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New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2023 Runs Jan. 27 to Feb. 19

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originally published: 11/30/2022

(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 New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2023 which marks its 41st Anniversary. The Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 27-February 19, 2023. The Festival 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.   

All the works being screened are part of the New Jersey Film Festival and United States Super 8 Film and DV Festival Competitions and were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 40 finalists which will be publicly screened at our Festival. The finalists were selected from over 678 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 our social media sites after the screenings on February 20, 2023.  

Film Premieres: 40 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: 5 beautiful and thought provoking animation films by Claudia Miatello (Buon Ferragosto), Vanessa Nilsson (A Polar Bear Story), Kamran Rosen (Stages of Lost Freedom), Andre Silva (Revelation to the Disembodied), Tyler March and Eric Paperth (Sucks To Be The Moon); Giorgio Litt’s Vagrant  -- a touching portrait of a man who saves dogs in rural Sicily; Ana Cuadra’s wonderful documentary The Language I Speak -- an exploration about the regional varieties of spoken English in America; Susan Hillary’s The Pratt in the Hat -- a short documentary on Frances Pratt who shares her wisdom, humor, and personal experiences about being black in America; John Decker’s heartwarming short documentary Marjorie Eliot's Parlor Entertainment Harlem; Bradley Berman’s amazing documentary Jack Has a Plan.

Elika Rezaee’s Fereshteh – an experimental film which distills the daily reality facing many modern Iranian women; Oleksandra Pletenetska’s When will the warmth come? Which is a video diary by the director in which she documents her emotional states during the full-scale invasion of her country – Ukraine; Rithikha Rajamohan’s intriguing experimental film Sympoiesis; Eric Boadella’s City of Love – a neo-noir feature about Spencer, a troubled rideshare driver in Los Angeles; seven captivating short films by Ellie Konn (First Girl); Drake Woodall (The Button Game); Cindy Di Xin (Voiceless; Jason Michael Roberts (Bean and the Babysitter); Olena Podolianko and Novruz Hikmet (It is Quiet Here); Robert Rippberger (Duplicitous Minds); Chris Lane’s atmospheric whodunnit feature Ocean City Monster Building; David Seok Hoon Boo’s Junho – a feature film focusing on a Korean actor who tries to start his life over in San Francisco.

 

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There are also two amazing documentaries on two New Jersey artists including Rembrandt Lives in New Jersey by Kasey Child and Man Fire Clay by Michael Callas and seventeen films that were made using 8mm and Super 8mm film -- including In Littleness by Cherlyn Hsing-hsin Liu and Song of a Dying Summer by Kohei Sengen as well as the 15 films being screened as part of United States Super 8 Film and Video Festival.

For more information on the films, click here.

35th Annual United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival:  Also, during the Spring 2023 season, the Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC will present the 35th anniversary of the United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival -- the longest running, nationally recognized, juried 8mm Film/Video Festival in North and South America.  Each of the two days (February 18+19) will feature three different program of films from throughout the USA, Canada, and the world. Filmmakers are competing for many Best of Prizes. Prize winners are announced on the last night of the Festival. The Super 8 Festival is open to works predominantly shot on either Super 8/8mm film, Hi8/8mm video and/or Digital Video. This program is being co-sponsored by Pro 8mm. 

Special Guest Appearances by Directors, Artists, and Actors: This spring they are pleased to announce many in-person special guest appearances by film directors, producers, and actors to the New Jersey Film Festival!  Some of these include: New Jersey filmmakers Vanessa Nilsson (A Polar Bear Story), Tyler March and Eric Paperth (Sucks To Be The Moon), Kasey Child (Rembrandt Lives in New Jersey), Michael Callas (Man Fire Clay); as well as Kamran Rosen (Stages of Lost Freedom), Drake Woodall (The Button Game; David Seok Hoon Boo (Junho); 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 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;  Rutgers University Writer’s House; Pro 8mm; WRSU; New Jersey Stage, The Home News Tribune; The Asbury Park Press; New Brunswick City Center; The Rutgers University Office of Community Affairs; ArtPride New Jersey; Steven C. Schechter, Esq.; Share and Harris.