New Jersey Film Festival Fall 2026 Short Film Video Panel

by Vic Fern

originally published: 09/02/2026

Still from Lukas Berger's The unlimited world

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.

Still from Sunspark by Danny Bourque

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Here is more info on the Shorts Program #1 screening: Sunday, September 6, 2026 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5PM!

Ars Animalis for Troubled Times – Anne Ciecko (Amherst, Massachusetts) The observed animal kingdom reveals artful resourcefulness, inspiring human curiosity—and even hope—amidst tumult and crises. 2025; 4 min. (In-person only)

Spheres – Martin Gerigk (Germany) 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. 2026; 6 min.

my own box – Filip Jacobson (Belgium) Circus Film. Story of Alice Rende who tells her story through her work. 2026; 10 min.

Under The Skin – Andrea Otto Longhi (Genova, Italy) 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. 2025; 11 min.

Sunspark – Danny Bourque (Seattle, Washington) While scavenging for spare parts, a lonely robot discovers someone who desperately needs his help. 2026; 11 min.

Listen to the wind eight hundred times – Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu (Valencia, California) 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. Music: Michael Pisaro-Liu. 2026; 15 min.

The unlimited world – Lukas Berger (Portugal) 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. In German, subtitled. 2026; 15 min.

Still from Ars Animalis for Troubled Times by Anne Ciecko

Shorts Program #1 screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, Sunday, September 6, 2026 – – Online for 24 Hours on this date and In-Person at 5PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901! Get more info and buy tickets here.

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