The 56th annual Nashville Film Festival is coming up later this month for six days of over 150 films screening at venues across the city. Jason Padgitt, the executive director of the festival, took the time to speak with us, discussing some of the details what it takes to run a film festival.

Grace Krenz (GK)

Could you walk me through the history of the Nashville film festival?

Jason Padgitt (JP)

Yes, it is a really unique festival and it’s one of the very first film festivals in the United States. It’s actually the first festival that originated in the South, so of the major US festivals we’re one of the oldest. We’re older than Sundance and many others. It started in 1969 in Tennessee by the wife of a lawyer who was largely interested in short experimental films. It was originally called the Sinking Creek Film Festival and by 1972 it had become more Nashville based, at Vanderbilt University. It became the Nashville Film Festival and has grown ever since. My short history here started in 2019. The nature of the festival has always been about the spirit of innovation and focus on music, and finding new creative voices in the world, in particular those here in Nashville and in Tennessee in general. We remain committed to that, but every year the evolution of the festival is always trying to make it a little bit different, and to bring in new elements, whether they be social elements or filmmaking elements or special guest elements, always something new and different, which makes it a lot of fun. 

GK

You just mentioned special guest elements: you recently announced that Nicole Kidman will be doing a Q&A at this festival.

JP

Yes, she’s joining us for an event on Sunday night at the Country Music Hall of Fame where she’ll be doing a Q&A relative to her career at large and her commitment to advocacy for filmmaking here in Tennessee specifically. That will lead into a retrospective screening of the film Cold Mountain. It’ll be a nice time with the Country Music Hall of Fame: of course the soundtrack for Cold Mountain is historic, Civil War era country, Appalachian music, and so they’re gonna have a little bit to talk about the origins of the songs and music in that film as well. It’s a really nice partnership with them to make this all happen.

GK

The Nashville Film Festival has many different categories, some of which have globally known films or stars like Nicole Kidman, as well as categories which focus on local Tennessee-made shorts. How do you balance these different elements?

JP

One of the things that we have to do as part of our own advocacy for our organization is help people understand what the Nashville Film Festival is, because there are so many layers to it. It’s not always an easy thing to explain very quickly, but for me, the vision of it is really to build and grow the community of both filmmakers and filmlovers here in Tennessee. To do that we certainly rely on films from all over the world, but we put a very heavy focus on the creatives that live and work here as well, and so that’s why you’ll see in addition to our student category and our Tennessee categories, you’ll also see a music video category and a music documentary category. Now those films can come from anywhere in the world, but because of the heavy presence of the music industry here in Nashville those are a couple of unique categories that are specific to our festival and that you don’t find in every other festival around the world.

At the same time, if you look at our entire offering of categories, between documentary, narrative, feature length, shorts, animation, all of that, it’s very similar to what you would see at Sundance. In fact we end up programming a few more films, 10 or 20 more films every year than Sundance. And of course, there are other differences between us and Venice and Sundance. Those are very market-driven festivals, meaning those are where buyers and sellers of films are spending a lot of their time in distribution deals. Ours is really much more about building the profiles and careers of independent filmmakers to help bring them to the next level. So we really focus on that connection between audiences and filmmakers and just building a great platform for them to come together and learn about each other. There’s no better way for an emerging filmmaker to learn about film than to sit in with an audience and then have a Q&A with an audience to get that real-time feedback. That’s really one of the most important things about a film festival in general, that connection between the filmmakers who are present and the audiences that are in the theater.

GK

You are Academy Award qualifying in several categories. What does that mean? What does that entail?

JP

Because of the prestige of the Academy, obviously they have pretty strict outlines in terms of how a film can even make its way to them. They don’t take unsolicited films and their processes are fairly rigid. One of the gateways to even be eligible to be screened by the Academy members is to have won one of our categories (and there are other other film festivals that have the same credentials), then you are invited to submit to the academy for consideration. Over the years we’ve had several of our winning shorts, documentary, narratives, and animations that have not only been nominated, but have also won the Academy Award, which is an incredible gateway for filmmakers to build a massive profile very quickly. It’s one of the many reasons that the people love getting accepted into the Nashville Film Festival as a chance to win that honor, to move on to the Oscars. 

GK

How do you deal with submissions? How many do you get? How do you choose what belongs in the film festival and what doesn’t? 

