By Al Nigrin

originally published: 02/18/2023

All the works that were part of the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival Competition were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 28 finalists which were publicly screened at our Festival. The finalists were selected from 678 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the judges chose the Prize Winners in conjunction with the Festival Director.

Winner Best Feature Film

City of Love – Eric Boadella (Los Angeles, California)

Winner Best Documentary Film

The Language I Speak – Ana Cuadra (Plainfield, New Jersey)

Winner Best Short Film

Fereshteh – Elika Rezaee (Redondo Beach, California)

Winner Best Animated Film

Buon Ferragosto – Claudia Miatello (Toronto, Canada)

Winner Best Experimental Film

Revelation to the Disembodied – André Silva (Wilmington, North Carolina)

Honorable Mention Winners

Exposed to Each Other – Mersolis Schöne (Vienna, Austria)

Voiceless - Cindy Di Xin (Pasadena, California)

Bean and the Babysitter – Jason Michael Roberts

Jack Has a Plan – Bradley Berman (Berkeley, California)

Ocean City Monster Building – Chris Lane (Los Angeles, California)

Stages of Lost Freedom – Kamran Rosen (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Junho – David Seok Hoon Boo (San Francisco, California)

Song of a Dying Summer – Kohei Sengen (Tokyo, Japan)

Albert Gabriel Nigrin is an award-winning experimental media artist whose work has been screened throughout the world. He is also a Cinema Studies Lecturer at Rutgers University, and the Executive Director/Curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, Inc.