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New Jersey Film Festival Fall 2026 Video Overview

By Vic Fern

originally published: 08/22/2026

The New Jersey Film Festival returns to Rutgers University September 4th - October 4th for the Fall 2026 season! Al Nigrin, Executive Director and Curator, provides an overview of the films being showcased.

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. 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. We will also be offering an Audio-Visual Concert featuring Hanging Coats and Lawns as well as two FREE Filmmaking Workshops! The in-person screenings, the filmmaking workshops and the AV Concert will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 1PM, 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$100; 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 us at [email protected]

For more info on the Film festival go here: https://newjerseyfilmfestivalfall2026.eventive.org/welcome

 





 

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Clan

Clan of the Painted Lady - Online for 24 Hours!

Saturday, September 05, 2026 @ 12:00am
NJ Film Festival
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ

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 only available Online for 24 hours on this show date!

 

Shorts

Shorts Program #1 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5PM!

Sunday, September 06, 2026 @ 5:00pm
NJ Film Festival
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ

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.




 

Love

Love New York – Online for 24 Hours!

Friday, September 11, 2026 @ 12:00am
NJ Film Festival
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ

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 only available Online for 24 hours on this show date!

 

The

The Fright Stuff & Help Me – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!

Saturday, September 12, 2026 @ 7:00pm
NJ Film Festival
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ

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 7PM. This in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ.




 

Imprinted

Imprinted – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5PM!

Sunday, September 13, 2026 @ 5:00pm
NJ Film Festival
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ

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.




 

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EVENT PREVIEWS

(MADISON, NJ) -- The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (STNJ) presents Edward Albee's landmark American masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? from September 5–27, 2026 at the F. M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre on the campus of Drew University.

Classic American Tales

Classic American Tales' "Margaret's Diary During a Revolution" comes to Historic Cold Spring Village on September 5th

(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- On Saturday, September 5, 2026 at 2:00pm, Classic American Tales' Margaret's Diary During a Revolution will be at the Grange at Historic Cold Spring Village (735 Seashore Road) in Cape May. Paying for admission to the Village allows guests to see the performance and other events at HCSV for free.

Touching Documentary Clan of the Painted Lady screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 5!

Touching Documentary Clan of the Painted Lady screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 5!

Migration is often discussed in terms of the places people leave and the places they eventually call home, but Clan of the Painted Lady, directed by Jennifer Chiu, is more interested in everything that happens in between. The documentary follows Chiu as she reconnects with her Hakka identity and traces her family history stretching across China, India, and Canada. Born in India and raised in Canada, Chiu grew up mostly separated from her father, who spent much of his life in Kolkata, India. What begins as a personal search into her own family eventually becomes a larger exploration of migration, cultural loss, and what it takes to keep a culture alive across generations.

New Jersey Film Festival Director interviews Clan of the Painted Lady Director Jennifer Chiu

New Jersey Film Festival Director interviews Clan of the Painted Lady Director Jennifer Chiu

Here is my interview with Clan of the Painted Lady Director Jennifer Chiu who is a Hakka-Canadian filmmaker who contends with the loss of her ancestral community in Kolkata, India. She journeys across the world to uncover the story of her family’s past and confronts the effects of migration on family, belonging and the uncertainty of preserving culture in the modern world. 

Amazing animation Spheres screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 6th!

Amazing animation Spheres screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 6th!

Connecting the past with the future, Spheres forces you to exist in the now. Director Martin Gerigk is considered to be one of Germany’s greatest symphonists, with many of his compositions being performed and critically acclaimed all over the globe. Over the past decade, he has been exploring and creating through an audio-visual medium. Starting in 2016 with the film adaptation of Gerigk’s Structures of Nature ensemble piece, Gergik has released several more films including Haiku (2022) and Night Ride from LA (2023).

Wonderful documentary on Alice Rende screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 6!

Wonderful documentary on Alice Rende screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 6!

my own box is a quasi-documentary about artist Alice Rende and it shows some behind the scenes and explanation into her new project, Fora. In her show Fora, Rende forces herself to contort her body in a very confined space (a glass box) and when she decides to escape the box, her body is left still contorting to the box she has since been able to escape. Fora is a demonstration of conforming to social norms, the effects of doing so, and the end result of a person confined to such small spaces.

Italian experimental short Under The Skin screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 6!

Italian experimental short Under The Skin screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 6!

Trauma always has a tendency to stick, or for some, stay under their skin. The past can be brought up in ways we may not expect it to. For some, love (good or bad) is one of those traumas that linger. Sotto la Pelle(Under The Skin) is a short film that shows how easily, and how simply, trauma can be brought back into someone’s life.

Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu’s new film screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 6!

Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu’s new film screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 6!

In 2025, Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, an artist, filmmaker, and writer whose work is experimental, conceptual, avant-garde, and philosophic, began working with an antique hand-cranked projector from 1909, and this experience led her to reflect on the evolution of film and experiment with the process, which included painting by hand directly on the film. She treated the film not as individual frames, but as hundreds of feet of scroll paintings that flowed before her eyes as the gears in the projector were turned by her own hand. She described the feeling as a boat sailing, or the wind singing. The title of the film is derived 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.”

New Jersey Film Festival Fall 2026 Short Film Video Panel

New Jersey Film Festival Fall 2026 Short Film Video Panel

Here is the New Jersey Film Festival Fall 2026 Short Film Video Panel with Filmmakers Lukas Berger, Filip Jacobson, Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, Andrea Otto Longhi, and Festival Director Albert Nigrin.

MPAC presents Melissa Etheridge: The Rise Tour on September 9th

MPAC presents Melissa Etheridge: The Rise Tour on September 9th

(MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- Known for her confessional lyrics and raspy, smoky vocals, Melissa Etheridge ("I'm the Only One," "Come to My Window," and "I Want to Come Over" to name a few) has remained one of America's favorite female singers since bursting onto the scene in 1988. Etheridge brings her Rise tour to Mayo Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, September 9, 2026 at 7:30pm.