Tommy Emmanuel Documentary To Get U.S. Premiere At Nashville Film Festival

Tommy Emmanuel

Tommy Emmanuel‘s journey from Australian guitar prodigy career as a Grammy-nominated guitarist, composer, recording artist and performer is the center of a new documentary film, Tommy Emmanuel-The Endless Road.

The project, directed by Jeremy Dylan and produced by Jamie Lewis, will have its U.S. premiere at the upcoming 50th Nashville Film Festival, on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m. The film will screen at Nashville’s Regal Hollywood Theaters. In July, the film premiered at Australia’s Melbourne Film Festival, where it won Best Music Documentary.

“It’s very appropriate that the film has its US debut in Nashville because Nashville has been a big part of my life, not just musically but I have so many friends here and so many influences, it’s a great city,” Emmanuel notes.

“The journey of Tommy Emmanuel is a quintessentially Nashville story,” says Dylan. “Tommy’s relationship with mentor, surrogate father and ‘Mayor of Music City’ Chet Atkins is an emotional backbone of the film, Nashville is the refuge that turns into a home as Tommy’s marriage crumbles and he is forced rebuild his life and the climax of the film as a scorching performance at the Mother Church of Country Music, the Ryman.”

Emmanuel is one of five guitarists ever designated by Atkins as a CGP, or Certified Guitar Player. The two released an album together in 1997, dubbed The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World. Emmanuel also earned two Country Music Awards of Australia honors in 2005 and 2007 and two ARIA Awards.