By Ricki Moody
Raider Shakedown Reporter
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. -- The 46th annual Nashville
Film Festival wrapped up on April 25 after 10 days of powerful screenings of
more than 280 films at the Regal Green Hills Cinema in Nashville, Tenn.
The
NFF offered the Nashville community many different genres of films this year,
including documentaries, animation, horror, comedy and experimental.
One of the most anticipated movies in the
festival was "Welcome to Me," a narrative feature film directed by
Shira Piven and starring "Saturday Night Live" comedienne Kristin
Wiig. The comedy concerns a woman living
with Borderline Personality Disorder winning the lottery and buying her own
talk show.
Another
Tennessee premier was "Me Earl and the Dying Girl" directed by
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. The
movie about an introverted high school boy and a leukemia-stricken girl made a
great impression at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
The
world premiere of Stanley Nelson’s "The Black Panther: Vanguard of the
Revolution" sold out so quickly Monday
night, that the NFF directors decided to add another showing Friday night. Nelson’s film sought to show The Black Panther Party
in a different light, contending that its members simply wanted social change.
“The
Black Panthers started as a way of combating police brutality in the black
community,” said Nelson. “That’s
exactly where we are today.”
There
was an array of awards given out Saturday night. Festival winners included
*Darko
Lungolov’s “Monument to Michael Jackson", Bridgestone
Narrative Competition Award.
* “Frame
by Frame,” directed by Mo Scarpelli and Alexandra Bombach, Documentary
Competition Award.
* “Daytimer”, directed by Riz Ahmed, Grand Jury
Prize for Short Film.
*
“The Full Irish”, directed by Brian MacEvilly, Grand Jury Prize for Screenplay.
* “They
Look Like People,” directed by Peter Blackshear, Graveyard Shift Competition
Award.
Celebrities
from around the country were spotted at the opening red carpet ceremony on
April 16, including Elijah Wood from “The Lord of the Rings” saga and comedian
Nick Kroll.
A
new feature of the NFF was Free Movie Mondays. Bridgestone Americas announced that all of Monday’s movie tickets were
already purchased, making the screenings free to the public. Bridgestone has sponsored the festival for years,
but has never done anything of this magnitude. According to communications director Deb Pinger, the attendance for the
festival has increased by nearly 30 percent with more than 43,000 people attending screenings.
Tickets
for individual screenings were $12. More information about the Nashville Film
Festival can be found at www.nashvillefilmfestival.org.
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