(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, in association with the Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies, presents the 2024 New Jersey International Film Festival which marks their 29th Anniversary. The NJIFF will be taking place on the Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between May 31 - June 9, 2024 and will be a hybrid one as they will be presenting it online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University.

All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5:00pm or 7:00pm on their show date.  General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$100; In-Person Show Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. Ticket buyers will also have special access to Filmmaker Introductions and Q+A Sessions for many of the films. You can see the complete lineup of films and purchase tickets here.

All of the works being screened at the New Jersey International Film Festival were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 35 finalists which will be publicly screened at the Festival. The finalists were selected from over 702 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the judges will choose the Prize Winners in conjunction with the Festival Director. Prize winners will be announced via their social media sites after the screenings on June 9, 2024.

Film Premieres: 35 films will have their New Jersey or Area Premiere (Middlesex County) screenings as part of the New Jersey Film Festival and the United States Super 8 Film and Video Festival. Some of these include: Holly Buechel’s feature documentary Fencing for the Edge which is about a New Jersey High School fencing team; Found: The King of Matsutake Ridge by Anastasia Forde is a documentary that explores the beautiful and intense world of Philip Manganaro, renowned chef/owner of Park Place Café in Merchantville, New Jersey; Peter Flynn’s feature documentary FILM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE FILM! which explores the vanishing world of private film collecting; and Jeffrey Himple’s animated documentary Shame on You which focuses on the debt crisis in America.

Allan Novick’s heartwarming short documentary Crossing The River, Tova Krentzman’s fascinating documentary about Fire “lookouts” in Canada; Claire Lukkas’s gorgeous girl buddy film Claire Facing North; Marina Somova’s touching coming of age feature I Want to Live on Mars; and Joe Wallace’s vastly entertaining documentary Cowgirls and Synthesizers follows the synthesizer pop duo Hyperbubble.

Jean-Pierre Caner’s will ride feature film STAKES IS HIGH; a series of amazing animated  films by Cassie Shao, Vaco Diogo, Sally Pearce, Evie Metz, and Sean Peckold; a series of excellent short films by Diane Pontius, Jenny Kleinman, Benjamin To, Ilayda Iser, Rod Ibsen, Irina Arnault, Saul Pincus, Felipe Vargas, Jonathan Harkel, Chris Zou, Giselle Bonilla, Abinadi Meza, Michelle Tattenbaum, Kelsey Comeau, and a series of mind bending experimental films by Martin del Carpio, Peter Spruyt, and Daniel Maldonado; and Robert Kolodny’s The Featherweight which presents a gripping chapter in the true-life story of Italian-American boxer Willie Pep—the winningest fighter of all time.

Special Guest Appearances by Directors, Artists, and Actors: The festival also announced that many in-person special guest appearances by film directors, producers, and actors to the NJIFF!  Some of these include:  New Jersey filmmakers Holly Buechel, Anastasia Forde, Jonathan Harkel, Jeffrey Himple, Chris Zou, Nicholas Diadato, Michelle Tattenbaum; as well as Robert Kolodny, Tova Krentzman, Diane Pontius, Allan Novick, Kelsey Comeau, Martin Del Carpio, and many others to be announced. There will also be many virtual Filmmaker Introductions and Q+A Sessions for many of the films.

Sponsors: The New Jersey International Film Festival is funded and/or sponsored in part by The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center; The Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies/School of Arts and Sciences; Middlesex County, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts - Funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund; The Rutgers University Office of Summer and Winter Sessions; OVID/Icarus Films,  The Rutgers University American Studies Department; Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program;  The Rutgers University Zimmerli Art Museum; The Rutgers University Writer’s House; Pro 8mm; The Rutgers University Office of Disability Services, WRSU; New Jersey Stage; The Home News, The Asbury Park Press; New Brunswick City Center; The Rutgers University Office of Community Affairs; Design Ideas; Advanced Printing; Steven C. Schechter, Esq.; Share and Harris.