starring: Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Bonamassa, Gregg Allman

Produced by: Jasin Cadic, Tony Grazia, Scott Rosenbaum, Joe White
Cinematography by: Robby Baumgartner, Declan Quinn | Edited by: | Music by: Fabrizzio Grossi

A Song For You: The Austin City Limits Story
90 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

From Willie Nelson to Wilco, Ray Charles to Radiohead, A SONG FOR YOU: THE AUSTIN CITY LIMITS STORY offers the ultimate backstage pass to 40 years of incredible music from the longest-running music show in television history.

Directed by: Keith Maitland | Written by:
Starring: Willie Nelson, Beck, Brittany Howard, Bonnie Raitt, Ray Charles, Bonnie Raitt

Produced by: Susan Thomson, Hillary Pierce, Tom Gimbel, Terry Lickona
Cinematography by: Keith Maitland, Sarah Wilson | Edited by: Austin Reedy | Music by: Wendy Turnbull

Syl Johnson: Any Way the Wind Blows
84 | USA | Nashville Premiere

Soul singer Syl Johnson struggled for decades before leaving the music business in the 1980s to open a Chicago fried-fish chain. Since then, he’s become one of the most-sampled artists in hip-hop.

Directed by: Rob Hatch-Miller | Written by:
Starring: Syl Johnson, RZA, Prince Paul, Peanut Butter Wolf, Jazzy Jay, Jonathan Lethem

Produced by: Rob Hatch-Miller, Puloma Basu, Michael Slaboch, Joaquin Perez
Cinematography by: Rob Hatch-Miller | Edited by: Joaquin Perez | Music by: Yo La Tengo

What Would Beethoven Do?
75 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

This documentary captures the rise of an exciting revolution happening from within. These innovative individuals are breaking the stereotypes and bringing classical music to a 21st century audience. At its core, it’s about why we create art and why we should care about art in our society.

Directed by: Jonathan Keijser | Written by:
Starring: Benjamin Zander, Eric Whitacre, Britlin Losee, Dinuk Wijeratne

Produced by: Jonathan Keijser, Veronica An, Sabrina Skau, Daniel Beresh
Cinematography by: Arjun Kamath

Graveyard Shift Competition

Graveyard Shift is an unflinching look at the human (and inhuman) condition, holding nothing back and digging down to the marrow. It’s not of the faint of heart – if you didn’t figure that out already.

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne
87 | Romania | North American Premiere

A young man in Romania goes to shocking extremes to convince Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway to play in his film.

Directed by: Adrian Tofei | Written by: Adrian Tofei
Starring: Adrian Tofei, Sonia Teodoriu, Florentina Hariton, Alexandra Stroe

Produced by: Adrian Tofei, John Lepper, Alex Short, Jay Sorensen
Cinematography by: Adrian Tofei | Edited by: Adrian Tofei

A Beginner's Guide To Snuff
87 | USA | Southeast US Premiere

“A Beginners Guide To Snuff” is a pitch black comedy thriller in the vein of early Coen Brothers films.

Directed by: Mitchell Altieri | Written by: Cory Knauf, Adam Weis, Mitchell Altieri
Starring: Joey Kern, Luke Edwards, Bree Williamson, Perry Ojeda, Brad Greenquist

Produced by: Cory Knauf, Luke Edwards, Phil Flores
Cinematography by: Amanda Treyz | Edited by: Brett Solem

Curtain
73 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

A burnt-out nurse moves into a new apartment in search of a simpler life. But when her shower curtains begin to disappear through a strange portal, she discovers there’s no such thing as simple in this world, or any other.

Directed by: Jaron Henrie-McCrea | Written by: Carys Edwards, Jaron Henrie-McCrea
Starring: Danni Smith, Tim Lueke, Martin Monahan, Gregory Konow, Rick Zahn, Preston Lawrence

Produced by: Carys Edwards
Cinematography by: Jaron Henrie-McCrea | Edited by: Eric Scherbarth | Music by: Adam Skeritt

Inside Scarlett
89 | USA | Tennessee Premiere

Scarlett, a neglected agoraphobic girl, suddenly finds herself pregnant with no recollection of how. Spiraling into a complete mental breakdown, she becomes convinced her toy stuffed animal "Chicken" is the father. Is it? A non-linear psychological puzzle unravels as Scarlett pieces together the reality of her traumatic situation... and gives birth.

Directed by: Carter Mays | Written by: Carter Mays
Starring: Isabelle Gardo, Kevin Flood, Billy Helmstetler, Natasha Leone, Arielle Raycene, Joe Lallement

Produced by: Carter Mays, David Jordan, Joe Lallement
Cinematography by: Carter Mays | Edited by: Carter Mays | Music by: Carter Mays

The Lure
92 | Poland | Southeast US Premiere

Directed by: Agnieszka Smoczynska | Written by: Robert Bolesto
Starring: Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Jakub Gierszal, Kinga Preis, Andrzej Konopka, Zygmunt Malanowicz

Produced by: Wlodzimierz Niderhaus
Cinematography by: Kuba Kijowski | Edited by: Jaroslaw Kaminski | Music by: Zuzanna Wronska, Barbara Wronska

Maskoun
96 | Lebanon | Southeast US Premiere

With real footage of actual paranormal sightings, interviews, newsreels and actual celebrities all merge into this suspenseful feature film. The film is about two young directors who come back from the US to shoot a documentary film about paranormal activity in Lebanon. After several small sightings the visions become stronger and the mystery turns into a hellish nightmare. Directed as a cross between documentary and fiction with inserts from news and interviews the film is a violent suspenseful thriller and the first of its kind.

Directed by: Sharif Abdunnur, Krystle Houiess | Written by: Sharif Abdunnur, Krystle Houiess
Starring: Leila Ben Khalifa, Wissam Hanna, Sharif Abdunnur, Krystle Houiess

Produced by: Rene Semaan, Laure Chamoun
Cinematography by: Jad Beyrouthy | Edited by: Nadim Khairallah | Music by: Anthony Sahyoun

Shorts Program

Short films are all under 40 minutes. The winning films in the Narrative Shorts Competition, Animated Shorts Competition, and Documentary Short Competition will become eligible for Academy Awards® consideration, provided it meets all other eligibility requirements

Narrative Shorts

A.D. 1363, the End of Chivalry/New Zealand, USA (Director: Jake Mahaffy) - A little-known historical catastrophe leads to the definitive end of the era of chivalry and questing. Nashville Premiere.

All Those Sunflowers/Netherlands (Director: Brom Schouw) - Living in the present only seems possible when the past has been erased. Tennessee Premiere

Belladonna/Croatia (Director: Dubravka Turic) - Belladonna is a film about (not) seeing, about our superficial perception of each other and the prejudices that result from it. Southeast US Premiere

Birthday/USA (Director: Chris King) - When a young military wife gets news that her Marine husband has been severely wounded in combat, she discovers that life ahead for them is going to be a difficult and yet amazing journey. Tennessee Premiere

Boys/Sweden (Director: Isabella Carbonell) - Markus, a shy boy in an institution for young sex offenders, faces the loss of his only friend on the inside. Tennessee Premiere

Buddy/Belgium (Director: Jan Roosens, Raf Roosens) - Fré is a teenager stuck between his conservative, wealthy family and his lower-class friends. He manages to keep the two worlds separated, until he falls in love. Southeast US Premiere

Crystal Lake/USA (Director: Jennifer Reeder) - Crystal Lake is about a group of young girls who take over a skate park, forming an all-female force field on the half pipe. There on the reclaimed ramp, with no boys around, they are thriving and visible. This is an anthem for young feminists, which presents female friendship as a means to survive adolescence. EVERY GRRRL-SHAPED BREATH IS A BATTLE CRY. North American Premiere

Cuddle Party/USA (Director: Matthew Irving Epstein) - Jane and Drew, a couple on the brink of divorce, attend an intimacy workshop to heal their marital issues. Their toxic bond sours the party and leads to an accident that ultimately reunites them. Tennessee Premiere

Curve/Australia (Director: Tim Egan) - Clinging to a smooth, curved surface high above a sentient abyss, a girl tries to cover the few feet back to safety without losing purchase and falling to her death. Southeast US Premiere

Dirt/USA (Director: Darius Clark Monroe) - Some things must die to live. Southeast US Premiere

Discipline/Switzerland (Director: Christophe M. Saber) - In a Swiss grocery store, a father loses patience and disciplines his disobedient child. A customer intervenes to express her concern. Other customers join the conversation, each putting in their two cents. The discussion turns into a debate, which turns into quarrel, which turns into chaos... Tennessee Premiere.

Disco Inferno/Spain (Director: Alice Waddington) - A weary hell minion is on a mission to rescue her boss. But the Devil is not ready to get back to her daily routine. Tennessee Premiere

The Dragon's Demise/France (Director: Marina Diaby) - Estranged siblings Marianne, Mike and Angèle reunite around their dying mother. US Premiere

Dredger/Canada (Director: Phillip Barker) - The crew of a salvage ship are tossed into turmoil when the young captains wife becomes infatuated with the older shipmate. She casts herself ashore but can’t break free from the seabed of secrets the old man brought to the surface. US Premiere

a film by Vera Vaughn/USA (Director: Sorrel Brae) - In this supernatural digital-age thriller, a filmmaker falls through the looking glass when she must face her own terrifying creation. Southeast US Premiere

First World Problems/Finland (Director: Hanna Maylett) - Losing a car in a car park can be the end of the world or the beginning of another. Tennessee Premiere

Get the F K Out of Paris/USA (Director: Greg Emetaz) - A text message turns Des' tragic laundry night into a mad dash for survival. North American Premiere

Greener Grass/USA (Director: Paul Briganti) - In this dark comedy of manners set in a surreal world, meticulously-coiffed soccer moms Jill and Lisa vie for perfect children, perfect husbands, and most importantly, perfect teeth. Southeast US Premiere

Group B/United Kingdom (Director: Nick Rowland) - Rally driver Shane Hunter is facing his comeback to Group B competition after a long and troubled absence. Southeast Premiere

Group Violence/France (Director: Karim Boukercha) - Every night, a mysterious woman wearing a burka taunts police officers patrolling the projects. Meanwhile, Vince, a former street legend, must face his demons and avoid falling off of the wagon and back into the streets… World Premiere

Her Friend Adam/Canada (Director: Ben Petrie) - A boyfriend's jealous impulse spirals out of control in 16 minutes of romantic doom. Southeast US Premiere.

How to Lose Weight in Four Easy Steps/USA (Director: Benjamin Berman) - A four step guide to losing weight. Sort of. Southeast US Premiere

If I Could Tell You/USA (Director: Rob Clyde, Ben Clyde) - After 2 years of financially and emotionally draining fertility treatments, Abby is so desperate to get pregnant that she secretly turns to the online, underworld of free sperm donors – guys who give women their sperm for free or even have sex with them to get them pregnant. When you believe in your soul that you were meant to have a baby, how far is too far? World Premiere

Killer/USA (Director: Matt Kazman) - When Dusty masturbates for the first time, something bad happens... Tennessee Premiere

Love Comes Later/Afghanistan, USA (Director: François Morisset) - An unexpected discovery forces an undocumented motel employee to make a life changing decision. Tennessee Premiere

Love is Blind/United Kingdom (Director: Dan Hodgson) - Alice is in the passionate embrace of her young lover when her husband returns home early to try and make amends for his recent infidelity and inattention to their marriage. Alice finds herself racked with guilt for being unfaithful just as James offers an olive branch, while simultaneously negotiating her lover's escape. Southeast Premiere

Madam Black/New Zealand (Director: Ivan Barge) - When a glamour photographer runs over a child’s pet, he’s forced to fabricate a story about its disappearance. Southeast US Premiere

Malaguti Phantom/Netherlands (Director: Sam de Jong) - A young man must conform to be accepted in his community. US Premiere

Midnight Motel/USA (Director: Michael Tully) - A Texas musician struggles to balance his freewheeling creative spirit and his long-term relationship in this music-infused drama starring and featuring songs by Jack Ingram. Tennessee Premiere

Mother(s)/France (Director: Maimouna Doucouré) - The daily life of 8-year-old Aida and her family is overwhelmed when her father comes back from Senegal, their country of origin with Rama, whom he introduces as his second wife. Aida is very sensitive to her mother's distress and decides to get rid of the new visitor. Tennessee Premiere

No Hot Ashes/United Kingdom (Director: Matt Thompson) - A woman in a dysfunctional, lonely, relationship meets a wheelie (trash) bin that slowly becomes her unlikely companion. After the bin has an unfortunate incident with a drunkard she lovingly tends to it. They court - listening to music, dancing in the woods and playing on a beach. Her worship of this new lover leads to jealousy, violence and ultimately annihilation. World Premiere.

Northern Great Mountain/Sweden (Director: Amanda Kernell) - 78-year-old Elle does not like Sami people. Though her first language was Sami and she grew up in the mountains in Lapland, she claims that she is completely Swedish and from the south. Under pressure from her son, she reluctantly returns north for her sister´s funeral. Tennessee Premiere

Oslo's Rose/Norway (Director: Det sporadiske filmkollektivet) - Nader is too busy fulfilling his own expectations in life and it holds him back. He has been head over heels in love with Janne for two years and it affects both his creativity and work. But now, suddenly, he sees a possibility to move on. Southeast US Premiere

Out of the Village/Ghana, USA (Director: Jonathan Stein) - An orphaned boy and his sister defy all odds after Ebola ravages their West African village. Tennessee Premiere

Over/United Kingdom (Director: Jörn Threlfall) - Over presents a crime scene. During the course of 9 wide shots, told in reverse order, we watch an intriguing story unfold. What has happened in this quiet neighbourhood? A murder, a hit-and-run, an accident? The reality is profound, and deeply unexpected. Southeast US Premiere

Partners/USA (Director: Joey Ally) - When a slump in work/life partners Kate and Leigh's sex life forces them to reconsider their relationship, they must confront how intertwined their lives have become. Tennessee Premiere

People of the Delta/Ethiopia (Director: Joseph Lawrence) - For centuries, Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley has been a crossroads for many distinct tribes. During times of drought, natural resources become scarce, escalating clashes between groups. In an ever-changing landscape, young men and women come of age in an unfamiliar time. Southeast US Premiere

Pepperette/Canada (Director: Jerome Hoff) - When two wanna be thieves try to act like bad boys by playing in the big leagues...nothing good happens! Tennessee Premiere

The Society/Iraq (Director: osama Rasheed) - Lovers Muhamad and Ahmed live in a society that not only rejects homosexuality but actively and insistently pressures its young men into marriage and fatherhood. Southeast US Premiere

Solemates/USA (Director: Bryce Dallas Howard) - Told from the perspective of shoes, this film tells the story of a couple’s journey through life -- the ups, the downs, the passion, and the dedication it takes to share your life with the one you love. Tennessee Premiere

Thunder Road/USA (Director: Jim Cummings) - Officer Arnaud loved his Mom. Tennessee Premiere.

