Anima Magia ©2025 Albert Gabriel Nigrin featuring Eveyn Reese.
(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The 44th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will take place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 23 and February 22, 2026. The Festival will be a hybrid one as it will be presented online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University.
Most of the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VOD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person when both are offered.
The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 1:00pm, 5:00pm or 7:00pm on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program.
45 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. The festival will once again have many in-person special guest appearances by film directors, producers, and actors! Some of these include: Theodore Kennedy (B.F. Skinner Plays Himself); Louis Cacchione (Arrested at Delaney Hall); Trina Bardusco (A Way to Be Together); Liam Abbott (300); John Decker (Portrait of a Monastery); Samuel Freeman (Don’t Look in the Dark); John Pivko (creator); many others to be announced. There will also be Virtual Filmmaker Introductions and Q+A Sessions for many of the films.
Friday, January 23 | B. F. Skinner Plays Himself – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00pm. This film revisits the life and works of B. F. Skinner through never-before-seen footage recovered from a failed educational film project. Skinner–a world famous public intellectual in his lifetime who continues to be ranked among the most important psychologists of any era–is now largely forgotten outside a select academic niche. From Skinner’s early work with rats, to pigeon-guided bombs and air-conditioned baby cribs, to Utopian communes and debating Dennis Hopper, we deconstruct the scientist and reimagine his prescient predictions about the pitfalls and potential of shaping behavior. The failure of the abandoned educational film shows that changing behavior–often criticized for its supposed authoritarian potentials–is both more nuanced and more difficult than his critics imagined. (2025) Directed by Ted Kennedy. Runtime: 75 minutes.
Saturday, January 24 | Short Doc Program: Portrait of a Monastery, A Way to be Together, Arrested at Delaney Hall, 300 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00pm.
Portrait of a Monastery - A visual mediation on the everyday life of Anglican Benedictine monks living in community together at Holy Cross Monastery in New York. (2025) Directed by John Decker. Runtime: 40 minutes.
A Way to Be Together | In a New Jersey town divided by unseen borders, a Mexican immigrant community steps into the light. Their festival sparks pride and unity—but as fear grows, even joy becomes a radical act of hope. (2025) Directed by Trina Bardusco. Runtime: 18 minutes.
300 | Miles Clark has always lived for the mountains. At 46 years old, he’s carved out a life as a pro skier and mountain guide, chasing peaks and purpose across the globe. But for over a decade, one goal still loomed over him: ski 300 days in a single year. Weather, injuries, and life always got in the way. Until everything changed. In January 2023, Miles lost his beloved mother, the person who gave him his grit, stubbornness, and fire. In the wake of overwhelming grief, he turned to the only place that ever made sense: the mountains. That winter brought record-breaking snow and a chance. What began as a personal challenge became something deeper: a journey of healing, reflection, and rediscovery. From California to Antarctica, Argentina to Alaska, Miles skied through pain, joy, exhaustion, and awe. He found that the mountains weren’t just his playground, they were his sanctuary. And this wasn’t the first time they had saved him… 300 is the story of a man who refused to let grief define him. It’s about chasing a dream, not for accolades, but for meaning. And it’s about how skiing, day after day, turn after turn, can stitch a broken heart back together. (2025) Directed by Liam Abbott. Runtime: 20 minutes.
Sunday, January 25 | ANDA & The Game Camera - Online for 24 Hours. ANDA is a visually haunting and lyrical feature film that blends Nordic folklore with surrealist storytelling and modern themes. The film follows an elderly woman whose mother returns—decades younger than expected. Her search for answers pulls her into a dreamlike realm where myth and reality entwine. As she unearths long-buried secrets, she must carefully navigate the brittle boundary between inheritance and freedom, confronting the cost of power and the illusions of love. Through the intimate lens of a mother-daughter relationship, ANDA explores the longing for youth, desire, and the enduring myths we live by. (2025) Directed by Jayendra Ganta. Runtime: 76 minutes.
The Game Camera. When a grieving woman installs a night-vision camera in her mini-horse's corral, the specter of a human intruder on her rural Kansas ranch makes her reconsider her husband's death. (2025) Directed by Emily Railsback. Runtime: 20 minutes.
Friday, January 30 | Sun Ra Do The Impossible - In Person Screening at 7:00pm. A biographical, musical, illuminating journey into the work and vision of Sun Ra, exploring his jazz roots, endless innovations, and ceaseless artistic and social quests. (2025) Directed by Christine Turner. Runtime: 84 minutes.