JP

That’s also a very rigid process. A lot of people don’t always understand the mechanics of it, nor do they need to, but it is a very interesting process. In general we open for entries for all of our categories of films on January 1. So at the beginning of the year filmmakers can go to our website and through that they choose the category that makes the most sense for their film, and they’ll submit it through the website. Beginning on January 1 all the way through mid June our programming team is taking everything that’s being entered and they’re splitting it up by genre or specialty through a group of screeners that are watching these films and scoring these films. Those scores then roll up to a cumulative and then they get another watch by one of our programmers, which ultimately leads up to our head of programming, Lauren Thelen. Over that roughly six month period, from January to June, all of those decisions are being made and categorized, and end up being the film festival. We end up presenting about 150 films at the film festival itself, and that number varies year to year based on a number of things. It’s always a very difficult decision for our programmers because of the amount of content: we ended up getting between six and seven thousand entries in that period between January and June. So between that, let’s call it 7000 entries, you’re programming 150 of those. It becomes quite a complicated formula and it’s a big job for a lot of really talented programmers on our team.

GK

Wow, that sounds incredibly time-consuming just to watch. How does that work? 

JP

The screening teams are made up of our professional level programmers, our screeners who are credentialed film buffs and people with film degrees, and folks that have some experience at this. That team is about fifty to sixty people on an annual basis. Once it rolls up to the professional programmers and our head of programming, that’s where the final decisions are made. The amount of time it takes, you’re right, that’s why we have to start the entries process as early as January, because we really do want to get access to everything that’s out there in the independent filmmaking world. And so we’re looking at things that are coming through that pipeline and in addition to that our head of programming is also looking at things that are out in the rest of the festival world, so if something plays at the Cannes Film Festival or something plays at Sundance that she’s particularly interested in, films can also be invited to screen. I know that’s a smaller percentage of what we end up programming, but oftentimes that’s just a great way to get access to a very high profile film that’s on the independent film circuit in the early part of the year.

GK

What awards do category winners receive?

JP

In all of the awards categories for our official competition there’s a combination of a physical award and a cash prize. Those cash prizes are also variable based on the category itself and a couple of other things, but they end up being around $1000 for some of the major awards and $100 for some of the shorts awards. That’s pretty standard in the independent film festival circuit just as an acknowledgment and a reward for having participated in and won in each of our categories. 

GK

Who are the people that are coming and watching all the different films? Are these all filmmakers or these all film buffs? 

JP

No, it’s a mix. I mean the majority of our audience is certainly from the Tennessee area. We have a fair percentage that come in, I would say it’s roughly 10-15% that are coming from out of market. But in terms of the mix of the audience, it is really everything and that’s what makes it a great festival as you’re getting all walks of life, all demographics, all ages, all levels of experience, and certainly folks that are either aspiring filmmakers, actors, production workers. Those folks come out in full force for the festival often because they either know people that have films in the festival or have worked on a film or a part of a project. Beyond that we try to program a festival that is accessible to everybody, so whether you’re someone who’s deep into the Indie world of filmmaking or you’re someone who just enjoys watching the occasional film at home or in a theater, we try to program for everybody. There are things that are highly crowdpleasing fan-favorite type titles, and there are things that are very challenging and very obscure and foreign language and all kinds of things. If you look at our website and dive deep within each of the synopses, you’ll see there’s absolutely something for everyone. The audience itself is reflective of that when you see it at the festival, it’s really an amazing thing. There are very few types of experiences where you see that true cross-section of the city in one place. 

GK

One of the really fun things about the Nashville Film Festival is how many different venues you occupy: you’re at the Belcourt. You’re at the Regal in Green Hills. You’re at Riverside Revival and Soho House. It’s got to be a logistical challenge figuring out 150 movies at venues all across town, especially since you probably don’t want the high demand films all showing at the same time.

JP

Yeah, it really is. And it includes not just the films, but the social events, the parties, all the things that we’re doing. It’s not a perfect puzzle and that you’re always sort of competing with yourself, but we do make a point to try our very best to make it manageable for folks to make those tough decisions. Those decisions are also hard for us to make, we have to decide internally who’s gonna be where. So it does make it difficult. 

