The 45th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place between September 4-October 4, 2026. The Festival will be a hybrid as we will be presenting it online as well as doing select in-person screenings at Rutgers University. Almost all 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 shows when both are offered. This program is available Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5PM. This in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ.
Sunspark
In a post-human wasteland, a robot scavenger unexpectedly finds the broken body of another robot while looking for spare parts. After failing to fully revive her, he must decide how much of himself he’s willing to give in order to bring her back to life.
Year: 2026; Runtime: 11 minutes; Language: English; Country: United States; Director: Danny Bourque; Screenwriter: Danny Bourque; Producer: Danny Bourque; Cast: Danny Bourque; Editor: Danny Bourque; Animator: Danny Bourque
Spheres
Spheres is an homage to life, a poetic essay that drifts through a series of expanding spheres, each revealing a different layer of our shared reality, from the microscopic to the mythical. The film is an exploration of how the smallest vibrations of existence echo outward into the vast architecture of being and cosmos, a breathing meditation designed to remind us of the wonders of our incomprehensibly beautiful world.
Spheres invites viewers to look closely, to listen deeply, and to remember that every sphere - no matter how small or vast - is part of one continuous unfolding. The film is an invitation to see life not as a ladder but as a constellation of spheres: interdependent, fragile, and astonishing.
Year: 2026; Runtime: 6 minutes; Country: Germany; Director: Martin Gerigk; Screenwriter: Martin Gerigk; Cinematographer: Martin Gerigk; Animator: Martin Gerigk; Composer: Martin Gerigk; Music: Martin Gerigk
My Own Box
Circus Film. Story of Alice Rende who tells her story through her work.
Year: 2026; Runtime: 10 minutes; Language: English; Country: Belgium; Director: Filip Jacobson; Screenwriter: Filip Jacobson; Producer: Circus Film; Filmmaker: Filip Jacobson; Cast: Alice Rende; Editor: Angelika Herta; Music: Saara Zorowski, Thomas Baudriller
Under The Skin
A woman lives alone in an elegant, cold house. Rehearsals for a monologue about violence reawaken buried memories and situations, leading her to rediscover a part of herself.
Year: 2026; Runtime: 11 minutes; Language: Italian; Country: Italy; Director: Andrea Otto Longhi; Screenwriter: Andrea Otto Longhi; Producer: Andrea Otto Longhi, Jonathan Whittaker; Filmmaker: Andrea Otto Longhi; Cast: Ilaria Arnone
Listen to the wind eight hundred times
In the summer of 2025, I had the opportunity to work with an antique hand-cranked movie projector from 1909. This experience led me to reflect on the evolution of film as an artistic medium and inspired me to experiment with hand-painting on film for the first time.
The impermanence of life is reflected in the fragility of the medium itself and the instability of machine operation. Although only 35 millimeters wide, it stretches for hundreds of feet, unfolding like a small-scale yet lengthy scroll painting. As an 800-watt light shines through the painted material and I turn the gears by hand, history unfolds and flows before my eyes. Time has not reversed; it has simply found a crack in which a boat may sail, and the wind may sing.
The title "Listen to the wind eight hundred times" is borrowed from an old Chinese anecdote.
Having heard the wind pass by countless times, one has finally come to realize the landscape of life, the Dao of life.
Year: 2026; Runtime: 15 minutes; Country: United States; Director: Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu; Filmmaker: Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu; Editor: Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu; Sound Design: Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu; Music: Michael Pisaro-Liu
The Unlimited World
Tranquil, unspoiled landscapes. The sound of the sea mingling with the whistling sound of the wind influenced by the great waves of the Atlantic. Red mountains, a stork circling above a fallen tree. A feeling of dreaminess, a palpable infinity that manages without many people. Aesthetic compositions in motion.
Year: 2025; Runtime: 15 minutes; Language: German; Country: Portugal; Director: Lukas Berger; Producer: Mário Gajo; Filmmaker: Lukas Berger; Cast: Jonathan Schimmer
Ars Animalis for Troubled Ti
The observed animal kingdom reveals artful resourcefulness, inspiring human curiosity—and even hope—amidst tumult and crises.
Year: 2025; Runtime: 4 minutes; Language: English; Country: United States; Director: Anne Ciecko; Screenwriter: Anne Ciecko; Producer: Anne Ciecko; Filmmaker: Anne Ciecko; Cast: Anne Ciecko; Cinematographer: Anne Ciecko; Editor: Anne Ciecko; Composer: Anne Ciecko; Music: Anne Ciecko