Saturday, January 31 | Don't Look In The Dark, An InterView, 12th House, Dilemma, Self Portrait – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00pm.
Dilemma. This is a tense psychological thriller that delves into the consequences of a single, reckless decision. When high school friends find themselves trapped in a situation they can’t escape, panic sets in, and their once-close bond begins to fray. With each choice they make, the weight of their actions grows heavier, and the line between right and wrong blurs. (2025) Directed by Trevan Jay Hiatt. Runtime: 14 minutes.
Don't Look In The Dark. When a couple's phones begin recording on their own during a camping trip, what they capture isn't just darkness. It's something that wants to be seen. Don’t Look In The Dark was made with one goal: to create a theatrical experience like no other. This is not just a film. It is an event. The darkness is not filler; it is the canvas. Half the movie unfolds in pitch black, but hidden within that blackness, depending on your screen, your projector, your lighting, and your eyes, are fleeting, haunting images and moments that can completely shift the meaning of what you have seen. Every audience sees something different. Every theater reveals something new. No two viewings feel exactly the same. It is meant to unsettle you, confuse you, draw you in, and then leave you wondering if you missed something, because maybe you did. (2025) Directed by Samuel Freeman. Runtime: 71 minutes.
Self-Portrait. An aspiring young model visits a famous photographer's cabin and discovers she is part of a ritual that transforms her into a human camera, sucking the soul out of her body and restoring the youth of the photographer. (2025) Directed by Samuel DeFrank. Runtime: 14 minutes.
An InterView. This comedic animation follows a ghost who must pass a test similar to a job interview to decide if she can be reincarnated as a human. Through witty conversations, the film uses light humor to explore deep, existential questions. (2025) Directed by Yutong Cheng. Runtime: 4 minutes.
12th House. This is a surreal meditation on grief, identity, and spiritual transformation. After losing her husband, a woman descends into a liminal dreamworld where memory fragments and archetypes guide her inward. Haunted by illusion and tethered to love, she confronts her shadow through symbolic rituals of self-loss and rebirth. Blending myth, psychology, and visual poetry, 12th House explores the sacred undoing required to become whole—and the alchemy of carrying love beyond death. (2025) Directed by Ilona Laboy and Israel Laboy. Runtime: 13 minutes.
Sunday, February 1 | The Shoshani Riddle – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5:00pm. He was one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived, a scholar - he had a brilliant mind, spoke thirty languages, knew physics and philosophy… and yet he slept on a park bench, had no real home, anonymously travelled the world and looked like a bum. He was the secret master of Nobel Prize Winner Elie Wiesel, of the great French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and of many other prominent thinkers. They only knew him by his nickname “Shoshani”. In Israel, France, Switzerland, USA, North-Africa, Uruguay, he was teaching and sharing his fountain of knowledge to all. They were left wondering: Who was this man? What was his name? Where is he coming from? Was he an angel or maybe a devil? How is it possible to know by heart thousands of books? What and why was he hiding? Still, to this day, no one knows. The film explores the enigmatic life and knowledge of Mr. Shoshani, "The Wanderer who Knew it all", leaving many questions unanswered, making him one of the most mysterious figures of all time. (2025) Directed by Michael Grynszpan. Runtime: 86 minutes.
Friday, February 6 | Shorts Program #1: Solstice, Creator, Deanimated, End in Slow Motion, (sub)titled, Dobrina, Come Home, God Dam, Dobrina, GenderQueer – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00pm.
Solstice. On a cold winter night in a remote small town, karma is enforced by the sun that doesn't go down. (2025) Directed by Yuwei Zhang. Runtime: 14 minutes.
Creator. A short film where a young musician navigates the absurdity of the Information Age, as AI blurs the line between art and identity in unexpected ways. (2025) Directed by Jon Pivko. Runtime: 14 minutes.
The End in Slow Motion. A woman (Marcia DeBonis; "13 Going on 30," "Sometimes I Think About Dying") develops heightened awareness of the cruel world outside of an unnervingly calm house, as the threat of apocalypse stokes chaos. (2025) Directed by Joshua Kaufman. Runtime: 13 minutes.
God Dam. A mockumentary about two beavers that work in a post office. The camera crew observes a typical work day for Clint Eatswood, the energetic manager, as he attempts to clean up the mess created by his unenthusiastic employee, Humphrey Damiels. (2025) Directed by Abigail Hill. Runtime: 3 minutes.