I will say it was one of the priorities I had when I started in this role and that we as a group have committed to showing not only great films, but showing the best of Nashville. Whether you live here already or you come from out of town, I like to look at it through the lens of if I were if I were coming here and I’ve never been to the Nashville Film Festival, what would impress me the most. What types of things would I really want to see and experience? And so you’ll note in our venues, including our screenings, our parties, our mixers, all of those things, that it’s a great sampling of the entire Nashville experience. The opening night party, for instance, is at the Urban Cowboy bar at the downtown arcade, you’re right there in the heart of downtown, the closing night party at Electric Jane over near Music Row in the Gulch, and you got the Riverside Revival in East Nashville. We have filmmaker and badge holder mixers, which is a mix of filmmakers and audience members that we’re doing at Von Elrod’s in Germantown one night and we’re doing at Playdate on 12 South Saturday night. So in addition to all the great films you’re seeing, you’re getting a great taste of Nashville in a seven day period. Of course you can’t forget the Belcourt, the iconic independent film house here as well. That does make it logistically much more difficult for us, but it makes it a much better experience for our audience and filmmakers so we remain committed to that and also just trying to mix it up every year, so that we’re doing something a little different, which makes it a lot more fun for those that come every year. 

GK

Does your turnout remain stable or do you feel like it varies a lot depending on what films you’ve announced will be the festival?

JP

There are a lot of variables year to year. I would say that the core audience remains fairly consistent, although it’s grown over the last several years and continues to grow. So that’s always positive. We kind of restarted everything from from 2021 to the present and I think for everyone who produces in-person events, you know that 2021 was a complete reset. Even in that year, the logistics of trying to deal with in-person events were still very complicated, even in the post pandemic window. We’ve grown from that point forward and continue to grow but what we see is the trust in the programming is really what brings that audience back. Some of the titles might excite people, but the variable in that audience is really just about the fact that they know they’re going to get great programming across the board. I’ll know by the end of this year what that number looks like, but I do expect we’ll continue on an upward trajectory this year. 

GK

We’ve talked a lot about the film festival, but you guys also have the Creators Conference.

JP

Yes, I’m glad you mentioned that. That is also a really important thing that we do every year and that is essentially the opening weekend of Friday through Sunday. We have a host of panels, workshops, and special events to take place at the Hilton in Green Hills, and those are very focused on professional development for aspiring and established filmmakers and screenwriters. We end up having a dozen panels and a workshop on screenwriting and then that culminates with our award show on Sunday that gives all the juried awards for the film festival itself. What we found at our Creators Conferences is that no matter how deep your interest and experience in entertainment is, you’ll find that those panels are very accessible to both film students or people that are considering a career in film and people that are well established in film. We try to mix the topics every year so that anyone that joins the creators conference as an audience member walks away with a much better set of tools to go on and build their career. This year we have a panel on the impact of AI. We have a panel on intellectual property through the eyes of entertainment attorneys and how to protect yourself. We have a panel on the power of producers. We have a panel about how agents work in the industry and how agents can help you build your career. It’s really fascinating to be able to jump back and forth between movies and professional development panels. And depending on who you are and where you are in your career path, we always find the people get great satisfaction with the creators conference, so we’re excited about this year as well.

GK

Is there anything else you would like to say about the festival? 

JP

One thing I do like to always mention because the Nashville Film Festival is such a big event and people are always so excited when it comes back around, is that the Nashville Film Festival is also a year-round nonprofit organization that is committed to the advocacy of independent film and music in film. And so we’re constantly looking for members, partners, sponsors, and folks that want to be a part of this thing and continue to grow it and build it with us. We have a bunch of initiatives year-round, including outdoor screenings, we do a living reel program for foster children in a group home here in Nashville. There are things happening all year and I just like to remind people that even when we’re not in the festival window, to pay attention to what we’re doing and come be a part of it with us, because the more people that join us in our effort the greater future we’ll all have together. We’re here more than just once a year. 

The festival will take place September 18-24, the Creators Conference September 19-21st, as well as a Virtual Cinema allowing at-home viewing of many of the festival screenings September 22-29th. The organization also has year-round events. Our team will once again be covering the festival, so say hi if you see us!

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Grace Krenz

A Nashville native and MTSU graduate, Grace Krenz is a reader, a writer, and an arts enthusiast. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two children.

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