(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The 44th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will take place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 23-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.
Film Premieres: 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. Some of these include: B. F. Skinner Plays Himself – a documentary which revisits the life and works of the acclaimed psychologist; Arrested at Delaney Hall – a short documentary about the standoff at an immigrant detention center in Newark leads to the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka; 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.
300 – the story of a man who refused to let grief define him; ANDA – a visually haunting and lyrical feature film that blends Nordic folklore with surrealist storytelling and modern themes; Don’t Look in the Dark – a spooky New Jersey feature in the Blair Witch Project vein; The Shoshani Riddle – a feature documentary on one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived; Sum Function – a documentary by a quadriplegic Marine veteran that tells a story that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.
Tomorrow Morning – a thriller feature film from North Macedonia; Mama’s Voice and Zinema – two important documentaries from Ukraine about the Russian invasion; plus a series of terrific short, animated and experimental films by Trina Bardusco, Emily Railsback, Yutong Cheng, Trevan Jay Hiatt, Ilona and Israel Laboy, Samuel DeFrank, Abigail Hill, Katelyn Park, Brandon Martin, Hannes Rall, Yuwei Zhang, Grace Madonna, Joshua Kauffman, Jon Pivko, Julia Hebner, Dojin Kim, Catriona Trina Baker, Andrew Lync, Ben Ayers, Rush Sturges, Anshuman Sharma, and Belle Casares.
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. They will also offer two FREE Filmmaking Workshops! The in-person screenings and the filmmaking workshops 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. The Filmmaking Workshops are FREE and open to the public but have limited seating and require advance registration. To register email [email protected]
All the works that are being screening are part of the New Jersey Film Festival and United States Super 8 Film and Digital Video Festival Competitions and were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 45 finalists which will be publicly screened at the Festival. The finalists were selected from over 643 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the judges will choose the Prize Winners in conjunction with the Festival Director. Prize winners will be announced via our social media sites after the screenings on February 22, 2026.
38th Annual United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival - Also, during the Spring 2026 season, the Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC will present the 38th anniversary of the United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival -- the longest running, nationally recognized, juried 8mm Film/Video Festival in North and South America Over the two days (February 21+22), the Festival will feature three different programs of films culled from the 13 Official Selections from throughout the USA, Canada, and the world. Filmmakers that are screening their films at the Super 8 Festival include: DT Kofoed, A. Rosalie Chandler, Alan Halls, Momo Cao, Dan Lopez, Jeph Porter, Joshua Boshell, Ian B. MacDonald, Paul Rooney, David O. Rogers, Marco Mazzi, Adrian Goycoolea, and Laura Ivins. These filmmakers are competing for many Best of Prizes. Prize winners are announced on the last night of the Festival. The Super 8 Festival is open to works predominantly shot on either Super 8/8mm film, Hi8/8mm video and/or Digital Video. This program is being co-sponsored by Pro 8mm.
Special Screening of Sun Ra: Do The Impossible - The festival is very proud the be doing a special screening of Christine Turner’s superb documentary Sun Ra: Do The Impossible on Friday, January 30, 2026 at 7:00pm in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Sun Ra: Do The Impossible is a cosmic journey into the life and work of the visionary jazz musician, composer and poet, Sun Ra. Poet, philosopher, Egyptologist, bandleader. Jazz visionary Sun Ra was all of these—and more.
With his ever-evolving band the Sun Ra Arkestra, he produced more than 200 albums, stretching the boundaries of free-form jazz while weaving ancient Egypt, interstellar metaphors, and scientific musings into a singular musical and spiritual vision of Afrofuturism that continues to reverberate across generations. Director Christine Turner takes us on an illuminating journey through the life of this multi-faceted artist, gracefully balancing recollections from the Arkestra’s still-devout band members and dancers with insightful interviews from music scholars, and unforgettable film and performance footage of Sun Ra himself. The result is a portrait—informative, inspiring, and mind-bending—of a man whose audacious vision, otherworldly imagination, and uncompromising artistry helped shape not only the sound of jazz, but the cultural landscape of the 20th century and beyond. 2025; 84 min.
Special Guest Appearances by Directors, Artists, and Actors: 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.
Free Filmmaking Workshops: They are offering two Filmmaking Workshops as part of the Spring 2026 New Jersey Film Festival after the success of those we offered this past Fall! These workshops are FREE and open to the public, but they have limited seating and require advance registration. To register for one or all three of these email us at [email protected]. Registration is first come first served. These Workshops will take place on Sunday, February 1 and Sunday, February 15 at 1:00pm in Voorhees Hall #015. They include: 2/1 The Film Business: Basic Legal and Business Aspects of Motion Picture Production and Distribution (Schechter) and 2/15 Intro to Filmmaking (Kalmbach).
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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