Jeff. A phone sex operator loses her grip on reality, caught in a hypnotic relationship with a caller making disturbing confessions. (2025) Directed by Julia Hebner. Runtime: 25 minutes.
GENDERQUEER. The director's most vulnerable project yet depicts the relationship between her experiences with endometriosis/adenomyosis, social norms, societal expectations, and gender using a blend of raw spoken word, photography, and documentary-style cinematography. (2025) Directed by Grace Madonna. Runtime: 10 minutes.
(sub)titled. An indigenous woman from San Juan Peñas, Mexico, breathes life into fading memories as her ancestral language is revived through sound and image at a soundstage. (2025) Directed by Yuwei Zhang. Runtime: 5 minutes.
Deanimated. A professional Animator seeks to pitch a new project to a Hollywood Producer, or so said Producer presumes, when in reality the Animator has other plans in store. (2025) Directed by Brandon Alexander Martin. Runtime: 6 minutes.
Come Home. While fighting on the phone with her dad, a Korean American daughter named Della gets sucked into an ocean of memories. While watching her younger self, Della feels the pain of the past, but gains the courage to swim, and find closeness with her father again in the present. (2025) Directed by Katelyn Park. Runtime: 5 minutes.
Dobrina. Lotte Reiniger meets Sergio Leone in this animated short, where desire burns as bright as the desert sun. (2025) Directed by Hannes Rall. Runtime: 5 minutes.
Saturday, February 7 | Tomorrow Morning / Untold History about the Rape of Europa – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00pm. An American ambassador to Macedonia steals an antique bronze figurine depicting the ''Rape of Europe'' from the house of the prime minister. Three years later, this artifact will be exhibited in a museum in Washington. Police and judicial torture begins against the wife of the former prime minister, Joanna Pelasca, and her children, who hiding the video that shows exactly how the theft happened! In the same time, Aida, a twenty-three-year-old doctor, is raped by her senior colleague, a famous surgeon, during a night shift. The court rejects her rape lawsuit on the grounds that during the event she did not offer strong enough resistance. Thus begins her struggle with herself after she realizes that she is turning from a victim into a rapist. Both women are looking for enough reasons, one to leave, and the other to stay in Macedonia in the hope that tomorrow morning will be better than today. (2025) Directed by Jani Bojadzi. Runtime: 145 minutes.
Sunday, February 8 | Mama's Voice - Online for 24 Hours. In the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, film director Ganna flees with her children and elderly mother from Russian gunfire near Kyiv. Amidst the chaos, they find shelter in Poland with Kaja, an artist, singer, and mother of five, who welcomes them as a family. Despite the language barrier, the Ukrainian and Polish mothers form a deep bond that helps Ganna confront trauma, loss, and the terrifying new reality of war. Ganna’s family is torn between those who left and those who stayed. Her father, Petro, refuses to abandon his land near Bucha, surviving the Russian occupation while stubbornly tending to his garden. Her young daughter Malva quickly adapts to life in Poland, while her teenage son Orest struggles with loneliness. Meanwhile, Malva’s father—a renowned folk musician—promises to reunite with them at a music festival in Poland, though wartime restrictions rarely allow Ukrainian men to leave the country. What will it take for this family, fractured by war, to come together again? Told through the lens of a refugee, the film captures the experiences of Ukrainian women and children in Poland during the early months of the Russo-Ukrainian war. 2025; 86 min. In Polish, Ukrainian, subtitled. (2025) Directed by Ganna Yarovenko. Runtime: 86 minutes.
Friday, February 13 | Shorts Program #2: Where the Rain Stops, Chota Bheem, Human Side Of Plastic, Ball Lightning, Last Puestero – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5:00pm.
Where the Rain Stops. In an endless green plain, two young robot siblings live under the care of their guardian robot. One day, the guardian breaks down from severe rust and stops functioning. Left alone, the siblings must learn to survive on their own. Soon, dark rain clouds begin to cover their world. Hoping to find a place where the rain might stop, the two embark on a journey across the vast plain. (2025) Directed by Dojin Kim. Runtime: 9 minutes.
The Human Side of Plastic: Abby Barrows. On Deer Isle, Maine, home to one of the world’s most productive lobster ports, warming waters and invisible microplastic pollution threaten a centuries-old way of life. As veteran lobsterman Joel Billings and his daughter Hannah reckon with the possible end of their family’s tradition, neighbor and microplastics researcher Abby Barrows offers a vision for a more sustainable future through plastic-free aquaculture. (2025) Directed by Andrew Lynch, Ben Ayers, and Rush Sturges. Runtime: 18 minutes.
