After pooping his pants at a world-leaders’ conference dinner, the first Asian-American President of the United States must escape the situation undetected before his reputation is ruined forever. Haunted by a traumatic childhood memory, the President finds himself going to darker and more extreme lengths in order to protect his legacy.

The American

After pooping his pants at a world-leaders’ conference dinner, the first Asian-American President of the United States must escape the situation undetected.

Three professors explore the history, significance, and ongoing challenges of African American Vernacular English in education and the United States, reflecting on its cultural impact and the fight for linguistic acceptance.

English

Voices of the Academy

Three professors explore the history and ongoing challenges of African American Vernacular English in education and the United States.

PAPER TIGER is a poignant coming-of-age drama set against the backdrop of September 11th, 2001. Thirteen-year-old Ronnie, a bright but introverted girl from Staten Island, wakes up with a stomachache and stays home from school, completely unaware that her life is about to change. As the day unfolds, she quietly grapples with the milestone of getting her first period, struggling to find the right moment to confide in her overwhelmed mother during one of the worst days in American history.
Told through the intimate lens of a young girl on the cusp of adolescence, PAPER TIGER explores themes of growing up, emotional isolation, and resilience in the shadow of tragedy.

Paper Tiger

Ronnie is an average thirteen-year-old girl from Staten Island. But after she gets her first period on the morning of September 11th, 2001, the world she knows starts to crumble around her.

Patron Saint Buffalo Bill aims to reclaim the the violent images of transfemininity created by The Silence of the Lambs’ central antagonist, Buffalo Bill, transforming them into a manifestation of Transsexual Monstrosity (a la Susan Stryker). The film starts with a pastiche of Silence’s infamous “Goodbye Horses” scene, with the filmmaker placed into the role of Buffalo Bill. This recreation then slips into a lush, dreamlike space in which a metamorphosis of both the image and the body can occur, intertwining and unifying with one another through mutual dissolution. Finally, from this cocoon emerges a new transsexual form, ready to claim the power of monstrosity to bring about a broader transformation of our gendered existence.

Patron Saint Buffalo Bill

The image of Buffalo Bill is reclaimed and transformed into a celebration of Transsexual Monstrosity.

Bella, a recently divorced housewife, maintains the almost perfect life - all while running a
dominatrix business out of her living room, as she dominates middle aged men with her
signature domestic twist. There's only one thing, in fact, getting in the way of complete
domestic bliss; her 17 year old son Charlie.
After a mishap leads to Bella accidentally choking one of her clients to death, she must figure out what to do next - prison doesn’t seem overly enticing, and Charlie is due home from school at any second.
Driven to desperate measures, Bella must come to a decision; contact the authorities, sort the problem out herself, or look to external means for help...

Tough Love

After accidentally killing one of her clients, a recently divorced housewife turned dominatrix must figure out what to do next - all while dealing with her manipulative teenage son.

On a hunt for the legendary queen conch shell, 8 year old ARTHUR and his grandfather ZACHARIAH stumble upon an eight-foot-long Mako shark, dead on the beach with a fishing rope embedded around its neck. Zachariah informs Arthur that the shark is dead, but Arthur wants to resurrect it. 
Arthur brings the shark (whom he named Jasmine) back home and dumps her in his kiddie pool. The first of his experiments begins: Arthur sneaks through the kitchen in search of his mother SELINA'S (33) table salt, but she catches and interrogates Arthur. Arthur does not elaborate on why he needs the salt, which makes Selina suspicious. For now, she drops it, telling Arthur about his upcoming play date with neighbor child PATRICK (9), and sets the table for breakfast. Arthur does so in a hurry, desperate to get back to Jasmine. He rushes to the backyard and dumps the entire salt container into the pool, waiting for Jasmine to come to life. Only Patrick has arrived, and so Arthur must 'socialize' with him. Patrick and Arthur have breakfast and a heart-to-heart about the permanent extinction of the dinosaurs. However, watching Patrick voraciously eat his breakfast, Arthur gets another idea. Arthur shows Patrick his dead pet shark and lets Patrick play with her. Selina relaxes on the hammock until she hears Patrick's blood-curdling squeals. Rushing to the backyard, Selina discovers Arthur trying to feed Patrick to the Mako shark. Patrick runs away, and Selina confronts Arthur about his crazy idea. Selina commands Arthur to throw the corpse away and apologize to Patrick. Blaming Zachariah for this fiasco, she forces him to go with Arthur.
Arthur and Zachariah bring the Mako shark up to the bank of an estuary. Arthur cuts the rope off the Mako shark's neck, discovering the deep pink scarring that it left behind. Arthur rolls the shark into the estuary. As Arthur watches the shark awkwardly sink to the ocean floor, he comes to understand that death is permanent and simultaneously realizes the cause of her death. Arthur throws the fishing rope in the trash bag and scours the beach for other garbage. Suddenly, the ocean breeze activates a sixth sense in Arthur, and he follows his intuition to the tide pools, where he finds the rare queen conch shell. He puts it to his ear and watches the ocean waves ebb and flow, but he hears the deep slow rumble of the entire underwater world.

German

Dead Pet Shark

A child learns the concept of death when attempts to resurrect a dead shark that he found on the beach

A stop-motion psychological comedy set in a run-down 1950s diner. Le Charade follows the final performance of a lonely mime and the psychotic episode that ensues after his imaginary friend breaks up with him and he is forced to re-enter society.

Le Charade

A lonely and neglected Mime causes a scene in a diner after his imaginary friend ends their relationship.

Andre, a homeless father, pours everything he has into his young son Troy, believing that basketball is their only way out of poverty. Living out of their car, he trains Troy with intensity and love, but during a practice gone too far, Andre accidentally injures him. Without insurance or support, and wracked with guilt, Andre turns to desperate measures to afford Troy’s medical care, attempting to rob a local convenience store. Inside, he’s confronted by Irv, the store’s owner and a man who knows all too well the price of bad decisions. Instead of escalating the situation, Irv sees Andre’s pain and offers him a lifeline: help, not punishment. Humbled and shaken, Andre chooses a new path, in hopes of becoming the kind of man his son can truly look up to. Trife is a deeply moving story about fatherhood, accountability, and the quiet redemption found in choosing to do better.

Trife

A homeless father clings to his young son’s basketball dreams as their way out, but when an injury threatens everything, he’s forced to commit a robbery to get his child the medical care he needs.

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The 56th Nashville Film Festival will take place September 18-24, 2025, showcasing more than 140 films from around the globe, alongside captivating Q&A sessions with filmmakers, dynamic industry panels, unforgettable parties, and plenty of opportunities to connect with fellow creatives.

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A selection of festival films will be available from Monday, September 22nd through Monday, September 29th for at-home viewing. Please note that not all films screening in-person will be made available in the Virtual Cinema and in limited cases, geo-based restrictions may apply to some viewers outside of Tennessee or the United States. Tickets for virtual film screenings can be purchased individually or are included at no additional cost for certain badge holders.  For more information on accessing and optimizing Virtual Cinema content, please visit https://watch.nashfilm.org/help or contact festival@nashfilm.org.  

Welcome! The 56th Nashville Film Festival includes films ranging in genres from narratives, documentaries, animation, horror and much more!

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