Jason Padgitt Named Executive Director Of Nashville Film Festival

Jason Padgitt has been appointed the new Executive Director for the Nashville Film Festival in a key advancement of its strategic growth plan. In his new position, Padgitt will lead the Nashville Film Festival in growing its brand equity, strengthening its global cultural impact, and building engaging year-round programming and world-class experiences for the creative community, membership, audiences and supporting sponsors.

Padgitt joins the festival following more than 20 years of leadership in the entertainment industry with deep experience in high-profile branding, consumer marketing, digital marketing and communications. Most recently, he served as the Executive Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications for Nashville-based Gibson Brands. Prior to that he served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and as a leading marketing and PR executive with Los Angeles-based agency, Rogers & Cowan.

“The board views Jason’s hiring as a defining moment for the organization,” said Jim Scherer, Nashville Film Festival board president. “It speaks highly of Jason that he was the board’s choice to lead the festival into the future, especially as we approach the festival’s 50^th anniversary year in 2019. He is a talented executive with the heart and desire to see the Nashville Film Festival become a must-attend event for this region and attendees from around the world.”

“I am extremely excited to lead the Nashville Film Festival into the next stage of development and growth,” said Padgitt. “This organization has an incredible heritage of discovering and elevating creative talent from all around the world. I look forward to accelerating that success by significantly increasing the organization’s visibility, cultural importance and global reach.”

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Lorie Hollabaugh

Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.

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