Unleaded/USA (Director: Emmanuel Tenenbaum) - An environmental activist has a plan against an international oil firm. Southeast US Premiere

Vanilla/USA (Director: Juna Beiro) - Life is talking about silly stuff with the people you love. Southeast US Premiere

The Wall/Belgium (Director: Samuel Lampaert) - Hong-Kong. A multitude of high-rise concrete buildings without personality. Inside cramped studios, people live withdrawn into themselves. Until the day when Chung, a bachelor, decides to hang a picture on the wall. Tennessee Premiere

The Way of Tea/France (Director: Marc Fouchard) - In a small town in Northern France, Alex, a young skinhead, enters Malik’s grocery store. Southeast US Premiere

Where You Are/USA (Director: Graham Parkes) - When Jen's son disappears in a game of hide-and-go seek, she unwittingly embarks on a journey through time in order to find him. Tennessee Premiere

Animated Shorts

Accidents, Blunders and Calamities/New Zealand (Director: James Cunningham) - A father possum reads his kids a story that’s an alphabet of the most dangerous animal of all – HUMANS! Southeast US Premiere.

After the End/United Kingdom (Director: Sam Southward) - Sex, Drugs and Post-apocalyptic synth rock... Mankind is going out with a bang. Southeast US Premiere

Alienation/Germany (Director: Laura Lehmus) - An animation-short about puberty, based on real life interviews with teenagers. Tennessee Premiere

Alike/Spain (Director: Daniel Martínez Lara, Rafa Cano Méndez) - In a busy life, Copi is a father who tries to teach the right way to his son, Paste. But,what is the correct path? Tennessee Premiere

Bendito Machine V - Pull the Trigger/Spain (Director: Jossie Malis) - Trapped against his will in a turbulent conflict, an exotic traveler must wait patiently until the storm has passed. Nashville Premiere

Borrowed Time/USA (Director: Lou Hamou-Lhadj, Andrew Coats) - A weathered Sheriff returns to the remains of an accident he has spent a lifetime trying to forget. With each step forward, the memories come flooding back. Faced with his mistake once again, he must find the strength to carry on. Tennessee Premiere

Fulfilament/United Kingdom (Director: Rhiannon Evans) - Travel around the brain with a little lost thought and discover what it takes to make a great idea. Tennessee Premiere

I Am a Pencil/Australia (Director: Joe D'Arcy) - The pencil (like the artist) has an innate drive to create and it will always express, irrespective of whether it is granted permission or not. Inspired by the three million people in France who marched in support of unity, peace, and the freedom of expression on January 11th 2015 after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Southeast US Premiere

The Itching/USA (Director: Dianne Bellino) - In this parable, a shy Wolf tries to connect with a group of hip, party-loving Bunnies but finds her body is in revolt. Tennessee Premiere

Johnny Express/South Korea (Director: Kyungmin Woo) - Johnny, a space delivery courier, is traveling though space to deliver a package Tennessee Premiere

Lambs/Germany (Director: Gottfried Mentor) - The lamb's parents are shocked, because their little lamb doesn't sound like the other sheep. Southeast US Premiere.

LOVE/Hungary (Director: Réka Bucsi) - Abstract haiku-like situations reveal the change in atmosphere on one planet, caused by the change of gravity and light. This pulsing planet makes the inhabitants become one with each other in various ways. Southeast US Premiere

Moom/Japan (Director: Robert Kondo, Dice Tsutsumi) - Every forgotten object has a memory with its previous owner still attached. This is a story of Moom, one of those memories stuck in this world. One day, Moom meets another memory just like him. Southeast US Premiere

The Orchestra/Australia (Director: Mikey Hill) - In a world filled with beautiful harmonious music, Vernon always strikes the wrong note. Tennessee Premiere

Perfect Houseguest/USA (Director: Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter) - A house is visited by a clean, organized, well-mannered guest. Tennessee Premiere

Pombo Loves You/United Kingdom (Director: Steve Warne) - A distant father is forced to confront a heroic but troubled past life as a popular TV Show mascot, Pombo. Southeast US Premiere

Sea Child/United Kingdom (Director: Minha Kim) - On the verge of becoming a woman, Sora is woken by a nightmare and decides to follow a group of men into the city in the hope of finding her mom. Southeast US Premiere

The Story of Percival Pilts/New Zealand/Australia (Director: Janette Goodey) - A whimsical story about the challenges and charms of living an impractical life. Tennessee Premiere

Taichi Mice: Entrance Exams/USA (Director: Boqign Tang, Xialan Zeng) - Three little mice struggle to get through the entrance exam of a Taoist martial arts school. Nashville Premiere

Taking Flight/USA (Director: Brandon Oldenburg) - What begins as a small boy’s boring day with Grandpa turns into a larger-than-life journey, narrowly escaping wild monkeys and battling aliens to save the universe. Tennessee Premiere

Taking the Plunge/USA (Director: Nicholas Manfredi, Marie Raoult) - When a young man’s ideal wedding proposal is put in jeopardy, he is forced to dive into unknown waters to salvage his plans. Tennessee Premiere.

Violet/Ireland (Director: Maurice Joyce) - Violet is the dark, cautionary tale of a young girl who despises her reflection. Tennessee Premiere

Waves '98/Lebanon (Director: Ely Dagher) - Disillusioned with his life in the suburbs of segregated Beirut, Omar's discovery lures him into the depths of the city. Immersed into a world that is so close yet so isolated from his reality that he eventually finds himself struggling to keep his attachments, his sense of home. Southeast US Premiere

Welcome to My Life/USA (Director: Elizabeth Ito) - The real life story of a normal, Monster-American family. Tennessee Premiere

Documentary Shorts

American Dreams/USA (Director: Ned McNeilage, Jamie Watkins) - Is the American Dream exactly that: a dream? Nine young Americans share their hopes for the future and the challenges they face. World Premiere.

Bacon and God's Wrath/Canada (Director: Sol Friedman) - A 90-year-old Jewish woman reflects on her life’s experiences as she prepares to try bacon for the first time. Tennessee Premiere

The Black Belt/USA (Director: Margaret Brown) - In September 2015, the State of Alabama closed 31 DMVs, which largely impacted voters in Alabama's Black Belt. Tennessee Premiere

The Boombox Collection: Boots Riley/USA (Director: Mohammad Gorjestani) - Boots Riley, frontman of the politically-radical hip-hop group, “The Coup”, takes us on a poetic drive through East Oakland and reflects on his career, his future, and explains his relentless war against capitalism. Southeast US Premiere

The Carousel/USA (Director: Jonathan Napolitano) - In the small town of Binghamton, New York there spins a 1925 carousel that once inspired Rod Serling and has since become a portal into...the Twilight Zone. Southeast US Premiere

Emerging/USA (Director: Steven Kochones) - In a world dominated by fast-paced social media, where digital images vie for our attention, 10 young photographers are breaking through the noise while staying original. From photojournalism to fashion to celebrity portraiture, this international group of millennial image-makers offers an eye-popping look at the way photography is created, shared and consumed in today’s frenetic culture. World Premiere

Her & Me/USA (Director: Shelby Hadden) - Identical twins Allie and Gabby Byers share almost every aspect of their daily lives: outfits and hairstyles, a bedroom, friends, jobs, classes and hobbies. While most twins eventually grow into their separate identities, Allie and Gabby never had that desire. Her & Me follows Allie and Gabby during their senior year of college — a time that is stressful for everyone, but the fear of separation and the unknown after graduation causes twice the anxiety. Tennessee Premiere

Homecoming Queen/USA (Director: Robert Machoian) - A documentary on a time my mother's life when she stood up...and the story would chang the course of her children's lives. Tennessee Premiere

The House Is Innocent/USA (Director: Nicholas Coles) - Meet Tom and Barbara, the proud new owners of a serial killer’s house-- the most infamous residence in Sacramento, California. The middle-age couple soon realizes it's going to take more than a fresh coat of paint to whitewash their home's macabre history. Tennessee Premiere

Invisible/Poland (Director: Zofia Pregowska) - 90-year-old Krystyna, lives in the tiny apartment surrounded by books and writing pads. That’s remarkable in itself since Krystyna is almost blind, but that doesn’t stop this still vital woman from writing passionate and eloquent poetry that celebrates life. Southeast US Premiere

Mining Poems or Odes/United Kingdom (Director: Callum Rice) - Robert, an ex-shipyard welder from Govan in Glasgow, reflects on how his experiences have influenced his new found compulsion to write. His poetry reveals a man trying to achieve contentment through words and philosophy. The craftsman has put aside his tools for pen and paper. Southeast US Premiere.

MissMe: The Artful Vandal/USA (Director: Mohammad Gorjestani) - Renowned Montreal street artist, MissMe, gives us an unprecedented inside view into her life and her quest for self-liberation and authenticity, as she uses her art to take aim at the objectification of women in advertising. Southeast US Premiere

My Gal, Rosemarie/USA (Director: Jason Tippet) - Somewhere on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Rosemarie and Ray pass time in an apartment packed and cluttered with the detritus of a half century of marriage. With their meager social security checks gone straight to covering rent every month and nothing in savings, Ray collects cans to get a little cash together so he can grant Rosemarie her one and only 90th birthday wish: a trip to In N Out for hamburgers. Southeast US Premiere

Nascent/Central African Republic/USA (Director: Lindsay Branham, Jon Kasbe) - A bloody civil war in Central African Republic has divided a once peaceful nation along religious lines. Two children, one Christian and one Muslim, seek answers in each other. Southeast US Premiere

Phil's Camino/USA (Director: Annie O'Neil, Jessica Lewis) - A man with stage 4 cancer dreams of walking the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile long spiritual pilgrimage in Spain. But when chemo treatments render him unable to travel, he does the next best thing: he makes his own Camino in his backyard. Southeast US Premiere

Pickle/USA (Director: Amy Nicholson) - Let us reflect on the brief existence of Pickle the fish. Although he could not swim, he was lovingly cared for by a couple that kept him propped up in a sponge. Along with an obese chicken, a cat with a heart condition, and a paraplegic possum, his life is a celebration of man’s eternal capacity to care for all creatures. He will be dearly missed. Tennessee Premiere

Pink Boy/USA (Director: Eric Rockey) - BJ, a butch lesbian, successfully avoided dresses her entire life until she and her partner Sherrie adopted Jeffrey, who starts to dance in gowns and perform for his parents. Now that six-year-old Jeffrey wishes to dress up in public, BJ must navigate where it is safe for him in conservative rural Florida. Tennessee Premiere

The Purrtraitist/USA (Director: Mark Zemel) - The Purrtraitist introduces us to renowned feline glamour photographer, Larry Johnson. We go behind the scenes with him as he snaps portraits of show cats at the Central Jersey Cat Fanciers show in Parsippany, NJ. Southeast US Premiere

Speaking Is Difficult/USA (Director: AJ Schnack) - Speaking Is Difficult tells a story about a cumulative history that is both unbearable and inevitable. Tennessee Premiere

Step into the Page/USA (Director: Ashley Rodholm) - Pocahontas, Aladdin, The Beast, and Ariel – Glen Keane created and animated some of Disney's most memorable characters. Now, Keane is experimenting with cutting edge Virtual Reality tools as he reflects on his experiences and his philosophy on creating. World Premiere

The Surrender/USA (Director: Stephen Maing) - A brilliant intelligence analyst is harshly prosecuted under the Espionage Act and must prepare to go to prison. Tennessee Premiere.

A Tale of Love, Madness and Death/Chile (Director: Mijael Bustos) - My uncle is schizophrenic and my grandmother suffers from a terminal illness. My grandfather, who is unable to take care of both, must decide between his wife or his son. Southeast US Premiere

These C*cksucking Tears/USA (Director: Dan Taberski) - The gritty, uncompromising voice behind the first gay-themed country music album, 40 years after its release. Southeast US Premiere

Two Cities/USA (Director: Darius Clark Monroe) - Locked inside the mind and memory of Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika, he reflects what it means to be part of the displaced New Orleans population in Houston. Southeast US Premiere

Undeniably Donnie/USA (Director: Mark Slagle, Tyler Jones) - For decades, Donnie Fritts has been surrounded by a class of musicians who changed American music. Though relatively unknown outside of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Donnie Fritts is finally being recognized in a film that includes narration from Kris Kristofferson, who describes his long-time friend as 'living proof there's still a few around for whom it ain't so much a business as it is a way of life.'

World Famous Gopher Hole Museum/Canada (Director: Douglas Nayler, Chelsea McMullan) - The farm town of Torrington, Alberta wishes to be frozen in time, much like the taxidermied gophers in its lone tourist attraction. Co-directed by Chelsea McMullan and Douglas Nayler, this moving study of a roadside attraction counterpoints the lovingly maintained dioramas with the reality of the desolate village they mirror. US Premiere

Zain's Summer: From Refugee to American Boy/USA (Director: Joshua Seftel) - 13-year-old Zain fled from violence and danger in Pakistan. Now he has six weeks to adapt to New York City and become an 'American Boy' before public school starts. With the help of Jay-Z songs, Michael Jackson videos, and a big performance in front of his peers, Zain will try to blossom in his new surroundings, joining 70,000 refugees who have come to America this year. Nashville Premiere

Experimental Shorts

Citius, Altius, Fortius/Germany (Director: Felix Deimann) - Citius, Altius, Fortius explores the interplay of abstract shapes and motions. How can the substance of motion be visualized? .

Démontable/Netherlands (Director: Douwe Dijkstro) - War is waged on the kitchen table while a man drinks his coffee. Southeast US Premiere

Double-Blind No.1/Australia (Director: The Double-Blind Experiments) - Five VFX artists test the theory that a fine-art technique relying on chance could be applied to a motion piece resulting in a creative work with no planned narrative. Tennessee Premiere

ETUDE/USA (Director: Robert Todd) - An etude (study) in play, following a music found through and within the light. A way of finding history joined with the present. Southeast US Premiere

Quantum/Italy (Director: Flatform) - Unseen activies are illuminated when a small Italian mountain village is cast into the spotlight. Southeast US Premiere

Setting West/Canada (Director: Poirier Judith) - Setting West reinterprets a classic cinematic genre while exploring a formative period in the history of typography and printing. US Premiere

Swimming in Your Skin Again/USA (Director: Terence Nance) - A film about motherhood, banality, Miami, the water, the divine feminine and how to sing in church in a way that calls forth your own adulthood. Tennessee Premiere

Tehran/Iran (Director: Masoud MoeinEslam) - An experimental short film with an abstract structure which uses urban lights of Tehran, Iran. Southeast US Premiere

Things/United Kingdom (Director: Ben Rivers) - Filmmaker Ben Rivers illustrates the changing seasons without ever stepping foot outside. Tennessee Premiere

Zero-G/Austria (Director: Jannis Lenz) - City. Body. Focus. Life and art glide together as a group of freerunners reinvision their urban surroundings. Southeast US Premiere

Student Shorts

Almost Not Beautiful/USA (Director: Sarah Jean Kruchowski) - Two estranged sisters are reunited back at their childhood home after going their own separate ways, only to discover that some bonds can never be repaired. Southeast US Premiere.

