The Competition component of the Spring 2024 New Jersey Film Festival has just concluded! Congratulations to the Winners! Overall, we had a good festival this year. We had a few screenings that were very well attended and a few with lower turnouts but that happens every festival for a variety of reasons. The in-person show attendance was much better than our Festival last Fall so that is encouraging but the online shows are what have kept us afloat financially since COVID broke in 2020. Average viewership per show was 82.
All the works that were part of the Spring 2024 New Jersey Film Festival Competition were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 29 finalists which were publicly screened at our Festival. The finalists were selected from 636 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the judges chose the Prize Winners in conjunction with the Festival Director.
Winner Best Animated Film
Electra - Daria Kashcheeva (Prague, Czech Republic)
Winner Best Experimental Film
Body Issues – Marjorie Conrad (Seattle, Washington)
Winner Best Feature Film
The Disembodied Adventures of Alice – Cléa Elisa van der Grijn (Sligo, Ireland)
Winner Best Documentary Film
Join or Die – Rebecca Davis (Falls Church, Virginia)
Winner Best Short Film
Bluebird – Sara Crow (New York, New York)
Honorable Mention Winners
The Blues Society – Augusta Palmer (Brooklyn, New York)
The Curtain – Leslie-Ann Coles (Toronto, Canada)
Jailhouse to Milhouse – Buddy Farmer (Southern California, California)
Irina - Amelie Magdalena Loy (Vienna, Austria)
Muckville – Jeff Mertz (Kingston, New York)
Wild Fire – Jennifer Cooney (Spring Brook, Pennsylvania)
No More Love - Zafar Mehdi (India)
Please Hold the Line – Tan Ce Ding (Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia)
Festival Director’s Citations
Performances:
Senna O’Hara (The Disembodied Adventures of Alice)
Siena D'Addario (Wild Fire)
Aisling Fagan (Bluebird)
Direction:
Cléa Elisa van der Grijn (The Disembodied Adventures of Alice)
Jennifer Cooney (Wild Fire)
Daria Kashcheeva (Electra)
Cinematography:
Ciaran Carty (The Disembodied Adventures of Alice)
Tomáš Frkal (Electra)
Marjorie Conrad (Body Issues)
Nona Catusanu (Bluebird)
Screenplay:
Daria Kashcheeva (Electra)
Marjorie Conrad (Body Issues)
Cléa Elisa van der Grijn (The Disembodied Adventures of Alice)
Editing:
Alexandr Kashcheev (Electra)
Marjorie Conrad (Body Issues)
Zafar Mehdi (No More Love)
Production Design:
Cléa Elisa van der Grijn (The Disembodied Adventures of Alice)
Marek Špitálský (Electra)
Sadra Tehrani (Bluebird)
Music:
Brianna Tam (Wild Fire)
Lucas Verreman (Electra)
Andrew Banewicz (Body Issues)
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; Grant funding has also been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners - This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts; 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.
