The biggest event coming to Nashville cinemas this month is, of course, the Nashville Film Festival. The longtime local fest — slated for its 55th installment Sept. 19 through 25 — will take place at the Belcourt Theatre, Regal Green Hills, the Franklin Theatre and elsewhere and will feature nearly 50 feature-length films and a slew of shorts and music videos.
Among this year’s most anticipated NaFF selections are music documentaries Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, Devo, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, Rebel Country, This Is a Film About the Black Keys, The Day the Music Stopped and Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken. But it won’t just be music docs at the fest — NaFF’s lineup also includes documentaries like A24’s The Last of the Sea Women and Will Ferrell’s Will & Harper, along with narrative features Bob Trevino Likes It, Jazzy, Universal Language and a handful of horror and thriller selections. Find more titles and more details at nashvillefilmfestival.org.
Films set for the September fest include ‘Will & Harper,’ ‘The Last of the Sea Women,’ ‘Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken’ and dozens more
Before the festival lands later this month, beloved local arthouse the Belcourt is offering a grip of promising new releases. Still currently showing at the Hillsboro Village theater are the critically acclaimed prison drama Sing Sing (which our own Craig D. Lindsey recently called “raw, moving and human”), the Carol Kane- and Jason Schwartzman-starring Between the Temples, and coming-of-age drama Good One (which, according to Scene contributor Hannah Cron, features a shining performance from newcomer Lily Collias). Coming to the Belcourt in the coming days are encore screenings of director Gary Hustwit’s technologically groundbreaking Brian Eno documentary Eno (Sept. 6-8) and rock doc We Are Fugazi From Washington DC (Sept. 9) — see our Critics’ Picks section for more on both of those.
Coming to the Belcourt later this month are Canadian psychological thriller Red Rooms (Sept. 11-15), documentary ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! (Sept. 13-15), documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon (opening Sept. 13), Demi Moore-starring body-horror flick The Substance (Sept. 19), Aubrey Plaza-starring comedy-drama My Old Ass (Sept. 26) and Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited epic Megalopolis (Sept. 26). In anticipation of that film — whose rollout has been fraught with AI-related promotional mishaps, allegations of strange on-set behavior and inconsistent early reviews — the Belcourt is showing several of the celebrated director’s best films as part of its Essential Coppola series. Between Sept. 13 and the Megalopolis premiere, Belcourt moviegoers can catch all three installments in the Godfather series as well as The Conversation, Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut, The Outsiders: The Complete Novel, Peggy Sue Got Married and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Director India Donaldson’s debut feature opens this week at the Belcourt
In the megaplexes, summer blockbuster season is winding down, but a few big titles are still on the docket. Tim Burton reanimates one of his most beloved characters this week, as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (don’t say it a third time) hits theaters everywhere on Sept. 6. While Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis didn’t return for the sequel, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara and — most importantly — Michael Keaton did, prompting last month’s Venice Film Festival audience to go a little nuts for Beetlejuice. (Oops, I said it again.) Also opening this weekend is A24’s The Front Room, a psychological horror film starring Brandy (yes, the “Boy Is Mine” Brandy) as a pregnant woman “forced to take responsibility for an estranged stepmother.”
Also opening wide later this month is yet another psychological thriller, Speak No Evil (Sept. 13). That remake of a 2022 Danish film of the same name sees James McAvoy returning to creepo territory as a manipulative — and possibly deadly — patriarch. Transformers Onewill also land Sept. 13, and the aforementioned Megalopolis will also hit Regal and AMC theaters on Sept. 26.
Meanwhile in Hermitage, Full Moon Cineplex has a handful of fun repertory screenings slated for the month. Catch Friday the 13th Part III (in 3D!) and Part VI on Sept. 13 (naturally), and see Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal the following weekend.