Edmond/UK (Director: Nina Gantz) - A dark comedy about a man with cannibalistic urges who travels back through his life, looking for the root of his unhappiness. Tennessee Premiere

Jacket/Austria (Director: Patrick Vollrath) - A boy meets a girl. It could be love. But there is this jacket, too. And the jacket will change everything… Tennessee Premiere

Keeping Balance/Germany (Director: Bernhard Wenger) - Denise, a 20-year-old girl, visits the Viennese 'Prater' amusement park nearly every day to take some rides with the electronic 'Tagada' carousel because it helps her to get over her difficult past. Southeast US Premiere

Patriot/UK (Director: Eva Riley) - Against the backdrop of simmering racial tensions within a rural English community, the life of 11-year-old Hannah changes forever when she meets a boy from a forbidden part of town. Southeast US Premiere

Perdition Country/Belgium (Director: Raphaël Crombez) - A foot soldier defects from his band of scalp-collecting pilgrims. He sets out on an odyssey to freedom, throughout the endless landscapes of a fictional county, and attempts to reclaim his humanity. North American Premiere

Rain/Australia (Director: Malina Maria Mackiewicz) - In the summer of 1983 in Kraków, Poland, prisoners sentenced to death are not informed of the date of their execution. As Jędzrej waits for his lover, Magda, in the visitation hall of the Montelupich Political Detainment Centre, a sun shower pours down on Kraków. Each visit could be their last. Southeast US Premiere

Rajam/United States (Director: Amanda Knox) - A Syrian woman living under strict Sharia Law is accused of adultery, imprisoned and sentenced to death by stoning. World Premiere

Summer Haze/USA (Director: Mauricio Rivera Hoffmann) - Charlie, an insecure 18-year-old English girl living in Texas, has been secretly in love with her best friend Lily for a long time. In her final school party, before she goes away to college, Charlie will find out where she stands. Southeast US Premiere

Taking the Plunge/United States (Director: Nicolas Manfredi, Marie Raoult) - When a young man’s ideal wedding proposal is put in jeopardy, he is forced to dive into unknown waters to salvage his plans. Tennessee Premiere

The Treatment/Germany (Director: Marvin Meiendresch) - One day Linus, a patient isolated in a facility, notices the massive door to his room has been left ajar and he takes the chance to escape. What he sees outside makes him question: Is he really who he believes he is? Southeast US Premiere.

Graveyard Shift Shorts

20 Matches/USA (Director: Mark Tapio Kines) - A young woman, her face illuminated only by match light, tells the story of an Austrian serial killer who murdered 20 immigrant women - one per year. Tennessee Premiere.

The Ants Go Marching/USA (Director: Charles Dillon Ward) - A small town southern couple'slives are turned upside down when their son is the brunt of a violent viral bully video. Desperate to make things right, the mother takes the father to their storage building where she reveals a secret that will change things forever. World Premiere

As They Continue To Fall/USA (Director: Nikhil Bhagat) - An aging drifter hunts fallen angels in a city collapsing into ruins. Society may have turned its back on him, but that doesn't stop him from moving forward in his endless search for fallen angels. Southeast US Premiere

The Chickening/USA (Director: Nick DenBoer, Davy Force) - All pork and no chicken makes Jack a dull boy. Luckily, Jack gets a new job as senior chief night manager at Charbay’s Chicken World and Restaurant Resort, the world’s largest fast-food entertainment complex; however, things quickly get very clucked.

Girl #2/USA (Director: David H. Jeffery) - When a deranged killer sets his sights on an unsuspecting sorority, he realizes he’s not the craziest one in the house. World Premiere

Gwilliam/USA (Director: Brian Lonano) - A recently released criminal is looking for a good time. He can forget his sins but he can never forget...Gwilliam. Nashville Premiere

Horn/USA (Director: Hughes William Thompson) - A young man’s surreal encounter with a motorcycle-riding caretaker launches him on a hallucinatory, spiritual, coming-of-age journey through the rural American South. World Premiere

It's Him/USA (Director: Dakota Laden) - Two men become heroes in their own minds.

Nasty/United Kindgom (Director: Prano Bailey-Bond) - It’s 1982. Twelve-year old Doug is drawn into the lurid world of VHS horror as he explores the mysterious disappearance of his father. Tennessee Premiere

Playback/USA (Director: Nathan Crooker) - When a man's television mysteriously shows him a brutal murder being committed in his building, a scream from the hallway compels him to investigate. What he stumbles upon will change his life forever. Tennessee Premiere

Sânge/Mexico (Director: Percival Argüero Mendoza) - Upon viewing a mysterious and bone-chilling film titled SÂNGE, a young woman’s horror obsession blends dangerously with reality. Tennessee Premiere.

The Smiling Man/USA (Director: A.J. Briones) - A little girl home alone finds herself face-to-face with pure evil. Tennessee Premiere

Substance/USA (Director: Barbara Stepansky) - An innocent mix-up leads to disaster when two girlfriends encounter an extraterrestrial substance at a winter music festival. Southeast US Premiere

Tilly/USA (Director: Robert Kotecki) - A little girl and her father discover the real monster in her bedroom. World Premiere

Void/USA (Director: Jamie Lipman) - As a teenager begins to worry about his younger brother's strange behavior, he soon suspects that dark forces are trying to enter their house. World Premiere

Tennessee First Shorts

Alexa To Exa/USA (Director: Exa Zim, Christian Marsh) - In her debut shor tfilm, Alexa Zminkowski asks: “What am I?” Not “Who am I?" Enter Exa Zim, who, in rejecting conventional ideas about sexual identity, offers insight into a very atypical existential crisis. North American Premiere.

Chaturanga/USA (Director: Shultz Juliette) - Lucien, a young monomaniac, is possessed by chess. When he has a crises, he sees the abyss divided in black and white squares: the playful world confines here the player in a parallel logic… World Premiere

Epilogues/USA (Director: Justin Scott) - An intimate portrait of an elderly woman named Faith during the final moments of her life. World Premiere

Everyday Yeti/USA (Director: Motke Dapp) - Tired of being invisible to most people all her life, a woman uses unorthodox methods to be seen.

Gogurt/USA (Director: Hilary Bell) - With the help of her more experienced best friend, a teenage girl tries to make sense of how boring losing her virginity was. World Premiere

Holstered/USA (Director: Michael Rolli) - Over the course of one night, two brothers who took opposite paths as adults, attempt to come to terms with their violent, hard-drinking father's recent death and the revelations that accompanied it. World Premiere

Lift Like a Girl/USA (Director: Allie Sultan) - A 40-year-old mom in Tennessee redefines her ideas of beauty and strength through the sport of Olympic weightlifting. Tennessee Premiere

Mr. Johnson's Julius Caesar/USA (Director: Lesley Surdi) - A grieving widower finds solace by taking on his wife's directing gig at the local teen theater. World Premiere

Mr. Man/USA (Director: Haven Nutt) - A lonely 7-year-old girl makes friends with a ghostly figure she names Mr. Man. As she battles her own mind and whether Mr. Man is real or make believe, she becomes addicted to this sensational presence in her life. Though frightened when he’s around, she Southeast US Premiere

Naiad/USA (Director: Trevor Krulcik) - A troubled woman confronts the melodic enigma inhabiting her backyard pool. World Premiere

Radio Road/USA (Director: Warren Lewis Allen) - Four working class friends mourn the imminent end of the Earth and the slow collapse of each other's friendship World Premiere.

Register/USA (Director: Faith McQuinn) - How do you deal with anger? Register is a visual poem about six people and the six different ways they deal with their anger. US Premiere

The Saurus/USA (Director: Drew Maynard) - A man with a robust vocabulary must write a scornful letter to an old friend. World Premiere

Tailypo/USA (Director: Cameron McCasland) - In this re-telling of the classic American folk tale, a reclusive man living in a cabin with his hungry hunting dog are stalked by a creature with sharp teeth, claws, and glowing yellow eyes after a blind shotgun blast severs the creatures tail.

Tennis Tips with Freddy Love/USA (Director: Aaron Muñoz) - Freddy Love is an overweight, chain smoking tennis pro straight out of the late 1970’s who offers unconventional tips for the everyday player. World Premiere

Three Fingers/USA (Director: Paul D. Hart) - A young female Marine veteran navigates her disintegrating life until there is nothing left but to make a choice. Tennessee Premiere

The Unbeliever/USA (Director: Will Morgan Holland) - Faced with immanent death, Teddy is forced to break free from an underground prison to save the love of his life and escape the cult that brought him there. World Premiere

The Van/USA (Director: John McAmis) - An animated documentary about the love and loss of a 1992 Dodge van. World Premiere

Visionary/USA (Director: Caroline Knight) - Visionary is a story about one East Tennessee woman who mastered living with total vision loss and how she has guided countless others through the same daunting journey. World Premiere

When to End/USA (Director: Travis Slagle) - A sex phone operator finds herself in a surprising and heart-wrenching conversation with one of her regular customers.

Wildman/USA (Director: Zachary Wells, Timothy Graham) - In a post-apocalyptic world, one man struggles between keeping his humanity and doing what he must to survive. World Premiere.

Young Filmmakers Shorts

Another Kind of Girl/Jordan (Director: Khaldiya Jibawi) - 17-year-old Khaldiya meditates on how the refugee camp has opened up new horizons and given her a sense of courage that she lacked in Syria. Tennessee Premiere.

The Chicken of Wuzuh/South Korea (Director: Sungbin BYUN) - Wuzuh, a girl wIth Down's Syndrome, has a secret crush on her class teacher. North American Premiere

The Fleshiest/Thailand (Director: jirayuth Limratanasaran) - A struggling artist fails to create amazing portraits, so he dabbles in morality when he uses his subjects as materials for their portraits. Tennessee Premiere

Little Red/USA (Director: Wynter Rhys) - Little Red is a dark interpretation, by Wynter Rhys, of the original Charles Perrault fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood. Southeast US Premiere

Livin' Reel Project: New Wave/USA (Director: ) - World Premiere

Lucky Numbers/USA (Director: Chester Milton) - When a young man wins $50 million in the lottery, he must deal with the unexpected consequences of how he acquired the ticket. Southeast US Premiere

The Red Brick/United Kingdom (Director: John Cheung, Aim Wonghirundacha) - A satire of our institutionalised education, The Red Brick explores the life of an introverted student who is rejected by his teachers and peers. World Premiere

The Skin I'm In/USA (Director: Rajaiah Jones) - Three black females share their experiences on life, insecurities and what it means to be beautiful. World Premiere

Wake/USA (Director: Larkin Rhinehardt, Luke Kinman) - Why do we wake up? World Premiere

Web Series Competition

1 Minute Meal: A Micro-Documentary Series/USA (Director: James Boo) - Food, life, and the real New York City. .

20 Seconds to Live/USA (Director: Ben Rock) - The horror/comedy web series for people who hate happy endings. Tennessee Premiere

The Benefits of Gusbandry/USA (Director: Alicia J. Rose) - On her debaucherous 40th birthday, chronically underemployed serial relationship-killer Jackie meets magnetic dreamboat River. Their ensuing adventures in self-medication, late-blooming and questionable judgment lead them to discover a raucous new kind of “significant otherness”. Tennessee Premiere

Ex-Best/USA (Director: Barbara Stepansky) - Two women have to forge their individual identities after their friend "break-up." Southeast US Premiere

I Kissed a GIRL/USA (Director: Jen Sheridan) - I Kissed a GIRL spotlights lesbians reminiscing about first-time girl kisses, recalling the moment they confirmed -- or finally understood -- who they are and who they're meant to be kissing. Southeast US Premiere

Last Will & Testicle/USA (Director: Byron Lane) - A man reveals his testicular cancer diagnosis to his quirky friends and family in this comedy web series Carrie Fisher calls "hilarious," Stephen Fry calls "brilliant," Livestrong Foundation calls "hysterical," and Cosmopolitan Magazine calls "fearless."

Life's Work: STONE/Canada (Director: Ben Proudfoot) - STONE is a portrait of master stone carver Heather Lawson.

Three's a Pain/USA (Director: Kenneth Garner) - A conservative news reporter, Regina, and her OCD house mate, Simon, get an unexpected visit from her slacker unemployed brother, Reggie, who decides to crash at their house. World Premiere

2016 Feature Film Awards

Special Presentation Awards

Southwest Airlines Audience Award: Sing Street

Spectrum Awards

Southwest Airlines Audience Award: Tickled

Tennessee First Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize Feature: Josephine
Grand Jury Prize Narrative Short: Three Fingers
Grand Jury Prize Documentary Short: Life Like a Girl
Grand Jury Prize Student Short: Gogurt
Southwest Airlines Audience Award: Josephine

Bridgestone Narrative Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize: Magallanes | Salvador del Solar
Honorable Mention: Free in Deed | Jake Mahaffy
Best Actor: David Harewood | Free in Deed
Best Actress: Dorka Gryllus | Demimonde
Best Screenplay: Song of Songs | Eva Neymann
Best Music: The Lure
Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Performance: The Cast of Magallane
Southwest Airlines Audience Award (tie): Demimonde | Atilla Szász
Southwest Airlines Audience Award (tie): Hunky Dory | Michael Curtis Johnson
Southwest Airlines Audience Award (tie): Magallanes | Salvador del Solar

New Directors Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize: Transpecos | Greg Kwedar
Honorable Mention: The Fits | Anna Rose Holmer
Best Actor: Gabriel Luna | Transpecos
Best Actress: Brogan Ellis and Lauren McQueen | The Violators
Special Jury Prize for Production Design: The Arbalest | Aimee Holmberg
Southwest Airlines Audience Award: Transpecos | Greg Kwedar

Documentary Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize (tie): SEED: The Untold Story | Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz
Grand Jury Prize (tie): The Seer | Laura Dunn
Honorable Mention: The Bandit | Jesse Moss
Special Jury Prize for Badass Filmmaking: Hooligan Sparrow | Nanfu Wang
Southwest Airlines Audience Award: To the Moon and Back | Susan Morgan Cooper

Gibson Music Films/Music City Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize: Syl Johnson: Any Way the Wind Blows
Honorable Mention: Colin Hay -Waiting for My Real Life | Nate Gowtham and Aaron Faulls
Special Jury Prize for Best Underdog Story: Sidemen: Long Road to Glory | Scott Rosenbaum
Southwest Airlines Audience Award: Colin Hay -Waiting for My Real Life | Nate Gowtham and Aaron Faulls

Graveyard Shift Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize for Feature Film: The Lure (ALSO STEVE GOLDMANN PRIZE)
Grand Jury Prize for Short Film (tie): Horn
Grand Jury Prize for Short Film (tie): The Itching
Honorable Mention: Jaron Henrie-McCrea | Curtain
Best Actor: Adrian Tofel | Be My Cat: A Film for Anne
Best Actress: Marta Mazurek | The Lure
Special Jury Prize for Originality and Exceptional Editing: Jaron Henrie-McCrea | Curtain
Southwest Airlines Audience Award : The Lure

Song

Best Original Song: "Drive It Like You Stole It" | Sing Street

2016 Short Film Awards

Live Action Short - Grand Jury Prize: Out of the Village
Animated Short - Grand Jury Prize: Borrowed Time
Documentary Short - Grand Jury Prize: The Surrender
Experimental Short - Grand Jury Prize: Quantum
Student Short - Grand Jury Prize: Keeping Balance
Episodic Grand Jury Award: 20 Seconds to Live | Ben Rock. USA.