The Last Puestero. This is a short documentary that tells the story of Adonai, a gaucho -or Argentine cowboy- who spends most of his days alone in a remote Patagonian outpost, protecting cattle from poachers and pumas. While deeply proud of his work and the skills it demands, he struggles with the loneliness of being away from his wife and children in town. As he hopes his son will carry on the puestero tradition, he faces the painful reality that changing times may bring an end to this way of life. (2025) Directed by Belle Casares. Runtime: 28 minutes.
Ball Lightning. This follows the story of Gusta, a refugee who fled the personal and social effects of Soviet run East Germany after the end of WWII and immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. The story is told through the eyes of the surrogate daughter that she raised after she was forced to give away her own infant daughter as the iron curtain rose. Gusta serves as an example of survival, kindness and the fortitude of human resilience. The film is dedicated to her lost daughter, Esther, a reminder that the children separated from families because of war are never forgotten by those who love them. (2025) Directed by Catriona Trina Baker. Runtime: 12 minutes.
"Chota Bheem" The Snared King of Bandhavgadh. From the director, I am a wildlife lover. In November 2024, I was traveling through the tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh, driven by nothing more than the hope of witnessing a tiger in the wild. On the morning of November 25th, during a safari in the Khitauli Zone of Bandhavgarh, I had no idea that fate had something far greater in store. With the most basic camera gear, I captured a few quiet moments of a tiger—majestic, yet visibly worn. It was only later that I realized what I had witnessed: one of the last known sightings of the legendary tiger "Chota Bheem". When I returned to the U.S., I couldn’t forget his eyes. They stayed with me—haunting, questioning, pleading. As if asking me to share his story with the world. What began as a chance encounter turned into a calling. As I researched deeper into poaching and systemic lapses in wildlife protection, the urgency grew stronger. I never set out to make a documentary. But perhaps I was meant to. Perhaps I was chosen to bring this story to light. "Chota Bheem" - The Snared King of Bandhavgarh is my humble tribute—not just to a tiger, but to all lives in the wild struggling to survive against cruelty and indifference. If this film can help save even one life, then my purpose will be fulfilled. (2025) Directed by Anshuman Sharma. Runtime: 24 minutes.
Saturday, February 14 | Sum Function - Online for 24 Hours. As a quadriplegic Marine veteran, the filmmaker set out to tell a story that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. Sum Function follows a group of friends, all living with severe physical disabilities, as they confront battles more personal than war itself—on and off the wheelchair rugby court. At its core, this is a film about resilience, connection, and the power of community in a world not built for us. (2025) Directed by Noah Currier. Runtime: 90 minutes.
Sunday, February 15 | Zinema - Online for 24 Hours. This documentary film explores the development of Russian propaganda in cinematography and its impact on Russian society. The author tells the story of modern Russia, using footage from popular Russian feature films and series, mixing them with informative Russian content (news, political talk shows, surveys of Russians on the street, and interviews of Russian cinematographers). In his research film, Kornii comes to a terrible conclusion - Russian feature cinema is absolute propaganda of war, xenophobia, and chauvinism, not only concerning Ukraine but also the other peoples (Georgians, Tajiks, Americans, Jews, etc.) and culture in Russia is not «out of politics.» (2025) Directed by Kornii Hrytsiuk. Runtime: 82 minutes.
Friday, February 20 | Freeing Juanita - Online For 24 Hours. Juanita has been unjustly detained in Reynosa, Mexico for over seven years, accused of a crime she didn’t commit and forced to confess in a language she didn’t understand. This intimate portrait follows Ana and Pedro, Juanita’s aunt and uncle, on their thousand-mile journey from the highlands of Guatemala. With the help of their Maya Chuj community and a network of Maya interpreters, they fight for Juanita’s freedom and demand justice from the Mexican authorities, a cause that became internationally recognized for its defense of migrants’ rights and language justice. (2024) Directed by Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers. Runtime: 75 minutes.
Saturday, February 21 | US Super 8 + DV Fest: Speculations, Gilbert & George, Track, Light of Eons, Broken Token, Kway La Soul, they're taking my house, The Empty Frame, Les Amateurs – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00pm.
Gilbert & George Daytripping Forever! This short film follows the artists Gilbert and George as they embark on another adventure to Southend-on-Sea and explore the meaning of their art and their lives. (2025) Directed by Iain B. MacDonald. Runtime: 9 minutes.
