The 56th edition of the Music City film extravaganza kicks off Sept. 18.
Take 56: Tickets are now on sale for the 2025 edition of the Nashville Film Festival, which will run September 18-24. And as usual, the prestigious event that began life in 1969 as East Tennessee’s Sinking Creek Film Celebration has scheduled a wide and varied array of shorts, features and documentaries.
Also as usual, the Music City-located festival will offer several films about — well, music.
“I have a wonderful programmer named Julia Kipnis who does our music documentaries and our documentary features,” says Nashville Fest programming director Lauren Thelen. “We talk every year. And for the music documentaries, it’s always a big discussion for us, because we want to put together a quality program for our music documentaries. Because being in Nashville, with the rich musical history of the city, it’s only appropriate to uplift that very specific genre of documentary.”
Even so, “It’s definitely a hard one to program every year, because it’s a very specific genre. So we have to work with what's out there for that year.”
Because you can only pick titles from what’s new and available?
“You totally get what I’m trying to say here,” Thelen says. So we definitely have a lot of conversations about it — scouring what is out there on the circuit this year, what’s been played at other festivals, and what’s been organically submitted to us. And while we love and prioritize programming films that are about artists in either country or topics that are connected directly to Nashville and its country music roots, we want to look to other genres, other cultures, other stories of musicians that are out there, and provide a very diverse program.
“But yeah, it’s a tough one because like you said, we have to work with what we’ve got that year. But I think we’ve done a really good job this year. We’re excited about Opryland USA: A Circle Broken — obviously, because of it being the 100th anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry. And [You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine] is wonderful. We’re really happy to have that one in the lineup, to continue uplifting his legacy.”
Here are just a few of the standout films, features and documentaries, music-related and otherwise, in the 2025 Nashville Film Festival lineup. The full list of titles, along with ticketing information, is available at NashvilleFilmFestival.org.
The Flamenco Guitar of Yerai Cortés
The story unfolds through Yerai Cortés, a rising star in Spain’s flamenco scene. Documentarian Anton Álvarez (aka C. Tangana) met him at a party, where Cortés played guitar for Montse Cortés under the Starlight satellites. Known for his refined, unique style, Cortés’ life is marked by a dark family secret and a sorrow he longs to share with the world.
Never Get Busted!
Barry Cooper is an expert at hiding drugs, evading police, and raising hell. But once upon a time he was a highly decorated Texas Narcotics Officer. After a raid goes wrong, destroying a family not unlike his own, Barry’s conscience gets the better of him and he quits the force. Using stolen police tapes, he creates a DVD series teaching drug users how to hide their stash and becomes an instant media sensation. This documentary, directed by David Anthony Ngo and Stephen McCallum, tells the story of one man’s fight to turn the tide on the War on Drugs — if he doesn’t get busted in the process.
Opryland USA: A Circle Broken
The unexpected closure of Opryland USA in 1997 remains one of Nashville’s greatest losses. The public was promised that part of the park would remain intact — it didn’t. For 25 years, Opryland was the cultural centerpiece of the city. The community is still asking: “Why was Opryland closed and replaced with a mall?”
Matter of Time
A string of 2023 Eddie Vedder solo concerts in Seattle are the backdrop for director Matt Finlin’s documentary, which chronicles efforts to find a cure for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare genetic disease that can be lethal. The film blends emotional patient stories, breakthrough science, and the power of music to drive real change.
The Easy Kind
When Elizabeth Cook (pictured above) first emerged on the country scene, she was plucked up by the Nashville establishment, briefly paraded around as the latest sweet young thing, and quickly cast aside when she refused to fit neatly into a marketable box. In The Easy Kind, Cook plays a fictionalized version of herself named EC: a renegade singer/songwriter steadfast in her own skin while navigating the personal and professional complexities of midlife. She’s breaking new ground musically — even if the powers that be still can’t see how to monetize her magnetic, hard-scrabble talent. As she frees herself from the trappings that have held her back — money troubles, family tragedies, and ex-lovers — she forges a path for herself to be able to make music on her own terms. This genre-bending debut narrative feature from acclaimed veteran filmmaker Katy Chevigny takes a close-up look at an artist who’s as vulnerable and soulful as she is irrefutably badass.
You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine
Michael John Warren’s concert film was shot in October 2022 over two nights at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. More than 70 artists gathered with family, the Nashville community, and music fans to remember and pay tribute to the life and songs of the late, great John Prine.
Rebuilding
Three years after the release of his charming dramedy A Love Song starring Dale Dickey and Wes Studi, director Max Walker-Silverman returns with his sophomore effort, a deeply personal story of a community’s life and resilience that appears to have striking contemporary relevance. After a wildfire takes away the family farm, a rancher seeks a way forward, embracing a call to heal his fledgling family and newfound community. Against the backdrop of charred lands and a struggling small town, scattered lives coalesce in grief, and a uniquely resonant love story emerges.