2016 Screenplay Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize - Feature: When the Devil’s Loose | Ben Watts
Grand Jury Prize - Short: A Brief’s Encounter // A Difference of 25 cents | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
Action/Adventure - Feature: Ranger Creed | Travis Opgenorth
Action/Adventure - Short: Welcome Back | Elizabeth Hagale
Comedy - Feature: Steve | Maryanne Melloan Woods
Comedy - Short: A Briefs Encounter | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
Drama - Feature: When the Devil's Loose | Ben Watts
Drama - Short: Smile | Sarah Phillips
Family/Animation - Feature: Treefort | Rich Dalmas
Family/Animation - Short: Fridge Mates | Nichole Kanney
Historical - Feature: Klondike Kate | Steve Warren
Historical - Short: US Navy Cine-Kodak | Stephen Hunt
Inspirational - Feature: Bronze | Kerri Weston & Robert Pawloski
Inspirational - Short A Difference of 25 cents | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
Music-Inspired - Feature: Looking for Nirvana | Ian Simpson
Music-Inspired - Short: Just Can't Wait to Be King | Brett Edwards
Sci-Fi - Feature: The Southerland School | Wade Wofford
Sci-Fi - Short: Glitch | Andrew Jordan
Tennessee - Feature: The Sound of the Sword | Amber Bartlett & Ryan Estabrooks
Tennessee - Short: The Good Mother | Marci Badman
Thriller/Horror - Feature: Guilty | Alan Thornburg
Thriller/Horror - Short: Glitch | Andrew Jordan
Young Screenwriter - Short: Dinner at Calypso | Onyekachi Iwu

2016 Teleplay Competition Awards

30 Minute Pilot: Downeasters | Mike Makowsky
60 Minute Pilot: At Risk | Kristin Goodman

2016 Screenplay Competition Finalists

Action/Adventure – Feature

The Drome | Hunter Davis
Keeper of the Pipe | Steve Warren
Ranger Creed | Travis Opgenorth

Action/Adventure – Short

Welcome Back | Elizabeth Hagale

Comedy – Feature

Lothario | Robert Remy
Secret Santa | Maggie Franks
Steve | Maryanne Melloan Woods
Wingman | Joel Moss Levinson & Stephen Levinson

Comedy – Short

Baggage | Andrea Behring
A Briefs Encounter | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
Froggie | Marjory Kaptanoglu
Woundscape | Shelby Kern

Drama – Feature

Drama – Short

Family/Animation – Feature

Moon-Wrecked | Adam Rosenbaum
Patchwork | Amanda Keener
Skater Girl | Philip Suraci, Jr.
Treefort | Rich Dalmas

Family/Animation – Short

Fridge Mates | Nichole Kanney
Rubber Soul | Joey Perotti

Historical – Feature

Historical – Short

Sentry Duty | Clyde Bennett
US Navy Cine-Kodak | Stephen Hunt

Inspirational – Feature

Bronze | Kerri Weston & Robert Pawloski
Mia and the Moviestar | Sheri Davenport
The Woodpecker Waltz | Daniel Leonetti

Inspirational – Short

A Difference of 25¢ | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
Mia | Sheri Davenport
Impressions | Alice Park & Tiffany Frances

Music Inspired – Feature

Looking for Nirvana | Ian Simpson
The Minstrel | Todd Sorrell

Music Inspired – Short

He Is My Music | Vicki Bartholomew
Just Can’t Wait To Be King | Brett Edwards

Science Fiction – Feature

Lock Eyes | Bodine Boling
Parousia | Todd Sorrell
The Southerland School | Wade Wofford

Science Fiction – Short

Glitch | Andrew Jordan
The Tesla Files | Alan Wartes

Tennessee – Feature

For the Sake of the Song | Jason May
The Sound of the Sword | Amber Bartlett & Ryan Estabrooks
The Sympathetic Drive | Jay Wright

Tennessee – Short

The Good Mother | Marci Badman
Together, Alone | Bob Lawler

Thriller/Horror – Feature

Dead (Re) Tired | Trace Crawford
Guilty | Alan Thornburg
Repairing the Inevitable | Rebecca Felland-Syring
We Take Care Of Our Own | Jeremy Burgess

Thriller/Horror – Short

Glitch | Andrew Jordan
Vacuum | Anastasiya Mirzoev

Young Screenwriter – Short

Dinner at Calypso | Onyekachi Iwu
Racing the Sunrise | Amy Russo

2016 Teleplay Competition Finalists

30 Minute Pilot

Dog Days of Summer | Christine Michele Jones
Downeasters | Mike Makowsky
Kicking & Screaming | David Young
Kosher Delicate Lesson | Jim Norman

60 Minute Pilot

At Risk | Kristin Goodman
Bog Walk | Dominique Holmes
Southern Gothic | Mickey Blaine

2016 Screenplay Competition Semi-Finalists

Action/Adventure – Feature

Action/Adventure – Short

Best Interests | James Freeman

Comedy – Feature

Comedy – Short

Drama – Feature

Drama – Short

Family/Animation – Feature

Skweaky The Email Bunny | Colin Holmes
The Little Wanderers | Torry Martin & Cynthia Nielson

Family/Animation – Short

A Briefs Encounter | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
Special Delivery | Terrance Thibodeaux

Historical – Feature

Death of a Legend | Keith Davidson
Disembodied Voices | Victor Warren
Donaldina: Based on True Events in the Life of Donaldina Cameron | Carol Lee Hall
Walking Point | Diann Beck

Historical – Short

A Beautiful Lie | Sundae Jahant-Osborn & Toby Osborne
Steel Harvest | Christiaan Kutlik

Inspirational – Feature

Silent Rescue | Todd Sorrell
The Tribute | Mike Reid

Music Inspired – Feature

By Shel Silverstein | Joe Walters
Casa Linda Nights | Stu Gilbert
Johnny Bragg | Jonathan Miller
Songbird | RL Williams

Music Inspired – Short

Marrow | Kate Gray

Science Fiction – Feature

Dark Side | Michael Wright
The King’s Court | Brandon Montgomery
The Memory Sphere | Kevin Sluder
The Third Book | Rick Diamond

Science Fiction – Short

Jenni | Jay Wright
They Hide From The Sun | Eugene Ramos & Terence Nance

Tennessee – Feature

C-Sectioned | Andrew MacQuarrie
Peanut and Cracker | Jack Tim Lane
Scents | Irish Johnston
The Little Wanderers | Torry Martin & Cynthia Nielson

Tennessee – Short

The Putt Putt Preacher | Jason Allen
The Man from Everywhere | Jason Allen

Thriller/Horror – Feature

Thriller/Horror – Short

Fingers | Lachlan Marks
Killing Fool | Marjory Kaptanoglu
Walter’s Days | Nathan Ludwig & Charles Hill

Young Screenwriter – Short:

Foreign Policy | Adam Yuster
Hands | Kylen Newcomb
Sidewalk Safari | Jack Fossett

2016 Teleplay Competition Semi-Finalists

30 Minute Pilot

60 Minute Pilot

Full 2016 Festival Gallery

2015 Festival

2015 Program Guide

“This is a strong and diverse presentation,” said Brian Owens, NaFF Artistic Director. “These films showcase some of the most talented filmmakers I have seen in years. The Nashville Film Festival is proud of the number of World, Southeast and Tennessee premieres in this year’s field of features.”

“Film fans will have an outstanding variety of films to choose from,” said Ted Crockett, NaFF Executive Director. “The music docs, narrative features, and short films will make this festival one of the best ever. We’re excited to celebrate film with our members, sponsors, film fans and amazing filmmakers.” (Film synopses.)

Bridgestone Narrative Feature Competition

New Directors Competition

Documentary Feature Competition

Music Films/Music City

Tennessee First Features

Graveyard Shift

Feature Film Awards

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) 2015 announced the 46th Annual Competition Award winners, including Grand Jury Prizes to Monument to Michael Jackson, Orion: The Man Who Would Be King and other notable films. Best Original Song went to Brian Wilson for “One Kind of Love” from Love & Mercy.

Bridgestone Narrative Competition

Grand Jury Prize: Monument to Michael Jackson | Darko Lungolov
Honorable Mention: WildLike | Frank Hall Green

The Bridgestone Narrative Competition Grand Jury Prize went to Monument to Michael Jackson. The film was, “at times a political farce, a relationship drama and an inspiring tale of tenacity in the face of adversity.” The jury also awarded Geraldine Chaplin from Sand Dollars the Best Actress award, while Boris Milivojevic from Monument to Michael Jackson received the Best Actor award. Best Screenplay went to Shonali Bose for Margarita, with a Straw, and the Film Musicians Secondary Market Fund Award for Best Music in a Feature Film went to Ramon Cordero, Benjamin De Menil and Edilio Paredes for Sand Dollars. The Special Jury Prize for Cinematography was awarded to Tony Mirza for Eadweard.

Gibson Music Films/Music City Competition

Grand Jury Prize: Orion: The Man Who Would Be King | Jeanie Finlay
Honorable Mention: Sweet Micky for President | Ben Patterson

The jury said Orion, “hits every note... and then some. It was a completely unpredictable yet always entertaining and moving documentary.” The jury awarded the Special Jury Prize for Best Import to Tomi Fujiyama in Made in Japan.

Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize: Frame by Frame | Mo Scarpelli and Alexandra Bombach
Honorable Mention: Welcome to Leith | Michael Beach and Christopher K. Walker

“Frame by Frame is a fascinating look into life in Afghanistan that celebrates its growing photography culture, with unprecedented access and interviews,” the jury said. “The film is beautifully crafted and we're so honored to present these first time filmmakers with the Documentary Grand Jury Prize, and hope that they will continue to make inspiring films.” The Special Jury Prize for Direction went to Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasahelyi forMeru.

New Directors Competition

Grand Jury Prize: Songs She Wrote About People She Knows | Kris Elgstrand
Honorable Mention: Naz & Maalik | Jay Dockendorf

Songs She Wrote About People She Knows received the Grand Jury Prize, “for its quirky plot, high production values, and unique yet relatable characters, the New Directors Jury awarded its Grand Jury Prize to Songs She Wrote About People She Knows. Lead actress Arabella Bushnell delivers a particularly strong performance as an aspiring pop singer, complete with highly original and hilarious songs. Writer/director Kris Elgstrand is a strong new voice in independent cinema and we are excited to see what he comes up with next. “

The jury awarded Krisha Fairchild with Best Actress for Krisha and Daniel Cerqueira with Best Actor for Radiator. The Special Jury Prize for Direction went to Sarah Adina Smith for The Midnight Swim.

Best Original Song

Winner: “One Kind of Love,” from Love & Mercy | written and performed by Brian Wilson
Honorable Mention: “Found You,” from In My Father’s House | written and performed by Rhymefest

Graveyard Shift Competition

Grand Jury Prize (tie): Alléluia | Fabrice du Welz
Grand Jury Prize (tie): They Look Like People | Perry Blackshear

“The jury found itself unable to determine a hierarchy between exquisite works of passion, madness, human bonds and inhuman horror.” The jury awarded for Best Actress to Amy Everson in Felt and Best Actor to MacLeod Andrews in They Look Like People. The Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Use of Music went to Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It.

Ground Zero Tennessee First Competition

Grand Jury Prize: The Keepers | Joann Self Selvidge and Sara Kaye Larson

Sponsored Awards

NPT Human Spirit Award: My Voice, My Life | Ruby Yang
Women in Film & Television Award: Yosemite | Gabrielle Demeestere
Outstanding LGBT Film: Naz & Maalik | Jay Dockendorf
Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Award: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Lipscomb University Prize of the Ecumenical Jury: Rosenwald | Aviva Kempner

Audience Awards

“It’s been an incredible year,” said Brian Owens, Nashville Film Festival Artistic Director. “The feedback on almost all films was positive and we enjoyed larger than ever audiences that continued to grow throughout the week. People were talking about these films in person and on social media. We are so proud to have presented them. Personally, I’ll never forget this program of films.”

Southwest Airlines Audience Award Overall Winner

In My Father’s House | Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg, scored 4.99 out of 5

Southwest Airlines Audience Award Winners

Narrative Competition: Eadweard | Kyle Rideout, director
Documentary Competition: In My Father’s House | Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, directors
Special Presentations: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl | Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, director
Spectrum: The Waiting Country Woman | Li Yangiu, director
Music Films/Music City: Revival: The Sam Bush Story | Kris Wheeler and Wayne Franklin
Tennessee First: Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw | Rick Goldsmith, director
New Directors Competition: The Challenger | Kent Moran, director
Graveyard Shift: They Look Like People | Perry Blackshear, director

Southwest Airlines Audience Awards - Documentaries – Top Five

In My Father’s House | Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, directors
Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw | Rick Goldsmith, director
The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young | Annika Iltis and Timothy Kane, directors
Revival: The Sam Bush Story | Kris Wheeler and Wayne Franklin, directors
Imba Means Sing | Danielle Bernstein, director

Southwest Airlines Audience Awards - Narratives – Top Five

Short Film Awards

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) is pleased to announce the short film awards winners for the 46^th Annual Nashville Film Festival. Jurors chose the winners from more than 2,600 entries ranging from 3-39 minutes in length, and covering a variety of genres.

Winners in the animated, narrative and documentary shorts categories are automatically qualified for Academy Award® consideration, should they meet all other eligibility requirements. The Nashville Film Festival is one of only 17 festivals in the world that are automatic qualifiers in these three categories.

According to the jury, its palpable portrayal of a child torn between two worlds earned Daytimer the Live Action Short Grand Jury Prize. Bear Story set itself a very high bar both stylistically and narratively and delivered across the board, which garnered it the Grand Jury Prize for Animated Short. La Vie en rose comme dans les films provided a humble glimpse into the complicated world of memory; the short received the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Short. Each of these three shorts will be automatically qualified for Academy Award® consideration.

Complete List of Short Film Award Winners

Live Action Short

Grand Jury Prize: Daytimer | Riz Ahmed. United Kingdom.
Honorable Mention: Tzniut | David Formentin. USA.
Honorable Mention: Saturday | Mike Forshaw. United Kingdom.
Special Jury Prize for Visual Storytelling: The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 | Omar El Zohairy. Egypt.

Animated Short

Grand Jury Prize: Bear Story | Gabriel Osorio. Chile.
Honorable Mention: Man on the Chair | Dahee Jeong. France.
Special Jury Prize for Achievement in Animation: Pineapple Calamari | Kasia Nalewajka. United Kingdom.

Documentary Short

Grand Jury Prize: La Vie en rose comme dans les films | Christophe M. Saber. Switzerland.
Honorable Mention: Autofocus | Boris Poljak. Croatia.

Special Jury Prize for Bridging the Gap Between Experimental & Documentary Filmmaking: Object | Paulina Skibinska. Poland.

Experimental Short

Grand Jury Prize: null. | Michael Lange, David Gesslbauer. Germany.
Honorable Mention: Play Within a Play | Yasmijn Karhof. Netherlands.

Student Short

Grand Jury Prize: Wire Cutters | Jack Anderson. USA.
Honorable Mention: The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 | Omar El Zohairy. Egypt.

Watkins Young Filmmaker Award: Poet Against Prejudice | Faiza Almontaser. USA.

Graveyard Shift

Grand Jury Prize for Short Film: Alone | Didier Philippe France.
Honorable Mention for Short Film: Primrose Lane | Nick Phillips USA.

Ground Zero Tennessee First Shorts

Documentary Award: Muddy Pond | Tyler Jones. TN, USA.
Narrative Award: Trying Not to Explode | Dave Dorsey. TN, USA.

Tennessee Horizon Audience Award for Best Shorts

Presented by TN Film, Music & Entertainment Commission and Native Magazine
Winner (tie): Daddy’s Little Girl | Chad McClarnon. TN, USA.
Winner (tie): Usetocould | Drew Maynard. TN, USA.

Steven Goldmann Visionary Award: World of Tomorrow | Don Hertzfeldt.USA.

New Web Series Competition | Monday, September 8, 2014 - Nashville, TN

Nashville, TN - The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) presented by Nissan,today announced the Official Call for Entries for a new Web Series Competition. With the Nashville Film Festival Film Competition and Screenwriting Competition, the three competitions will draw over 5,000 entries and offer more than $115,000 in cash and prizes. The Calls will close January 14, 2015. Winners of all competitions will be announced at the Nashville Film Festival, April 16 – 25^th, 2015.

