The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) presented by Nissan is set for April 19-26 at the Regal Green Hills Cinemas, and will continue its tradition of screening two films at the festival’s opening and closing. Opening selections will include Beauty Is Embarrassing and the world premiere of After, while the closing selections will include Big Easy Express presented by the Americana Music Association, and Paul Williams Still Alive.

“What started the last two years, almost by accident, with Bloodworth and Submarine opening and Another Earth and Terri closing has turned out to be a successful strategy for us,” says Brian Owens, NaFF artistic director. “It gives people a couple of options and wildly different ones at that, on each of the nights. Whether it’s an oft-hilarious art documentary or a borderline dystopian fantasy, or music films about then or now, we’ve got you covered.”

Written and directed by Ryan Smith, After tells the story of two bus crash survivors who awake to find they are the only people left in their town and they must work together to find the truth. Nashville ties include Magnetic Dreams Animation for visual effects, and producers Seabourne Pictures and Sabyn Mayfield.

Neil Berkeley’s Beauty Is Embarrassing is about artist Wayne White, a Chattanooga native whose career has taken him from puppeteer to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse to music videos to the world of fine art.

Big Easy Express, directed by Emmett Malloy and presented by the Americana Music Association, tracks Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Mumford & Sons on a musical journey from California to Louisiana via train.

Paul Williams Still Alive started as an investigation by director Steven Kessler to find out what happened to his childhood idol, songwriting great Paul Williams.

Also included as an official selection in the lineup is Brick and Mortar and Love, a documentary about independent record stores by director Scott Shuffit that features My Morning Jacket, Nappy Roots, The Watson Twins and Grimey’s co-owner Doyle Davis. Check out a trailer here.

New to NaFF this year is the first annual Rotary Red Carpet Run 5k, a road race through Green Hills on Saturday, April 21. Presented by the Rotary Club of Green Hills, the event benefits the Second Harvest Food Bank’s Backpacks program. Info and registration here.

Newly opened Lucy’s Country Café will welcome Jake Owen, Darryl Worley, Pam Tillis, Aaron Tippin, Rhett Akins, Heidi Newfield, Andy Griggs, Trent Tomlinson and more for its Words For Warriors acoustic benefit on Wed., April 11. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the evening will go towards funding outdoor expeditions for our Wounded Warriors.

“We hope this will become the first of many annual events at Lucy’s Country Café to support KWO initiatives,” states Bobby Pinson, owner of Lucy’s Country Café.

Tickets can be purchased for $15 in advance at Blue Bar, and will be for sale for $20 at the gate. The show runs from 7 – 11 pm.

Singer/Songwriter Bobby Pinson and his wife Lucy opened the restaurant in early 2012 in the same building as Blue Bar on Broadway. They serve a southern-style meat-and-three buffet featuring a variety of homemade family recipes. Every Wednesday the cafe hosts “Sing For Your Supper,” where established and aspiring songwriters can take the stage.

Nashville will host Film-Com Week, April 14-20, preceding the 2012 Nashville Film Festival. The event affords Tennessee film and TV makers the opportunity to establish relationships with financing, distribution and potential co-production with potential worldwide partners.

Many Nashville locations will host events including the New Project Expo at Titans Stadium; Faith in Film Conference at Nashville City Club. Additional seminars and events will be held at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Ford Theatre, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, AT&T Tower, Ocean Way Studios, Watkins Film School and Belmont University.

Participants will include national and international film and television executives, financiers, distributors, production companies, film/TV music industry execs, screenwriters, agents, and filmmakers. Mayor Karl Dean and U.S. Congressman Marsha Blackburn are two of the keynote speakers during the week.

The FILM-COM Financing & Distribution Market segment held April 17-20, is set to welcome more than 100 participants.

“The core focus of Film-Com is commerce,” says Chairman Andy van Roon. “We are working hard to build a pragmatic business market. In 2009 we began developing a supplemental model to generate more film and television activity in Tennessee. We intend to do this for serious properties with bona fide business plans and marketable elements from modest budget to $15 million range, which would enable both employment opportunities for Tennessee production personnel and revenues for Tennessee-based film/television infrastructure.”

Film-Com’s partners include the Memphis Film Commission, Fuel Films, and Knoxville Films, working with the mid-state’s FilmNashville and approximately sixty film, television and music industry professionals working in Tennessee.

For additional information, click here.