Fall 2026 New Jersey Film Festival Winners Announced!

by Al Nigrin

originally published: 09/28/2026

The Competition component of the Fall 2026 New Jersey Film Festival has just concluded! Here below are the winners of the Festival. All the Official Selection works of the Fall 2026 New Jersey Film Festival were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 19 finalists which were publicly screened at our Festival. The finalists were selected from over 400 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world.

New Jersey Film Festival Fall 2026 Winners

Grand Prize Winners

Winner Best Documentary Film Imprinted – Martina Casas (New York, New York)

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Winner Best Feature Film
Your Lips Never Left Mine – Matthew Kozlark (Ridgefield, Connecticut)

Winner Best Short Film
my own box – Filip Jacobson (Belgium)

Winner Best Experimental Film
Listen to the wind eight hundred times – Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu (Valencia, California)

Winner Best Animated Film
Sunspark – Danny Bourque (Seattle, Washington)

Honorable Mention Winners

The Fright Stuff – Mike Meyer (Chicago, Illinois)

Clan of the Painted Lady – Jennifer Chiu (Vancouver, Canada)

Under The Skin – Andrea Otto Longhi (Genova, Italy)

The Flesh People - Keshav Srinivasan (Brooklyn, New York)

Festival Director’s Citations

Performances:

Your Lips Never Left Mine – Cassandra Due

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The Flesh People – Louise Heller, Jorge Carrion Alvarez

Matched – Marisa Brau-Reyes

Love New York – Raleigh Cain

Direction:

Your Lips Never Left Mine – Matthew Kozlark

Imprinted – Martina Casas

Clan of the Painted Lady – Jennifer Chiu

The Flesh People - Keshav Srinivasan

Cinematography:

Your Lips Never Left Mine – Marcus Ricci

Clan of the Painted Lady – Antonia Ramirez

Imprinted – Stefan Morel

The Flesh People – Emmet Luciano

Love New York – Ambrose Eng

Editing:

Your Lips Never Left Mine – Felicia Ricci

Clan of the Painted Lady – Aynsley Baldwin

Imprinted – Esteban Aburto

The Flesh People – Tyler Jennings

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Screenplay:

Your Lips Never Left Mine – Matthew Kozlark

Clan of the Painted Lady – Jennifer Chiu, Aynsley Baldwin

The Flesh People - Keshav Srinivasan

Production Design:

Your Lips Never Left Mine – Felicia Ricci

The Flesh People – Yulanda Yo-Rong Shieh

Sunspark – Danny Bourque

Music:

Imprinted – Ali Helnwein

Your Lips Never Left Mine – Felicia Ricci

Spheres – Martin Gerigk

The Flesh People – Vova Faust

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.

Albert Gabriel Nigrin is an award-winning experimental media artist whose work has been screened throughout the world. He is also a Cinema Studies Lecturer at Rutgers University, and the Executive Director/Curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, Inc.