Web Series

Grand Jury Prize: 24 Hour Records | Brad Cash. USA.
Honorable Mention: HelLA | Rory Uphold. USA.

“The finalists for this year’s Screenwriting Competition represent the best in undiscovered writing talent,” said Ted Crockett, NaFF Executive Director. “They presented everything from hilarious comedies to terrifying horror films, and we are thrilled to be a venue to jumpstart their careers.”

The 65 finalists were selected from nearly 1,300 entries from around the world. The Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition is unique among thousands of screenwriting competitions in the U.S. because it offers a category for young screenwriters as well as more categories for short screenplays than any other competition. The winner of 2014’s Tennessee Screenwriter Short Award is participating in this year’s festival as a feature.
“Placing in a screenwriting competition assists up and coming talent with an important step in their careers,” continued Crockett. “It can help them as they establish themselves and their films, whether that’s gaining financing, exposure or both.”

Top scripts, selected from NaFF winners, will be read by Blossom Films, Nicole Kidman’s Academy-Award nominated production company; noted casting director, Laray Mayfield; Sycamore Pictures CEO, Ben Nearn; Rich Peluso, Senior Vice President of AFFIRM Films; famed limit-breaking director/producer Harmony Korine; Lewis Bogach, Emmy-winning Vice President of CMT-TV; and Abso Lutely Productions, producer of six current comedy TV hits.

2015 Screenplay Competition Awards

Drama - Feature
Winner: Oil and Water | Alfred Catalfo & Morgan Dudley
Runner-up: Independence Pass | Brian MacEvilly

Drama - Short
Winner: Illuminate | Robert Pawloski
Runner-up: Which Spoke of Freedom | Aria Marrogi & Chris Germiller

Comedy - Feature
Winner: The Full Irish | Brian MacEvilly
Runner-up: My Bad Day in Hell | Eric Carlson

Comedy - Short
Winner: U Got Tagged | Andrew Roxby
Runner-up: That Other Crazy Thing You Do | Michelle Leibel

Music-Inspired - Feature
Winner: Blind Boone | Moss Hall & Max Morath
Runner-up: Chris Gaines Saves the World | Donald Driscoll

Sci-Fi - Feature
Winner: No Man’s Land | Michelle Davidson & Jeffrey Field
Runner-up: Eden | Jessica Chou

Inspirational - Feature
Winner: Heart Stringz | Barbara Ashdown
Runner-up: In-Between | Sandra Smith

Animated - Feature
Winner: My Monster Burrufu | Alberto Corral
Runner-up: The Mythfitz | Nicholas Julius

Historical - Feature
Winner: Kid Convict | Julie Umbreit
Runner-up: Samson | Shawn Hoffman

Family Friendly - Feature
Winner: Eleven Days | Jaginder Singh
Runner-up: Darby Petty and the Lost Treasure | DC Sayre

Family Friendly - Short
Winner: Wiindigoo the Cannibal | Michael O’Rourke & Winona LaDuke
Runner-up: The Home of Rock | Brian MacEvilly

Action/Adventure - Feature
Winner: The Third Bomb | Phillip Parker
Runner-up: Guns and Grace | Odin Ozdil

Thriller/Horror - Feature
Winner: A Texas Story | David Martin-Porras & Julia Fontana
Runner-up: Bad Blood | Billie Bates

Genre - Short
Winner: Lumen 18 | Darren Tibbits
Runner-up: Guest | Charles Dillon Ward

Tennessee - Feature
Winner: The Last Drop | A.D. Smith
Runner-up: Sink Swim | Elvis Wilson

Tennessee - Short
Winner: The Incident at Broadway and Grand | Francis Wolff
Runner-up: The Ice Road | Taylor Albertson

Young Screenwriter - Short
Winner: The Pride Club | Kirill Dyshlovoy
Runner-up: The Favor | Jack Fossett

2015 Teleplay Competition Awards

Comedy - Teleplay
Winner: Star Pupils | Tom Ruprecht
Runner-up: The Knot | Adam Rosenbaum

Drama - Teleplay
Winner: Long Lost | Deanna Shumaker
Runner-up: Limbo | Jessica Chou

2015 Screenwriting Competition Finalists

Action/Adventure - Feature
D.T. | Ken Comer
Guns and Grace | Odin Ozdil
The Third Bomb | Phillip Parker

Animated - Feature
My Monster Burrufu | Alberto Corral
The Mythfitz | Nicholas Julius

Comedy - Short
That Other Crazy Thing You Do | Michelle Leibel
U Got Tagged | Andrew Roxby

Drama - Short
Illuminate | Robert Pawloski
Which Spoke of Freedom | Aria Marrogi & Chris Germiller

Family Friendly - Feature
Darby Petty and the Lost Treasure | DC Sayre
Eleven Days | Jaginder Singh
The Creepy House | Shoshana Rosenbaum

Family Friendly - Short
The Home of Rock | Brian MacEvilly
Wiindigoo the Cannibal | Michael O'Rourke & Winona LaDuke

Historical - Feature
In Spite of It All | Rebecca Boyd
Kid Convict | Julie Umbreit
Samson: A Savior Will Rise | Shawn Hoffman & Michael Hoffman

Inspirational - Feature
Heart Stringz | Barbara Ashdown
In-Between | Sandra Webb Smith
One Small Step | Patrick Sherman

Music Inspired - Feature
Blind Boone | Moss Hall & Max Morath
Chris Gaines Saves the World | Donald Driscoll
Stride | Rick Whelan

Sci-Fi - Feature
Bioterror Conspiracy | Louis Lio
Eden | Jessica Chou
No Man's Land | Michelle Davidson & Jeffrey Field
Populous | Michael Quintero

Tennessee Screenwriter - Feature
Empathy | Elvis Wilson
Sink Swim | Elvis Wilson
The Acadian | David Vincent
The Last Drop | A. D. Smith

Tennessee Screenwriter - Short
The Ice Road | Taylor Albertson
Incident at Broadway and Grand | Francis Wolff

Genre - Short
Guest | Charles Dillon Ward
Lumen 18 | Darren Tibbits

Young Screenwriter - Short
The Favor | Jack Fossett
The Pride Club | Kirill Dyshlovoy

2015 Teleplay Competition Finalists

Comedy -Teleplay
It Could Be Worse | Tracy Reilly
The Knot | Adam Rosenbaum
Star Pupils | Tom Ruprecht

Drama - Teleplay
Limbo | Jessica Chou
Long Lost | Deanna Shumaker
Renegades | Conway Preston
Tip & Keeper | Carol Caldwell

2015 Screenplay Competition Semi-Finalists

Comedy - Short
Losing Teeth | Kelly Hightower
That Other Crazy Thing You Do | Michelle Leibel
U Got Tagged | Andrew Roxby

Family Friendly - Short (Music Inspired, Animation, Historical, Inspiration, Family)
Glasses | Francis Wolff
The Home of Rock | Brian MacEvilly
Wiindigoo the Cannibal | Michael O’Rourke & Winona LaDuke

Historical - Feature
Agitation | Dianna Zimmerman & Brad Jost
Donaldina: Based on True Events in the Life of Donaldina Cameron | Carol Hall
Grace | Jeffrey Allen Russel & Lynda Lemberg
In Spite of It All | Rebecca Boyd
Kid Convict | Julie Umbreit
Oil and Water | Alfred Thomas Catalfo & Morgan Webster Dudley
Samson | Shawn Hoffman
Victoria of Murray Hill | Kate Danaher & Robert Rivenbark

Tennessee - Short
Going Postal | Francis Wolff
Incident at Broadway and Grand | Francis Wolff

Genre - Short (Action/Adventure, Thriller/Horror, Science Fiction)
Guest | Charles Dillon Ward
Lumen 18 | Darren Tibbits
Phase 6 | Jeff Dolan
Uninvited | Helena Ellison

Young Screenwriter - Short
Menagerie | Hollie West
The Favor | Jack Fossett
The Pride Club | Kirill Dyshlovoy

2015 Teleplay Competition Semi-Finalists

Full 2015 Festival Gallery

2014 Festival

Feature Films

Special Presentations

American Commune | Directors: Rena Mundo Croshere, Nadine Mundo. USA. 90 minutes.

Boulevard | Director: Dito Montiel. USA. 100 minutes.

Calvary | Director: John Michael McDonagh. Ireland / United Kingdom. 100 minutes.

Dom Hemingway | Director: Richard Shepard. United Kingdom. 93 minutes.

Field of Lost Shoes | Director: Sean McNamara. USA. 94 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

Happy Christmas | Director: Joe Swanberg. USA. 78 minutes.

Ida | Director: Pawel Pawilkowski. Poland. 80 minutes.

Locke | Director: Steven Knight. United Kingdom. 85 minutes.

Lucky Them | Director: Megan Griffiths. USA. 97 minutes.

Obvious Child | Director: Gillian Robespierre. USA. 83 minutes.

The One I Love | Director: Charlie McDowell. USA. 91 minutes.

Words and Pictures | Director: Fred Schepisi. USA. 111 minutes.

World Cinema

The Amazing Catfish | Director: Claudia Sainte-Luce. Mexico. 89 minutes.

Bethlehem | Director. Yuval Adler. Israel / Belgium / Germany. 99 minutes.

Butter on the Latch | Director: Josephine Baker. USA. 63 minutes.

Long Way Home | Director: Måns Nilsson. Sweden / USA. 87 minutes. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

Manakamana | Director: Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez. Nepal / USA. 117 minutes.

Metro Manila | Director: Sean Ellis. United Kingdom / Philippines. 115 minutes.

A Story of Children and Film | Director: Mark Cousins. United Kingdom / France. 101 minutes.

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear | Director: Denis Côté. Canada. 95 minutes.

When the World’s On Fire | Director: James Clauer. USA. 70 minutes. WORLD PREMIRE.

Narrative Competition

The Animal Project | Director: Ingrid Vininger. Canada. 90 minutes.

Buzzard | Director: Joel Potrykus. USA. 97 minutes.

Club Sandwich | Director: Fernando Eimbcke. Mexico. 82 minutes.

The Enemy Within | Director: Yorgos Tsemberopoulos. Greece. 107 minutes.

Grace. | Director: Heath Jones. USA. 95 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

The House That Jack Built | Director: Henry Barrial. USA. 90 minutes.

The Identical | Director: Dustin Marcellino. USA. 88 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

The Invisible Collection | Director: Bernard Attal. Brazil. 89 minutes.

Little Brother | Director: Seric Aprymov. Kazakhstan. 97 minutes.

Love Me | Directors: Maryna Gorbach, Mehmet Bahadir Er. Turkey | Ukraine. 90 minutes.

Maryan | Director: Ganapathy Bharat. India | Namibia. 150 minutes.

Noble | Director: Stephen Bradley. Vietnam | United Kingdom. 101 minutes.

Peace After Marriage | Director: Ghazi Albuliwi. USA. 86 minutes.

Something Necessary | Director: Judy Kibinge. Germany | Kenya. 85 minutes.

Test | Director: Chris Mason Johnson. USA. 89 minutes.

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely | Director: Josephine Decker. USA. 94 minutes.

Undiscovered Gyrl | Director: Allison Burnett. USA. 100 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

New Directors Competition

1982| Director: Tommy Oliver. USA. 80 minutes.

9 Full Moons | Director: Tomer Almagor. USA. 103 minutes.

As It Is in Heaven | Director: Joshua Overbay. USA. 86 minutes.

Before I Disappear | Director: Shawn Christensen. USA. 94 minutes.

Chasing Ghosts | Director: Josh Shreve. USA. 93 minutes.

Congratulations! | Director: Mike Brune. USA. 90 minutes.

Drunktown’s Finest | Director: Sydney Freeland. USA. 95 minutes.

Forty Years from Yesterday | Director: Robert Machoian, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck. USA. 76 minutes.

I Believe in Unicorns | Director: Leah Meyerhoff. USA. 80 minutes.

Medeas | Director: Andrea Pallaoro. Italy, Mexico, USA. 97 minutes.

OJ: The Musical | Director: Jeff Rosenberg. USA. 90 minutes.

The Resurrection of a Bastard | Director: Guido van Driel. Netherlands. 89 minutes.

Trap Street | Director: Vivian Qu. China. 93 minutes.

White Shadow | Director: Noaz Deshe. Tanzania / Germany. 117 minutes.

Documentary Competition

Art War | Director: Marco Wilms. Egypt, Germany. 84 minutes. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

Besa: The Promise | Director: Rachel Goslins. Albania / USA. 90 minutes.

Blackout: On Swan Pond | Director: Scott Colthorp. USA. 95 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

Butterfly Girl | Director: Cary Bell. USA. 76 minutes.

The Case Against 8 | Directors: Ben Cotner, Ryan White. USA. 112 minutes.

Farmland | Director: James Moll. USA. 70 minutes.

Fight Church | Director: Daniel Junge, Bryan Storkel. USA. 84 minutes.

Freedom Summer | Director: Stanley Nelson. USA. 113 minutes.

Happy Valley | Director: Amir Bar-Lev. USA. 98 minutes.

The Human Experiment | Director: Dana Nachman, Don Hardy Jr. USA. 80 minutes.

Kidnapped for Christ | Director: Kate S. Logan. USA / Dominican Republic. 85 minutes.

The Overnighters | Director: Jesse Moss. USA. 100 minutes.

Point and Shoot | Director: Marshall Curry. USA / Libya. 83 minutes.

SlingShot | Director: Paul Lazarus. USA. 97 minutes.

A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness | Director: Ben Rivers, Ben Russell. France / Germany / Estonia / USA. 98 minutes.

The Starfish Throwers | Director: Jesse Roesler. USA. 83 minutes.

Stream of Love | Director: Agnes Sós. Hungary / Romania. 70 minutes. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

This Time Next Year | Director: Jeff Reichert, Farihah Zaman. USA. 83 minutes.

WHITEY: The United States of America v. James J. Bulger | Director: Joe Berlinger. USA. 130 minutes.

Music Films / Music City Competition

The 78 Project Movie | Director: Alex Steyermark. USA. 98 minutes.

Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory | Director: Michael Rossato-Bennett. USA. 73 minutes.

The Ballad of Shovels & Rope | Director: Jace Freeman. USA. 72 minutes.

Béla Fleck: How to Write a Banjo Concerto | Director: Béla Fleck. USA. 97 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

Brasslands | Director: The Meerkat Media Collective. USA / Serbia. 84 minutes.

A Film About Kids and Music | Director: Ramon Tort. Spain. 101 minutes.

Glen Campbell…I'll Be Me | Director: James Keach. USA. 116 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

I Lay Where I Fall | Director: Andrew Stubbs. USA. 88 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty | Director: Greg Oliver. USA. 80 minutes.

Led Zeppelin Played Here | Director: Jeff Krulik. USA. 90 minutes.

The Road to Fame | Director: Hao Tu. China / Netherlands / Denmark / United Kingdom. 80 minutes.

Take Me to the River | Director: Martin Shore. USA. 95 minutes.

The Winding Stream | Director: Beth Harrington. USA. 90 minutes.

Tennessee First

Banjo Romantika: American Bluegrass Music & The Czech Imagination | Director: Shara Lange. USA. 65 minutes.

Beautiful Jim | Director: Rex Jones. USA. 53 minutes.

Closer to God | Director: Billy Senese. USA. 84 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

A Decade With an Unsigned Rock Band | Director: Criss Cheatham. USA. 81 minutes. WORLD PREMIERE.

