12 great films at the 2026 New Jersey Film Festival this weekend!
Check out the 2026 New Jersey Film Festival schedule and more info at this link:
https://newjerseyfilmfestivalspring2026.eventive.org/welcome
Still from Dobrina
Friday, February 6, 2026 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!
Shorts Program #1
God Dam – Abigail Hill (New Jersey) A mockumentary about two beavers that work in a post office. The camera crew observes a typical work day for Clint Eatswood, the energetic manager, as he attempts to clean up the mess created by his unenthusiastic employee, Humphrey Damiels. 2025; 3 min.
Come Home – Katelyn Park (Montvale, New Jersey) While fighting on the phone with her dad, a Korean American daughter named Della gets sucked into an ocean of memories. While watching her younger self, Della feels the pain of the past, but gains the courage to swim, and find closeness with her father again in the present. In English, Korean, subtitled. 2025; 5 min.
Dobrina – Hannes Rall (Singapore) Lotte Reiniger meets Sergio Leone in this animated short where desire burns as bright as the desert sun. 2025; 5 min.
(sub)titled – Yuwei Zhang (Los Angeles, California) An indigenous woman from San Juan Peñas, Mexico, breathes life into fading memories as her ancestral language is revived through sound and image at a soundstage. 2025; 5 min.
Deanimated – Brandon Alexander Martin (Edison, New Jersey) A professional Animator seeks to pitch a new project to a Hollywood Producer, or so said Producer presumes, when in reality the Animator has other plans in store. 2025; 6 min.
GenderQueer – Grace Madonna (Somerville, Massachusetts) My most vulnerable project yet depicts the relationship between my experiences with endometriosis/adenomyosis, social norms, societal expectations, and gender using a blend of raw spoken word, photography, and documentary-style cinematography. 2025; 10 min.
The End in Slow Motion – Joshua Kaufman (New York, New York) A woman develops heightened awareness of the cruel world outside of an unnervingly calm house, as the threat of apocalypse stokes chaos. 2025; 13 min.
Solstice – Yuwei Zhang (Los Angeles, California) On a cold winter night in a remote small town, karma is enforced by the sun that doesn't go down. 2025; 14 min.
Creator – Jon Pivko (New Jersey) A short film where a young musician navigates the absurdity of the Information Age, as AI blurs the line between art and identity in unexpected ways. 2025; 14 min.
Jeff – Julia Hebner (Austin, Texas) A phone sex operator loses her grip on reality, caught in a hypnotic relationship with a caller making disturbing confessions. 2025; 25 min.
Still from Tomorrow Morning
Saturday, February 7, 2026 – Online for 24 Hours!
Tomorrow Morning / Untold History about the Rape of Europa – Jani Bojadzi (North Macedonia)
An American ambassador to Macedonia steals an antique bronze figurine depicting the ``Rape of Europe'' from the house of the prime minister. Three years later, this artifact will be exhibited in a museum in Washington. Police and judicial torture begin against the wife of the former prime minister, Joanna Pelasca, and her children, who are hiding the video that shows exactly how the theft happened. At the same time, Aida, a twenty-three-year-old doctor, is raped by her senior colleague, a famous surgeon, during a night shift. The court rejects her rape lawsuit on the grounds that during the event she did not offer strong enough resistance. Thus begins her struggle with herself after she realizes that she is turning from a victim into a rapist. Both women are looking for enough reasons, one to leave, and the other to stay in Macedonia in the hope that tomorrow morning will be better than today. In Macedonian, subtitled. 2025; 145 min
Still from Mama's Voice
Sunday, February 8, 2026 – Online for 24 Hours!
Mama’s Voice – Ganna Yarovenko (Ukraine/Poland) In the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, film director Ganna flees with her children and elderly mother from Russian gunfire near Kyiv. Amidst the chaos, they find shelter in Poland with Kaja, an artist, singer, and mother of five, who welcomes them as a family. Despite the language barrier, the Ukrainian and Polish mothers form a deep bond that helps Ganna confront trauma, loss, and the terrifying new reality of war. Ganna’s family is torn between those who left and those who stayed. Her father, Petro, refuses to abandon his land near Bucha, surviving the Russian occupation while stubbornly tending to his garden. Her young daughter Malva quickly adapts to life in Poland, while her teenage son Orest struggles with loneliness. Meanwhile, Malva’s father—a renowned folk musician—promises to reunite with them at a music festival in Poland, though wartime restrictions rarely allow Ukrainian men to leave the country. What will it take for this family, fractured by war, to come together again? Told through the lens of a refugee, the film captures the experiences of Ukrainian women and children in Poland during the early months of the Russo-Ukrainian war. In Polish, Ukrainian, subtitled. 2025; 86 min.
The 44th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 23-February 22, 2026. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University. 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. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. For more info on the Film festival go here: https://newjerseyfilmfestivalspring2026.eventive.org/welcome
