Article from The Tennessean:
Who needs to go to Cannes or Sundance? Next month, local film lovers will get the chance to see fabulous cinematic efforts right here at home, including top winners from both of those festivals.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palme d’Or, the highest honor awarded at Cannes. Buck and Kinyarwanda both won audience awards at Sundance. And Nashville Film Festival artistic director Brian Owens said that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s on tap at this year’s festival.
“I’ve almost shed tears about the ones we had to cut,” he said. “We just ran out of room.”
Owens said the selection process this year was wrenching, starting with a festival record of 2,403 entries from 102 countries and cutting to the more than 200 that will be screened at the festival.
Today, festival officials are announcing the bulk of the lineup for this year’s NFF, which runs April 14-21 at Regal Green Hills Cinemas. (Short films and special presentations will be announced in the next few weeks.)
Among Owens’ favorites this year are Bloodworth — a reworked and renamed version of Province of Night, which screened at last year’s festival — starring Kris Kristofferson, Val Kilmer, Dwight Yoakam and Hilary Duff, and How to Grow a Band, whichfollows former Nickel Creek member Chris Thile’s new group, Punch Brothers, as they embark on their first concert tour.
Both of those films boast Tennessee connections. Bloodworth is based on a novel by Tennessean William Gay about a family from East Tennessee and stars former Nashville residents Yoakam and Kristofferson, who is expected to attend the festival. Thile is another former Nashvillian.
Beyond those two standouts, Tennessee is well-represented at this year’s festival. Septien, a dysfunctional family drama, was shot entirely in and around Nashville. Jess + Moss, a memory piece about two second cousins who have grown up spending their summers together, was directed by Clay Jeter, who is from Clarksville. (Jeter was able to finish making the movie with $3,000 he won last year for best narrative short film.)
However, Owens said the wealth of Tennessee-centric movies has nothing to do with the selection committee being partial. “It’s just a great confluence of talent and timing,” he said.
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