Riser: Dierks Bentley | Director: Wes Edwards. USA. 45 minutes.

Something, Anything | Director: Paul Harrill. USA. 88 minutes.

Graveyard Shift

Blood Tokoloshe | Director: Jordan Harland. South Africa. 72 minutes. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

Borgman | Director: Alex van Warmerdam. Netherlands. 113 minutes.

The Congress | Director: Ari Folman. Israel / France. 122 minutes.

Proxy | Director: Zack Parker. USA. 120 minutes.

The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears | Director: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani. Belgium. 102 minutes.

Wetlands | Director: David Wnendt. Germany. 105 minutes.

Wild Domestic | Director: Kyle Komline. USA. 74 minutes.

You and the Night | Director: Yann Gonzalez. France. 98 minutes.

Short Films

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) today announced the complete line-up for Short Films in Competition to be screened at the 45th annual Festival, April 17 – 26. NaFF will screen 157 short films from 33 countries in categories ranging from narrative, experimental, animated, young filmmakers, and Tennessee shorts. A record-breaking 2,347 short films were submitted. The 2014 lineup includes works starring Michael Cera, Amanda Seyfried, Anna Chlumsky, Michelle Rodriguez and Ben Schwartz.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences extended its qualification for NaFF Shorts in 2014. For the first time, shorts in the documentary category qualify for Academy Award consideration, in addition to narrative and animation shorts, which have qualified in past years. “Because of our Academy Award qualifier status, we tend to receive an impressive number of short film entries each year,” said Artistic Director, Brian Owens. “It means that our film goers will see quality short films and they may see shorts that go on to win Oscars. For example, our 2013 Live Action winner, Curfew, and our 2012 Animated Winner, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, both came through Nashville.”

This year, NaFF expands to two locations. Short films will be screened at Regal Green Hills Stadium 16 and on the NaFF outdoor theater at Nissan Multicultural Village (Walk of Fame Park) in downtown Nashville. Like other major film festivals such as Sundance and Tribeca, NaFF is open to the public. Tickets may be purchased to any of 200 events, including films, panel discussions, and parties on the Nashville Film Festival website. NaFF brings in filmmakers, celebrities, and industry insiders to mingle with people who enjoy film on the big screen.

The Short Films in Competition include:

Live Action Shorts in Competition – Academy Award™ Qualifying Category

Afronauts | Director: Frances Bodomo. USA. 14 minutes.
It's July 16, 1969: America is preparing to launch Apollo 11. Thousands of miles away, the Zambia Space Academy hopes to beat America to the moon in this film inspired by true events.

The Amber Amulet | Director: Matthew Moore. Australia. 22 minutes.
This is the story of a superhero, a beagle, an amulet made of amber, and the potential that is locked inside all of us.

The Audition | Director: Michael Haussman. Italy. 11 minutes.
This scene begins as a playful challenge between two actors. What happens seems unplanned - as emotions become involved and they fall in love. The audience asks: Is this real? Or just really good acting?

Baby Mary | Director: Kris Swanberg. USA. 9 minutes.
An eight-year-old girl living on the west side of Chicago finds a neglected toddler and decides to take her home.

Balance | Director: Mark Ram. Netherlands. 11 minutes.
Friends Henderson and Morris are climbing a mountain, connected by a rope. They take an easy passage, but a loss of oversight leads to Henderson's fall. Morris cannot prevent falling too. Seconds later he finds himself hanging above an abyss, realizing the balance is unstable.

Bernard the Great | Director: Philippe Lupien, Marie-Helene Viens. Canada. 10 minutes.
It’s Bernard's birthday, but he doesn’t want to grow up. At 10 years old, he invents a suit that stops his growth. But everything will not work out as he planned… Being different is not as simple as he thought.

Best | Director: William Oldroyd. United Kingdom. 3 minutes.
With his wedding only moments away, a man and his best friend confront their future.

The Big House | Director: Musa Syeed. Yemen. 5 minutes.
A young Yemeni boy ventures out of his cramped apartment and finds a key to the empty mansion down the street, where he lets his imagination run wild.

Box Walk | Director: Tony Fulgham. USA. 16 minutes.
A quiet thirteen-year-old and his stepfather track down a wounded deer as the boy learns that doing the right thing is rarely easy and rarely clear.

The Bravest, the Boldest | Director: Moon Molson. USA. 17 minutes.
Two Army Casualty Notification Officers arrive at the Harlem projects to deliver Sayeeda Porter some news about her son serving in the war in the Middle East. But whatever it is they have to say, Sayeeda ain't trying to hear it.

Burger | Director: Magnus Mork. Norway / United Kingdom. 11 minutes.
It's a late night in a burger bar in Wales...

Butter Lamp | Director: Hu Wei. France / China. 16 minutes.
A photographer weaves unique links among nomadic families.

Catherine | Director: Dean Fleischer-Camp. USA. 13 minutes.
Catherine returns to work after a hiatus.

Chapel Perilous | Director: Matthew Lessner. USA. 13 minutes.
Winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, a new short film by Matthew Lessner with Kris Park, David Henry Gerson, Bobby McGee and music by Sun Araw!

Claire | Director: Cate Smierciak. Germany. 14 minutes.
Alone on her first night in Berlin, a shy young woman gathers the courage to go out on her own, but after meeting a few locals at the corner bar, she is faced with more adventure than she bargained for.

Crystal | Director: Chell Stephen. Canada. 17 minutes.
Cursed with a real crumby attitude and a boring-ass hometown, 17-year-old Crystal relies on her passion for dance to escape the mundane life of rural Ontario and pursue her out-sized dream of being a pop superstar.

The Cyclist | Director: Christopher Bryan. USA. 7 minutes.
An emotional, visceral short film about the memories a man takes with him on his final ride.

Dig | Director: Toby Halbrooks. USA. 10 minutes.
A young girl watches her father dig a hole in their backyard. Mystified about his purpose, the neighborhood comes to watch.

Dog Food | Director: Brian Crano. USA. 18 minutes.
When Declan loses his dog and best friend Ralphie, his life starts to unravel.

Dotty | Director: Mick Andrews, Brett O'Gorman. New Zealand. 11 minutes.
A stubborn old lady struggles to send a text message to her daughter.

The Earth, the Way I Left It | Director: Jeff Pinilla. USA. 18 minutes.
A child coping with death in the family is visited by a stranger from the stars. This is a tale of youth preserving innocence through imagination.

Exchange & Mart | Director: Cara Connolly, Martin Clark. United Kingdom. 15 minutes.
A remote boarding school in the Scottish highlands is home to Reg, a lonely and yearning teenage girl. When Reg is required to fight in the woods, she knows what she must do.

First Baptist | Director:Nedra McClyde, Jamund Washington. USA. 20 minutes.
A young Southern Baptist choir soloist fights for the right for his place.

A First Date | Director: Alex Weinress. Australia. 8 minutes.
A serial online dater is ready to throw in the towel. She has one more online date lined up but fears another first date might be her last.

Floating Sunflowers | Director: Francisco Solorzano. USA. 12 minutes.
A still-life painter (Anna Chlumsky), and an author, are caught in an emotional winter but find solace in the possibility of love.

Funnel | Director: Andre Hyland. USA. 8 minutes.
When a man's car breaks down, he finds himself on a quest for a funnel.

Future Self | Director: Ezra Godden. USA. 17 minutes.
A sharp, ambitious boy is deeply underwhelmed when he meets a carefree, bizarre looking weirdo claiming to be his future self.

Gaspé Copper | Director: Alexis Fortier-Gauthier. Canada. 14 minutes.
Murdochville,1957. A family is forced to move, as the father, pained by a long miners’ strike, finds a new job in the city.

Good Morning | Director: Peter Knegt, Stephen Dunn. Canada. 10 minutes.
What happens when you wake up remarkably hungover on the morning after your 30th birthday to find that there’s a teenager sleeping on your couch (but thankfully not in your bed)?

A Good Story | Director: Martin-Christopher Bode. Germany. 20 minutes.
When Helga Landowsky discovers a broken jug in an antiques store near the German/Polish border, she wants to have it at any cost.

Gregory Go Boom | Director: Janicza Bravo. USA. 18 minutes.
A paraplegic man (Michael Cera) leaves home to be on his own.

I'm a Mitzvah | Director: Ben Berman. USA. 19 minutes.
A young American man spends one last night with his deceased friend while stranded in rural Mexico.

The Immaculate Reception | Director: Charlotte Glynn. USA. 17 minutes.
It's 1972 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sixteen-year-old Joey has the chance to prove himself when his crush ends up at his house to watch the infamous football game between the Steelers and the Raiders.

Jonathan's Chest | Director: Christopher Radcliff. USA. 14 minutes.
Everything changes one night for Alex, a troubled teenager, when he is visited by a boy claiming to be his brother -- who disappeared years earlier.

Kekasih | Director: Diffan Sina Norman. Malaysia. 9 minutes.
While pursuing his late wife, a botanical professor encounters a divine presence that will transform him forever.

Krisha | Director: Trey Edward Shults. USA. 15 minutes.
When Krisha decides to join her family for a holiday dinner, tensions escalate and she struggles to keep her own demons at bay.

The Last Time I Saw Richard | Director: Nicholas Verso. Australia. 22 minutes.
In the winter of 1995, a friendship forms between two boys forced to share a room in a teen mental health clinic.

Life's a Bitch | Director: Francois Jaros. Canada. 5 minutes.
Philip is going through a difficult and painful break-up.

MeTube: August sings Carmen 'Habanera' | Director: Daniel Moshel. Austria. 4 minutes.
MeTube, a homage to thousands of ambitious YouTube users and video bloggers, gifted and less gifted self-promoters on the internet, has attracted international attention.

My Sense of Modesty | Director: Sébastien Bailly. France. 20 minutes.
Hafsia, a student in Art History, is going to have to remove her hijab for an oral exam. She goes to the Louvre Museum to view the painting that she has to comment on.

Mystery | Director: Chema García Ibarra. Mexico. 12 minutes.
They say that if you put your ear to the back of his neck, you can hear the Virgin talk.

The Opportunist | Director: David Lassiter. USA. 15 minutes.
A night in the life of social shape-shifter addicted to the visceral thrill of invading the lives of others.

The Party | Director: Astrid Thorvaldsen, Ingvild Dagestad. Norway. 7 minutes.
The party is over.

Person to Person | Director: Dustin Guy Defa. USA. 18 minutes.
Waking up the morning after hosting a party, a man discovers a stranger passed out on his floor. He spends the rest of the day trying to convince her to leave.

Pour Retourner | Director: Scooter Corkle. Canada. 13 minutes.
A talented prison chef with the respect of his fellow inmates is paroled to a world that does not want him.

Rat Pack Rat | Director: Todd Rohal. USA. 19 minutes.
A Sammy Davis, Jr. impersonator, hired to visit with a loyal Rat Pack fan, finds himself delivering last rites at the boy's bedside.

Rhino Full Throttle | Director: Erik Schmitt. Germany. 15 minutes.
What is the city made of?

Sequence | Director: Charles Torrens. USA. 20 minutes.
A man wakes up one morning to realize the entire world has dreamed about him the night before.

Sevilla | Director: Bram Schouw. Netherlands. 11 minutes.
Three youngsters make a road trip that will change their lives forever.

Social Butterfly | Director: Lauren Wolkstein. France / USA. 15 minutes.
A 30-year-old American woman enters into a teenage party in the South of France. Some of the guests wonder who she is and what she is doing there.

Syndromeda | Director: Patrik Eklund. Sweden. 22 minutes.
Leif wakes up on the road—naked and bloody—with no memory of what has happened. No one believes him when he claims he was abducted by aliens.

Take Me to the Front | Director: Stefano Pietrocola. United Kingdom. 13 minutes.
A British photojournalist covers the Bosnian War. How far will he go for his art? Where will he draw the line between documentation and intervention?

The Third Wheel | Director: Adam Lustick. USA. 6 minutes.
In the crazy world of online dating, Gabrielle finds herself on a date with a pretty cute guy, Mark, and his psycho ex-girlfriend, Amy.

This Way Out | Director: Staten Cousins-Roe. United Kingdom. 18 minutes.
The oddball owner of a struggling euthanasia center has ten days to increase client numbers or face closure.

Tryouts | Director: Susana Casares. USA. 14 minutes.
Being a teenager isn't easy, especially for Nayla, a Muslim-American girl who wants to join her high school's cheerleading squad.

Unogumbe (Noye's Fluddle) | Director: Mark Dornford-May. South Africa. 35 minutes.
An adaptation of Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde moving the action from medieval England to present-day South Africa, where the background and poverty of the township is a striking metaphor for man's inhumanity to man.

Verbatim | Director: Brett Weiner. USA. 7 minutes.
A jaded lawyer wastes an afternoon trying to figure out if a dim-witted government employee has ever used a photocopier.

Vikingar | Director: Magali Magistry. Iceland / Denmark. 14 minutes.
Iceland, year 1000. Magnus, a fearless Viking warrior, confronts Bjarni the Berserker who abducted his wife and child. Their rivalry is only beginning.

The Voice Thief | Director: Adan Jodorowsky. USA / France / Chile. 26 minutes.
When an opera singer loses her voice, her husband embarks on an odyssey through Miami's dark underworld to recover it through supernatural means.

Wakening | Director: Danis Goulet. Canada. 9 minutes.
In the near future, the environment has been destroyed and society suffocates under a brutal military occupation. A lone Cree wanderer Weesakechak searches an urban war zone to find the ancient and dangerous Weetigo to help fight against the occupiers.

We Keep On Dancing | Director: Jessica Barclay Lawton. Australia. 9 minutes.
Two distinctly disparate characters come together over a broken down Volkswagen Beetle in this sweet, amusing tale of love, loss and… car trouble.

Wedding Night | Director: Jenni Toivoniemi. Finland. 7 minutes.
A young Mormon couple’s wedding night is a surprise for both of them.

Whale Valley | Director: Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson. Iceland / Demark. 15 minutes.
Two brothers living in a remote Icelandic fjord with their parents take a journey that will mark a turning point in their lives.

Animated Shorts in Competition – Academy Award™ Qualifying Category

Allergy to Originality | Director: Drew Christie. USA. 5 minutes.
A humorous, animated Op-Doc for the New York Times explores the rich history of adaptation, plagiarism, and other forms of appropriation in art.

Animation Hotline, 2012 | Director: Dustin Grella. USA. 6 minutes.
Animation Hotline, uses anonymous messages left on the artist's voicemail to provide the content for these sometimes insightful, sometimes bizarre, micro-shorts.

Astigmatismo | Director: Nicolai Troshinsky. Spain. 4 minutes.
A boy, having lost his glasses, can only see one thing in focus at a time. His sight gets attracted by the sounds that surround him. He will have to explore a blurry world of unknown places and strange characters.

Bear Me | Director: Kasia Wilk. Germany. 6 minutes.
Love and other strange things...Bear me is a funny animation film about love, a normal course of life and everything else a relationship can offer - but in an idealistic perception.

Blame It On the Seagull | Director: Julie Engaas. Norway. 13 minutes
An animated documentary about Pelle Sandstrak and the way he showed the first signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette’s syndrome as a teenager.

Caminandes: Gran Dillama | Director: Pablo Vazquez. Netherlands. 3 minutes.
A young llama named Koro discovers that the grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence). Getting there turns out to be harder than expected.

