By Al Nigrin
originally published: 02/16/2026

The Competition component of the Spring 2026 New Jersey Film Festival has just concluded! Overall, we had a good festival this year.  We had a few screenings that were very well attended and a bunch with lower turnouts but that happens every festival for a variety of reasons.  The in-person show attendance was about the same as our Festival last year, but the online viewership is what has kept us afloat financially since COVID broke in 2020. All the Official Selection works of the Spring 2026 New Jersey Film Festival were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 33 finalists which were publicly screened at our Festival. The finalists were selected from over 600 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the judges chose the Prize Winners in conjunction with the Festival Director. Here below are the winners of the Festival. 

New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2026 Prize Winners

Grand Prize Winners

Winner Best Documentary Film=B.F. Skinner Plays Himself – Ted Kennedy (Ann Arbor, Michigan)



Winner Best Feature Film=ANDA – Jayendra Ganta (Minneapolis, Minnesota)



Winner Best Short Film=Self-Portrait – Samuel DeFrank (West Hollywood, California)



Winner Best Experimental Film=12^th House - Ilona Laboy and Israel Laboy (New York, New York)



Winner Best Animated Film=Ball Lightning – Catriona Trina Baker (Sudbury, Massachusetts) 

Honorable Mention Winners

Sun Ra: Do The Impossible – Christine Turner (New York, New York)

Don’t Look in The Dark – Samuel Freeman (Montclair, New Jersey)

Portrait of a Monastery – John Decker (Asbury Park, New Jersey)

Where The Rain Stops – Dojin Kim (Seoul, South Korea)



Festival Director’s Citations

Performances:

Peyton Michelle-Edwards (ANDA)

Rebi Paganini and Dennis Puglisi (Don’t Look in The Dark)

Annie P Abbott (Self-Portrait)

Direction:

Ted Kennedy (B.F. Skinner Plays Himself)

Jayendra Ganta (ANDA)

Samuel Freeman (Don’t Look in The Dark)

Samuel DeFrank (Self-Portrait)

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Cinematography:

Matteo Bertoli (ANDA)

John Decker (Portrait of a Monastery) 

Bettina Campomanes (Self-Portrait)

Editing:

Ted Kennedy (B.F. Skinner Plays Himself)

Samuel Freeman (Don’t Look in The Dark)

John Decker (Portrait of a Monastery) 

Screenplay:

Jayendra Ganta and Caleb Bell-Jones (ANDA)

Samuel DeFrank (Self-Portrait)

Production Design:

Casey Williams (ANDA)

Ari Ward (Self-Portrait)

Ilona Laboy (12^th House)

Music:

Monkeyscarf (ANDA)

Festival 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.

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Information:

Al Nigrin

Executive Director/Curator

New Jersey Film Festival

New Jersey Media Arts Center

Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies

4170 Academic Building, 15 Seminary Place

New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901-8525 U.S.A.

Email: [email protected] [email protected]

Website: www.njfilmfest.com

 

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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.

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