Speculations. The images in this film are a visual essay on the concept of portrait: the portrait of a young woman and the portrait of a city. The voice of a barely audible woman interprets a flow of images from a distant, timeless reality. Slowly, the viewer realizes that someone is taking a journey. We are in a large world capital, we are in Tokyo, the crowd moves frenetically, cars pass by, someone pauses for a moment in front of the lens. The film "Speculations" does not tell a specific story. Its purpose is to investigate the concept of subjectivity "in relation to the whole". Tokyo and Florence, two completely different cities, are enlivened by the voice of a woman who connects seemingly irreconcilable realities. Can the subject exist without a relationship with things? Can the subject exist without a relationship with the community as a whole, with the "polis"? This film was shot on Super8mm film in 2006 in Florence and Tokyo. The film was found and edited in 2024, and original music by Elisabetta Porcinai was added. (2025) Directed by marco mazzi. Runtime: 22 minutes.
The Light of Eons. In the future you never have to sleep. But a discovery at Jupiter makes Jeffery question his life. (2025) Directed by David O. Rogers. Runtime: 15 minutes.
Broken Token. Experimental Super 8 film/digital video. A single female voice sings a folk ballad, inspired by a song found in a Victorian song collector’s manuscript in a Plymouth, UK, museum archive. She sings of waiting, in her summer garden, for the return home of her love from the war. As she waits, three veterans pass, and she asks them: “When you were fighting in distant lands, did you think of the home you had left?” In reply to this, the veterans tell of their experiences of connecting with home during the conflicts in The Falklands, The Gulf and Afghanistan. These words are taken from interviews with UK ex-servicemen and their family members. (2025) Directed by Paul Rooney. Runtime: 12 minutes.
Kway La Soul: Poetry In Chicago. In his debut music video, Kway La Soul expresses his raw emotions about breaking into the music industry and his true feelings for the city he grew up in. (2025) Directed by Joshua Boshell. Runtime: 5 minutes.
The Empty Frame. A young woman finds an old Polaroid camera in her new home only to have it reveal secrets about her future. Shot entirely on Super 8 film! (2025) Directed by Jeph Porter. Runtime: 4 minutes.
they're taking my house. A woman finds herself trapped in an abyss, taunted by a malevolent telephone. (2025) Directed by Dan Lopez. Runtime: 4 minutes.
Not Alone. This is an experimental 2D animated film about a cat that absorbs their twin sister during fetal development, a medical phenomenon known as chimerism. The story follows the cat’s battle with mental health and processing a vivid fantasy world. Through the waves of pain, the sisters reunited. In the end, they both turned into stars. “Not Alone” is based on the director’s personal experience and aims to remind viewers that they are not the only ones who bear the emotional pain. (2025) Directed by Momo Cao. Runtime: 3 minutes.
DuPhomf's Passing. Existential horror comes from outside and within for the drifter Jacques DuPhomf, lost in the vastness of the American West. In this super8mm tall tale. (2025) Directed by Alan Halls. Runtime: 4 minutes.
Les Amateurs. They Didn't Plan This! Shot straight on a single 50' reel of Kodak Tri-X Super 8 film stock with no editing. (2025) Directed by DT Kofoed. Runtime: 4 minutes.
Track. Shot on black and white super 8 film in a stop motion fashion and layered digitally, "Track" is a ballet of lights. Chandler takes us on a trip around the Astoria Park jogging track at night in one of her signature Quicktrips. (2025) Directed by A. Rosalie Chandler. Runtime: 4 minutes.
Sunday, February 22 | US Super 8 + DV Fest: A Mixtape for Stom – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5:00pm. This is an intimate documentary portrait of Japanese experimental filmmaker Stom Sogo (1975–2012), whose frenetic Super-8mm works became emblematic of New York’s underground cinema at the turn of the millennium. A close friend, filmmaker Adrian Goycoolea reflects on Sogo’s life and legacy, framing the film as a reply to the final email he received from him. Drawing from personal archives, interviews, and memory, the film assembles a collage of Sogo’s art and presence: radiant, restless, and unresolved. Contributors include Jonas Mekas, Bruce McClure, Raha Raissnia, Julius Ziz, Ed Halter, Andy Lampert, and members of Sogo’s family, offering perspectives on his talent, struggles, and influence. Scored by Joe Watson of Stereolab, "A Mixtape for Stom" is at once an elegy and an act of remembrance; a meditation on friendship and grief, and a testament to an underground legacy that continues to reverberate. (2025) Directed by Adrian Goycoolea. Runtime: 103 minutes.
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