A Cautionary Tail | Director: Simon Rippingale. Australia. 15 minutes.
A little girl is born with a tail that expresses her emotions. But when she grows up she must choose between conformity and self-expression. Starring Cate Blanchett.

Confusion Through Sand | Director: Danny Madden. USA. 12 minutes.
A nineteen year old kid finds himself alone in a hostile desert, scared as hell and trained to react.

Francis | Director: Richard Hickey. United Kingdom. 7 minutes.
A young boy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago spent his vacations in Quetico Provincial Park, on the border of Minnesota and Canada. But he won't be going back any day soon, not after what happened to a girl called Francis Brandywine.

Friendship All-Stars of Friendship | Director: Dan Lippert, Harry Chaskin, Justin Michael. USA. 3 minutes.
A stop-motion animated series following the gloriously mundane lives of celebrity roommates who all happen to live in the same building. In this episode, Ron Perlman shows off his new sunglasses to Guillermo del Toro.

Imposter | Director: Elie Chapuis. Switerland. 7 minutes.
In a city at night, a human-shaped deer tries to steal a man's identity by taking his head off.

Junkyard | Director: Hisko Hulsing. Netherlands. 18 minutes.
A man is being robbed and stabbed by a junkie. In the last second before he dies, a youth friendship flashes before his eyes.

Me + Her | Director: Joseph Oxford. USA. 12 minutes.
When Jack and Jill of Cardboard City are separated by Jill's untimely death, Jack goes on a journey to mend his (literally) broken heart.

Mia | Director: Wouter Bongaerts. Belgium. 9 minutes.
7-year-old Mia tries to liberate her overworked mother from the grasp of an overpopulated metropolis. In her quest, she unlocks the hidden secrets that make the world turn.

Places Where We Lived | Director: Bernardo Britto. USA. 7 minutes.
A man wakes up with a weird feeling. His parents are selling his childhood home.

The Sad House | Director: Sofia Carrillo. Mexico. 13 minutes.
The story of a family told through objects found in junk shops and flea markets.

Sausage | Director: Robert Grieves. United Kingdom. 7 minutes.
The idyllic world of two artisan stallholders is invaded by a devious fast-food vendor whose devious methods provoke life changing events.

SpongeBob SquarePants 4D: The Great Jelly Rescue! | Director: Brent Young. USA. 8 minutes.
When Bikini Bottom's jellyfish population is threatened by Plankton's maniacal plans, it's up to SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy to save the day.

Strings | Director: Pedro Solis Garcia. Spain. 11 minutes.
Maria’s routine at school is altered by the arrival of a very special child. Soon, they become close friends.

Yearbook | Director: Bernardo Britto. USA. 6 minutes.
A man is hired to compile the definitive history of human existence before the planet blows up.

Documentary Shorts in Competition – Academy Award™ Qualifying Category

Choreography | Director: Ashley Sabin, David Redmon. USA. 8 minutes.
Donkeys actively look back at the filmmaker’s gaze in Choreography, an experiential documentary that inverts a vérité or observational approach by showing everyday moments of how donkeys avoid becoming “caught” and transformed into an “unaware” or “natural” image.

Flo | Director: Riley Hooper. USA . 10 minutes.
In the face of Multiple Sclerosis, lung cancer and visual impairment, photographer Flo Fox has continued to pursue her art and has maintained her adventurous, feisty spirit and dirty sense of humor. No longer able to even hold a camera, she has her attendants take photos for her.

Gordie | Director: Traolach Ó Murchú. Ireland. 10 minutes.
An intimate self-authored documentary, Gordie tells the story of a Tlingit First Nation man living with the trauma of a devastating childhood event. Forgiveness is found in the coldest truths.

Hacked Circuit | Director: Deborah Stratman. USA. 16 minutes.
Multiple layers of fabrication and imposition are laid bare by this fluidly choreographed, single-shot embodiment of control. Sonic surveillance meets the black art of foley.

A Hole in the Sky | Director: Alex Lora, Antonio Tibaldi. Spain / Somolia. 10 minutes.
Young Alifa looks up at the Somali sky. She thinks about her daily life as a shepherdess... She knows that the day that will change her life forever is about to come.

The Home Team | Director: Joshua Seftel. USA. 9 minutes.
What’s in the water of Murray, Kentucky that such a small, tight-knit town is home to such an extraordinary basketball team? Murray’s love for the home team runs deep, and on the night of the big game, a single act of generosity changes everything.

The Last Days of Peter Bergmann | Director: Ciaran Cassidy. Ireland. 20 minutes.
In the summer of 2009, a man calling himself Peter Bergmann arrived in Sligo Town. Over his final three days, he would go to great lengths to ensure no one would ever discover who he was or where he came from.

The Lion's Mouth Opens | Director: Lucy Walker . USA. 15 minutes.
A stunningly courageous young actor, Marianna Palka, confronts her risk of Huntington's Disease.

Love. Love. Love. | Director: Sandhya Daisy Sundaram. Russia. 12 minutes.
Through the endless winters, every year, her love takes new shapes and forms.

Notes on Blindness | Director: Peter Middleton, James Spinney. United Kingdom. 14 minutes.
In 1983, following a decade of steady deterioration, writer and theologian John Hull lost all traces of light sensation. For the next three years he would keep a diary on audio cassette - over sixteen hours in total - a unique and insightful meditation on memory, consciousness and perception.

Skate Yrself Clean | Director: Janna Jude Brown. USA. 7 minutes.
Part documentary, part music video, meet the ever-joyful Ricky Lee Robinson: professional floor cleaner by day, beloved freestyle rollerskater by night.

Stumped | Director: Robin Berghaus. USA. 10 minutes.
When a filmmaker suddenly finds himself a quadrilateral amputee, he adapts to a world he never could have imagined, and finds a new creative outlet in stand-up comedy.

Tim and Susan Have Matching Handguns | Director: Joe Callander. USA. 2 minutes.
Love is swapping clips with your spouse in the middle of a three gun problem.

Who Shot Rock & Roll: The Film | Director: Steven Kochones. USA. 37 minutes.
Hear the stories behind rock’s most enduring images. This film spotlights the work of acclaimed rock photographers through interviews, photographs and never-before-seen footage covering 50 years of rock and roll.

Experimental Shorts in Competition

Brimstone Line | Director: Chris Kennedy. Canada. 10 minutes.
Three grids are placed along the Credit River in rural Ontario to intensify our sense of the zoom, narrowing vision and flattening space.

Cherries | Director: Friedl vom Gröller. Austria. 3 minutes.
A salon piece in black and white. The filmmaker circles the amorous play. Gestures and blurs, intuitively precise in-camera edits condense the situation of debauchery and digression.

Confessions with An Open Curtain | Director: Eli Cortiñas. Austria. 6 minutes.
"Funny business, a woman´s career, the things you drop on the way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you will need them again when you get back to being a woman. There is one career all females have in common whether we like it or not: Being a woman. “

Dry Standpipe | Director: Wojciech Bakowski. Poland. 12 minutes.
A startlingly raw interlaced video collage by celebrated Polish artist, musician and poet Wojciech Bakowski.

from left to right, top to bottom | Director: Flora Watzal. Austria. 15 minutes.
Ever since early performance art, the camera has stood ready as recording apparatus. Film and video seem to be the most suitable medium for playing back the movements of bodies in space and over time, complex processes and narrative entanglements. Yet what happens in the opposite case, when the space performs and along with it, the recording apparatus?

LIVEPAN | Director: Sasha Pirker. Austria. 2 minutes.
Unobserved production forms, no escape, deadpan, the stoic expression of the body/object comic—as we know from Buster Keaton—develops to the livepan of everyday routine.

Minimal Vandalism | Director: Kay Walkowiak. Austria. 4 minutes.
Touching art objects in an exhibition space is usually not allowed. Not so in Kay Walkowiak´s Minimal Vandalism, where this prohibition is practically stomped on.

Picture Perfect Pyramid | Director: Johann Lurf. Austria. 5 minutes.
Picture Perfect Pyramid is a 16mm film which in counter-clockwise spirals, circles a large pyramid structure that was built on the outskirts of Vienna in 1983. Using twenty-four positions the film was shot over the course of an entire day, with one shot per hour.

Redemption | Director: Miguel Gomes. Portugal. 26 minutes.
Where and when have four poor individuals begun searching for redemption?

Reign of Silence | Director: Lukas Marxt. Austria. 7 minutes.
Reign of Silence records a human intervention in nature, a barren landscape that’s strangely surreal, where humans aren´t really expected.

College Student Film Competition

1%ers | Director: Francesca de Sola. USA. 17 minutes.
A famous actress (Michelle Rodriguez) and her co-star (Rie Rasmussen) break away from their Hollywood bubble and head to a locals dive bar in pursuit of something 'real'. Things take a dark and violent turn when they clash with a group of outlaw bikers over a poker game.

All God's Creatures | Director: Brendon McDonall. Australia. 20 minutes.
Having just lost their father, brothers Asher and Charlie's already fragile relationship undergoes a test of almost mythic proportions when one of them commits an act of mindless cruelty.

Even Cowboys Get to Cry | Director: Mees Peijnenburg. Netherlands. 20 minutes.
A film about losing our youth, loneliness, violence and guilt: an homage to friendship.

Helpless | Director: Christene Hurley. USA. 8 minutes.
Leah confesses her true feelings to Chayse in the school library while unknown malice lurks in the hallways.

H’mong Sisters | Director: Jeff Wong. Singapore / Vietnam. 14 minutes.
Among the indigenous tribes in the mountains of Vietnam, 13-year old Mu thinks she knows everything her 16-year old sister Paj, a tour guide, knows - until they encounter a sex tourist.

Into The Silent Sea | Director: Andrej Landin. USA. 25 minutes.
Under desperate circumstances, and across vast distances, an intense connection is made.

Miss Todd | Director: Kristina Yee. United Kingdom. 13 minutes.
It's 1909, and the whole world is waking to the possibilities of flight. Miss Todd dreams of flying, but she's got more than gravity holding her down. This is the story of her determination, her perseverance, and her passion.

Noah | Director: Patrick Cederberg, Walter Woodman. Canada. 18 minutes.
In a story that plays out entirely on a teenager's computer screen, Noah follows its eponymous protagonist as his relationship takes a rapid turn for the worse in this fascinating study of behavior (and romance) in the digital age.

The Pink Helmet Posse | Director: Kristelle Laroche, Benjamin Mullinkosson. USA. 9 minutes.
Three pink tutus. Three pink helmets. Three pink skateboards. Bella, Sierra and Rella prove that skateboarding is not just for boys.

Rabbit and Deer | Director: Péter Vácz. Hungary. 17 minutes.
The friendship of Rabbit and Deer is put to the test by Deer's new obsession to find the formula for the 3rd dimension...

Silent | Director: Jaco Dukes. USA. 9 minutes.
A Jewish man deals with memories from World War II, when he was in line with other prisoners to be executed by a Nazi soldier.

Still Got Lives | Director: Jan-Gerrit Seyler. Germany. 23 minutes.
Marco and Lisa are in love. Online, they fight side by side against dreadful monsters. However, Lisa refuses to meet Marco in real life. When one day she stops showing up for the game, Marco decides to go searching for her.

Symphony no. 42 | Director: Réka Bucsi. Hungary. 10 minutes.
The film presents 47 observations in the irrational connections between human and nature.

Young Filmmakers Competition

Among Flowers | Director: 2013 Watkins Pre-College Film Students. USA. 11 minutes.
A teen girl, Lily, is resistant to therapy sessions until her persistent doctor, Dr. Jennings, finds a way to connect to and talk about her grief. On the verge of a breakthrough, Jennings hits a roadblock, leaving Lily's future unknown.

As We Get Older | Director: Silas Connolly. USA. 6 minutes.
Drug and alcohol usage are questioned as a solution to adolescent emptiness and inner conflict through graphic depiction of one teen’s night of moral dissipation.

Bongo | Director: Evan Sennett. USA. 5 minutes.
A curious looking boy, named Bongo, watches a couple dance.

Carry Over | Director: Ryan Hopkinson. USA. 8 minutes.
Northview High School's football team attempt to lead their school to the playoffs for the first time in school history in this youth-directed documentary.

Cookie Wars | Director: Natasha Lasky. USA. 6 minutes.
An ambitious mother has hired a ringer to help her sell Girl Scout cookies while her real daughter has plans of her own. The battle is on!

Epitaph | Director: Charles Blecker. USA. 6 minutes.
An unusual boy, Billy Coffin, takes his name seriously and prepares for the inevitable.

The Farm | Director: Malone Lumarda. USA. 10 minutes.
A wanderer stumbles across a seemingly abandoned farm and discovers he is not alone.

In Fiction | Director: Andrew Robbin. USA. 7 minutes.
A writer finds himself in a bind with his wife when a character he's created begins to take over his life.

Overflow | Director: Ruby Drake. USA. 7 minutes.
Two girls try to work through an unexpected crisis in their friendship.

Slender: The Film | Director: Rod Myers, Sam Slocum. USA. 9 minutes.
Teenage boy Steven Shepard, determined to find the cause of the accident that killed his mother, starts on a journey into the woods with his three friends to kill what he thinks did it.

Three Tiny Films from Saint Ann's School | Directors: Gregory Eagan, Laura Brown, Cullen Girolamo. USA. 6 minutes.
These three films -- "Irresolution" by Gregory Eagan, "Go Fish" by Laura Brown, and "Director's Cut" by Cullen Girolamo -- all under two minutes, were shot on 16mm color negative by students in a 3rd year production class at Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn. These films are silent, each with an original score.

Feature Film Awards

Gibson Music City/Music Films Award

Grand Jury Prize: Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me, directed by James Keach (USA)
Honorable Mention: The Ballad of Shovels and Rope, directed by Jace Freeman (USA)
Special Jury Prize for Art and Activism: Alive Inside (USA)

The Gibson Music City/Music Films Grand Jury Award went to Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me, for sharing such an, "intimate and honest portrayal of a music legend's battle with Alzheimer's, Glen Campbell… I'll Be Me captures a family's commitment to love and laugh through the adversity of a debilitating disease."

The Gibson Music Films/Music City Competition Jury presented two awards tonight that truly celebrate the culture and heritage of Nashville. Juror, Joe Pacheco, a New York City based Director and Producer, said, "This year's 'Music Films/Music City' competition presented an impressive slate of films."

The jury also awarded an Honorable Mention to Jace Freeman and Sean Clark for their film, The Ballad of Shovels and Rope that also won the Ground Zero Tennessee Spirit Award for Best Feature.

Bridgestone Narrative Competition Award Winners

Grand Jury Prize: Club Sandwich, directed by Fernando Eimbcke (Mexico)
Honorable Mention: Little Brother, directed by Serik Aprimov (Kazakhstan)
Best Actor: Manolis Mavromatakis, for The Enemy Within (Greece)
Best Actress: Britt Robertson, for Undiscovered Gyrl (Ask Me Anything) (USA)
Film Musicians Secondary Market Fund Best Music in a Feature Film: Undiscovered Gyrl
Louise LaQuire Award for Best Screenplay: Bernard Attal, The Invisible Collection (Brazil)
Special Jury Prize for Original Vision: Joel Potrykus, Buzzard (USA)
Special Jury Prize for Cultural Significance: Maryna Er Gorbach & Mehmet Bahadir Er, Love Me (Ukraine / Turkey)

The Bridgestone Narrative Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Fernando Eimbcke's Club Sandwich, described as a, "...poignant and well paced coming of age film that is both sensitive and laugh out loud funny." by Bridgestone Narrative Grand juror, Brad Horvath, a Toronto producer.

The Bridgestone Narrative Grand Jury further expressed that the films insight into adolescence and separation anxiety made it a distinct pleasure to watch. Juror Meghan Wurtz of New York City based Film Movement, said, "We look forward to more films from this incredible director in the years to come."

Documentary Competition Award Winners

Grand Jury Prize: Besa: The Promise, directed by Rachel Goslins (USA / Albania)
Honorable Mention: Happy Valley, directed by Amir Bar-Lev (USA)
Special Jury Prize for Investigative Filmmaking: Kate Logan, for Kidnapped for Christ (USA)

The Documentary Competition awarded the Grand Jury Prize to Rachel Goslins, the director of BESA: The Promise. "An inspiring work that sheds light on one of the darkest events in human history" said, Documentary Competition juror, Mark Rabinowitz, of Platform Media Group. "The film examines the power of a promise and uses an emotional and deeply personal story to reveal a cultural code and strength of integrity that is sorely needed in the world today…" added juror Allison Inman of Nashville's Belcourt Theatre.

The Honorable Mention award for the Documentary Competition went to Happy Valley, in which juror, Ben Hall of Nashville's WTVF said, "...was a meticulous piece of documentary journalism which expertly examines how even the most heinous of crimes...can affect people in disparate and surprising ways."

The Special Jury Prize was awarded to Kidnapped for Christ, which the Jury described as a "courageous investigative film, which sheds light on a little-known epidemic."

New Directors Narrative Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize: Before I Disappear, directed by Shawn Christensen (USA)
Honorable Mention: 1982, directed by Tommy Oliver (USA)
Honorable Mention: Drunktown’s Finest, directed by Sydney Freeland (USA)
Best Actor: Jeremiah Bitsui, Drunktown’s Finest (USA)
Best Actress: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Medeas (USA / Mexico / Italy)

The New Directors Narrative Competition awarded five awards tonight. The Grand Jury Prize was awarded based on the fundamental elements of filmmaking: storytelling, photography, character development, editing, and pacing, as well as surprises, twists and turns and originality, according to juror, Michael Chieffo, an actor and producer in Los Angeles.

Before I Disappear took home the Grand Jury Prize, which "held us in suspense and compelled us to wonder," said, Los Angeles based actress, Beth Grant.

Ground Zero TN Spirit Competition

Grand Jury Prize – Feature: The Ballad of Shovels and Rope, directed by Jace Freeman
Honorable Mention: Something, Anything, Paul Harrill

Graveyard Shift Competition Awards

Grand Jury Prize for Feature Film: Wetlands
Honorable Mention for Feature Film: You and the Night
Best Actor: Eric Cantona, You and the Night
Best Actress: Carla Juri, Wetlands and Robin Wright, The Congress (Tie)
Grand Jury Prize for Short Film: The Voice Thief
Honorable Mention for Short Film: Kekasih
Special Jury Prize for Direction: - The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears
Special Jury Prize for Cinematography: The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, Manuel Dacosse Helene Cattet & Bruno Forzani

The 2014 Graveyard Shift truly spanned the whole world both literally (the countries represented) and figuratively (the ideas encompassed). “The visions it presented were provocative, intriguing, horrifying, and beautiful, and spoke volumes as to the conceptual diversity of World Cinema and the limitless possibilities that a creative mind and an inspired crew can create,” remarked juror Jason Shawhan.

In addition to the Feature Film Award Winners, NaFF proudly announced additional awards for variety of eligible films tonight. Juror Amy Webb added, "Thank you to the Nashville Film Festival for exposing us to stories from so many countries and cultures. We hope this tradition continues."

Special Jury Prize for Art and Activism
Alive Inside: A Film About Memory and Music

Special Jury Prize for GLBT Filmmaking
The Case Against 8 - Ben Cotner & Ryan White

Best Original Song in a Feature Film
“Davina” from I Believe in Unicorns - Sasha Gordon, Composer

Best Feature Film by a Woman | Presented by WIFT
The Winding Stream

Best Short Directed by a Woman | Presented by WIFT
Helpless

NPT Human Spirit Award
The Starfish Throwers

Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Award
The Invisible Collection

Lipscomb Ecumenical Prize
Ida

Short Film Awards

“We had more short films entered in our festival this year, than ever before, said NaFF Artistic Director, Brian Owens. “Word has gotten around to filmmakers that NaFF is THE festival to enter because winners in the short documentary, narrative and animation competitions are automatically given Academy Award consideration. As an Academy Award Qualifying festival, several of NaFF films have gone on to earn nominations, including: Academy Award-winner Shawn Christensen for Curfew, Sean Durkin for Mary Last Seen, Jamie Travis for The Armoire, and Denis Villeneuve for Next Floor. Recent NaFF selections that went on to Oscar nominations include: Buzkashi Boys, Kavi, Miracle Fish, The Pig, Instead of Abracadbra, and West Bank Story.

Narrative Shorts

Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short: Rhino Full Throttle, Erik Schmitt (Germany)*
Honorable Mention for Best Narrative Short: Afronauts, Frances Bodomo (USA)
Honorable Mention for Best Narrative Short: I’m a Mitzvah, Ben Berman (USA)

Documentary Shorts

Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short: The Last Days of Peter Bergmann, Ciaran Cassidy (Ireland)*
Honorable Mention for Best Documentary Short: Love. Love. Love. – Sandhya Daisy Sundaram

Animation Shorts

Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short: Rabbit and Deer, Peter Vacz (Hungary)*
Honorable Mention for Best Animated Short: Yearbook, Bernardo Britto (USA)

Special Jury Prize for Acting

Ed Oxenbould: The Amber Amulet & All God’s Creatures

Women In Film & TV
Helpless – Christene Hurley

Student Shorts

Grand Jury Prize: Pink Helmet Posse, Kristelle Laroche, Benjamin Mullincosson
Honorable Mention: Into the Silent Sea, Andrej Landin

Young Filmmaker

Overflow – Ruby Drake

TN Shorts Finalists:

TN Horizon Audience Award for Best Short: Lower Broads, Drew Langer
Runner Up: Elvis Loses His Excess…, Riley Hooper
Runner Up: Sorry About Tomorrow, Motke Dapp
Runner Up: Bear With Me, Chad McClarnon

Ground Zero TN Spirit Competition

Grand Jury Prize – Narrative Short: Shadowland, Steven Wesley Miller
Grand Jury Prize – Documentary Short: Straight Up: Tennessee Whiskey, Eric Byford

https://nashvillefilmfestival.org/announcements/

https://nashvillefilmfestival.org/2014-award-winners/

First Annual Screenwriting Competition Awards

2014 Screenplay Competition Awards

Action/Adventure
Feature Winner: Will Powers | Andrew Eisen
Feature Runner-Up: In Debt Deep | Andrew Brown
Short Winner: The Ten Mile | Tarp Jones
Short Runner-Up: Celara Electric | Lee McQueen

Animation
Feature Winner: Tank’s | Randall C. Willis
Feature Runner-Up: The Princess Honeybee | James McFarlane
Short Winner: The Hunter | Wade Balance
Short Runner-Up: The Dreamscape Aquarium | David Serra

Comedy
Feature Winner: hAPPy | Sam Friedlander
Feature Runner-Up: Male Order | Amanda Darling
Short Winner: The Bride of Frankie | Devi Snively
Short Runner-Up: Power Wash | Linda Rumney

Drama
Feature Winner: Little Silver Heart | Lonas Taylor
Feature Runner-Up: Vulture’s Row | Alfred Thomas Catalfo
Short Winner: The Lost Cause | Jeffrey Rubin
Short Runner-Up: Cocaine Eyes | Alexander Briley

Family
Feature Winner: Yes, Bub | Elisabeth Annacone
Feature Runner-Up: The Spirit Flyer | Jonathan Vermeer & Bart Morse
Short Winner: Pipe Dream | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
Short Runner-Up: Escape | Diana Zimmerman & Brad Jost

Historical
Feature Winner: The Poem | Dawn Wise
Feature Runner-Up: Newton’s Laws of Emotion | Eugene Ramos
Short Winner: Scorched Earth | Skye Lynch

Inspirational
Feature Winner: Bring It Home | Kari Redmond & Ben Davies
Feature Runner-Up: William, Will You Dance? | Mary Huckstep
Short Winner: Long Distance Call | Sussu Laaksonen
Short Runner-Up: Shit-House Crazy | Julie Akeret

Music-Inspired
Feature Winner: Dead Man Blues | Jefferson McClure
Feature Runner-Up: Man at the Top | Larry Shulruff
Short Winner: A Certain Romance | Anthony Cawood

Sci-Fi
Feature Winner: Heroman | Timucin Leflef
Feature Runner-Up: The Beginning | Elise Carr & Dennis Carr
Short Winner: Every Lady Has A Silver Lining | Tishema Jones Al-Amin
Short Runner-Up: In A Forest | Ryan Sprague

Tennessee Screenwriter
Feature Winner: Driving Top Down | Elvis Wilson
Feature Runner-Up: The Sound of the Sword | Ryan Estabrooks and Amber Bartlett
Short Winner: The Department of Signs and Magical Intervention | Melissa Anderson Sweazy
Short Runner-Up: Mulligan | Caleb Stallings

Thriller/Horror
Feature Winner: Vulture’s Row | Alfred Thomas Catalfo
Feature Runner-Up: Sold! | Allen C. Gardner
Short Winner: The Ants Go Marching | Charles Dillon Ward
Short Runner-Up: Memento | Stuart Creque

Young Screenwriter
Short Winner: Family Portrait | Michael Flynn
Short Runner-Up: Outpost Bravo | Joshua Taylor

2014 Teleplay Competition Awards

TV Comedy Pilot
Winner: Roomies | Kristin Cantrell
Short Runner-Up: Foxy Naught | Karen Rouse

TV Drama Pilot
Winner: Ordnung | Aaron Rollins
Short Runner-Up: Valleywood | Grete Heinemann

2014 Screenplay Competition Finalists

Short – Action/Adventure
Celara Electric | Lee McQueen
The Ten Mile | Tarp Jones

Feature – Animation
Lost Dog | Jeff DeVuono
Tank's | Randall C Willis
The Princess Honeybee | James McFarlane

Short – Animation
Lily, the Saddest Girl in the World | Darren Barker
The Dreamscape Aquarium | David Serra
The Hunter | Wade Ballance

Feature – Comedy
hAPPy | Sam Friedlander
Male Order | Amanda Darling
Misfortune Cookie | Amanda Darling

Short – Comedy
If You Go There | Stacy Alynn
Power Wash | Linda Rumney
The Bride of Frankie | Devi Snively

Short – Drama
Cocaine Eyes | Alexander Briley
The Lost Cause | Jeffrey Rubin
You're a Good Guy, Eli | Cornelius Murphy

Feature – Family
Coincidental Miracles | Heather Hughes and Kate Wharton
The Key to Nede - An Adventure Begins| Karisa Ewinger
The Spirit Flyer | Jonathan Vermeer and Bart Morse
Yes, Bub | Elisabeth Annacone

Short – Family
Escape | Dianna Zimmerman and Brad Jost
Pipe Dream | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
The Barking Spider | Robert Gately and Lois Gately

Short – Historical
Scorched Earth | Skye Lynch

Feature – Inspirational
Be My Eyes | Dustin Stevens
Bring it Home | Kari Redmond and Ben Davies
William, Will You Dance? | Mary Huckstep

Short – Inspirational
Long Distance Call | Sussu Laaksonen
Shit-house Crazy | Julie Akeret and Will Daniel

Feature – Music Inspired
Dead Man Blues | Jefferson McClure
Man at at the Top | Larry Shulruff
Soup Sandwich | Sabrina Siebert

Short – Music Inspired
A Certain Romance | Anthony Cawood

Feature – Sci-Fi
Heroman | Timucin Leflef
Project Guile| Dustin Kahia
The Beginning | Elise Carr and Dennis Carr
Time and Again | Stuart Creque

Short – Sci-Fi
Every Lady Has A Silver Lining | Tishehma Jones-AlAmin
In a Forest | Ryan Sprague

Feature – Tennessee Screenwriter
Driving Top Down | Elvis Wilson
The Acadian | David Vincent
The Sound of the Sword | Ryan Estabrooks and Amber Bartlett
The Vilification of Ruth Dunn | Taylor Albertson

Short – Tennessee Screenwriter
Mulligan | Caleb Stallings
The Department of Signs and Magical Intervention | Melissa Sweazy
The Holler | Drew Maynard

Feature – Thriller/Horror
Horror Comic | Stephen Hoover
Sold | Allen C. Gardner
The Righteous Man | Andrew Mescher
Vulture's Row | Alfred Thomas Catalfo

Short – Thriller/Horror
Behind You | Nathan Ludwig
Memento Mori | Stuart Creque
The Ants Go Marching | Charles Dillon Ward

Short – Young Screenwriter
Family Portrait | Michael Flynn
Outpost Bravo | Joshua Taylor

2014 Teleplay Competition Finalists

Pilot – Drama
Ordnung | Aaron Rollins
The Girl From Here | Jackson Wickham
Valleywood | Grete Heinemann

Pilot – Comedy
Cherub Court 'I smite you' | Sam Boseley
Foxy Naught | Karen Rouse
Roomies | Kristin Cantrell

2014 Screenplay Competition Semi-Finalists

Short – Action/Adventure
Celara Electric | Lee McQueen
The Ten Mile | Tarp Jones

Feature – Animation
Lost Dog | Jeff DeVuono
Tank's | Randall C Willis
The Princess Honeybee | James McFarlane

Short – Animation
Lily, the Saddest Girl in the World | Darren Barker
The Dreamscape Aquarium | David Serra
The Hunter | Wade Ballance

Short – Comedy
If You Go There | Stacy Alynn
Power Wash | Linda Rumney
The Bride of Frankie | Devi Snively

Feature – Family
Coincidental Miracles | Heather Hughes and Kate Wharton
The Key to Nede - An Adventure Begins | Karisa Ewinger
The Spirit Flyer | Jonathan Vermeer and Bart Morse
Yes, Bub | Elisabeth Annacone

Short – Family
Escape | Dianna Zimmerman and Brad Jost
Pipe Dream | Sundae Jahant-Osborn
The Barking Spider | Robert Gately and Lois Gately

Short – Historical
Scorched Earth | Skye Lynch

Feature – Inspirational
Be My Eyes | Dustin Stevens
Bring it Home | Kari Redmond and Ben Davies
William, Will You Dance? | Mary Huckstep

Short – Inspirational
Long Distance Call | Sussu Laaksonen
Shit-house Crazy | Julie Akeret and Will Daniel
The Two In Waiting | Anton Stroganov

Feature – Music Inspired
Dead Man Blues | Jefferson McClure
Man at at the Top | Larry Shulruff
Soup Sandwich | Sabrina Siebert

Short – Music Inspired
A Certain Romance | Anthony Cawood

Short – Sci-Fi
Every Lady Has A Silver Lining | Tishehma Jones-AlAmin
In a Forest | Ryan Sprague

Feature – Tennessee Screenwriter
Driving Top Down | Elvis Wilson
The Acadian | David Vincent
The Sound of the Sword | Ryan Estabrooks and Amber Bartlett
The Vilification of Ruth Dunn | Taylor Albertson

Short – Tennessee Screenwriter
Mulligan | Caleb Stallings
The Department of Signs and Magical Intervention | Melissa Sweazy
The Holler | Drew Maynard