(LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ) -- The Lighthouse International Film Festival (LIFF) has announced its 2022 dramatic features competition program, which includes inspiring, creative, and shocking films from the USA and around the world. The festival will take place for the 14th time on Long Beach Island, between June 2-5, a long weekend that offers a host of exciting in-person events: new film screenings, panels, networking events, and parties. In addition to its dramatic features competition, LIFF will hold a documentary features competition, a shorts competition, an episodic competition, a high school film competition, surf film screenings, and headliner programs. 

The dramatic features competition will bring to the big-screen original stories from the brilliant minds of independent filmmakers who will be attending the festival, coming from across the US, Europe, and even Japan. Two of the competition films will celebrate their world premiere on LBI, with talent attending: Maybe Next Time by Sahm McGlynn, a beautifully shot intimate ghost story starring Kika Magalhaes (The Eyes of My Mother) and Max Hoffman (Dustin Hoffman's son, Hook, Greenberg), and Menina Casilda by Spaniard filmmaker Eric Du Bellay, a surprisingly funny take-off on cinephiles and Hollywood classics, involving a wild kidnapping plot during COVID-19 in Madrid.

Love, Life and Goldfish, by director Yukinori Makabe, is a romantic musical fairy tale that takes place in modern times in the Japanese countryside and will have its East Coast premiere on LBI. A Pack of Sheep, by Greek filmmaker Dimitris Kannellopoulos, also takes place in the countryside, but tells a completely different intense story about toxic masculinity and how good men can be pushed into senseless violence. 

Straighten Up and Fly Right by Kristen Abate & Steven Tanenbaum, winner of the Unstoppable Award at Slamdance Film Festival, provides an intimate look into the love life of lonely disabled people in New York. Loneliness and longing for closeness between a father and a son are at the center of the gentle Planet B234 by Keelie Sheridan and Jorge Luna. Romantic intimacy in real life is the center of Clinton Cornwell's 12 Months, which follows a couple falling in and out of love over the course of a year. We Are Not Content! by Yuki Soga offers a unique creative take on the cliche of struggling, aspiring artists trying to make it in the film industry.

Festival passes and individual tickets are available for purchase online.

Here is a look at each film:

12 Months; USA, 1 hour & 32 minutes; Saturday, June 4, 2022 at 8:00pm; Dir: Clinton Cornwell. A hyper-realistic diversion from the usual rom-com, 12 Months candidly portrays moments that are commonly experienced, but rarely shown, as it follows the story of Ellie and Clark, a millennial couple navigating the peaks and valleys of a new relationship. 

Planet B234; USA, 1 hour;  Saturday, June 4, 2022 at 10:30am; Dir: Keelie Sheridan. Jorge, a father thousands of miles away from his son, creates an alternate world - - Planet B234 - - where he can cope with the anxiety, depression, and desperation of being separated from one's child. Geographical barriers are no match for Jorge's fertile imagination, but it comes at the cost of his sanity and the very relationship he's fighting to maintain.

Straighten Up and Fly Right; USA, 1 hour & 30 minutes; Friday, June 3, 2022 at 10:30am; Dir: Kristen Abate & Steven Tanenbaum. In a funk, Kristen, a physically disabled New York woman, walks dogs for a living, but dreams of being a writer. As her life unravels, she must make a choice to fall apart or straighten up. 

  

We Are Not Content! USA, 1 hour & 23 minutes; Saturday, June 4 2022 at 10:30am;  Dir: Yuki Soga. When a wannabe filmmaker's move to Manhattan does little to boost his artistic career, he convinces an amateur puppeteer to assist him, despite his deteriorating finances and mental health. 

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New Jersey Film Festival: God Teeth & The Traumatist

Friday, February 07, 2025 @ 7:00pm
NJ Film Festival
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
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Saturday, February 08, 2025 @ 5:30pm
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1601 Irving Street, Rahway, NJ 07065
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New Jersey Film Festival: Giant’s Kettle

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New Jersey Film Festival: The Storm & The Boats, Crowboy, Embryo

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71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
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2025 United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival Day 1 – Program 2

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VIRTUAL
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EVENT PREVIEWS

Exciting short Embryo screens at the 2025 New Jersey Film Festival on February 8th!

Embryo, directed by J. Eliza Wall, follows the development of an embryo across the period of a surrogate pregnancy, showing the preparation of the mother and father as they prepare for the arrival of their daughter Fern. The film shines in its editing style, intercutting short videos from the two with images of fruits and vegetables equal to the size of the baby each week, as well as drawings and paintings of ferns and other plants. The interesting and unique style of editing brings a special charm to the situation, making the audience feel as though they are a part of the journey alongside the couple. As the weeks go on, anticipation builds as they celebrate the embryo’s health and growth over time.

Captivating short The Traumatist screens at the 2025 New Jersey Film Festival on February 7th!

The Traumatist is a captivatingly spun story of intense catharsis. As Avery Vaughn goes through the process of “Immersive Retribution Trauma Therapy” the audience is pulled into the past alongside her, forced to relive flashbacks of the most impactful moments in her life. It’s almost impossible not to connect with Avery, her story made so tangible and the results of her trauma evident in every sentence, movement, and glance that she makes throughout her story.

New Jersey Film Festival Interview with God Teeth director Robbie C. Williamson!

God Teeth – Robbie C. Williamson (Puntaneras, Costa Rica) God Teeth is a wildly original and fantastical odyssey about four recently deceased souls who find themselves on an abandoned ship at sea. Part confessional, part elegy, the narrators must recount the circumstances which led to their untimely deaths, before a marauding gang of sting rays destroys their memories, banishing them to an eternity in purgatory. Created entirely from found internet footage, God Teeth offers the viewer a new and profound experience culled from the infinite digital world and turns it into a thought provoking, cinematic song of mourning and acceptance - The glory of life and death. Boom, a 10-year-old swimmer endeavors to make sense of the loss of her father in a world of dragons, magical sea creatures and underwater superheroes, but will she be destined to repeat history? Albert, leather clad and speeding through a tunnel, flashes back to his life wandering the streets of Hong Kong in search of desire and connection, but with an increasing sense of unease and isolation, he must finally confess to a long-held and shameful secret. Rose, an ambitious sports agent is on the cusp of experiencing a career defining moment, when out of the blue, she takes a bold left turn - with horrific and unintended consequences. Devoted family man, Campbell, speaks only in third person as he reluctantly recalls a raging forest fire that would forever change his existence, leaving him stuck atop a thousand-foot pole. 2024; 60 min. Here is my New Jersey Film Festival Interview with God Teeth director Robbie C. Williamson:

Enlightening documentary The Storm & The Boats premieres at the New Jersey Film Festival on February 8!

When it comes to documentaries, I often prefer those with a distinctive narrative, something provocative or emotional. Yet, The Storm & The Boats won me over in the first five minutes in a much different manner. The filmmaker Jody Small did not come with tissues, prepared to tell a heartfelt tale, but rather a calm and collected story where she presents a more objective, comprehensive view of what has happened in the past. It feels like someone you come across at the train station who has no makeup, no jewelry, no extravagant clothes or attitude, she looks at you with a peaceful look in the eyes, speaking with an even tone: “Wanna hear some stories?” And then, she would share with you the most heart-touching experiences.

Amazing Feature God Teeth screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on February 7!

For many, the process of finding footage online and crafting a well-thought-out plot and connection between these shots may seem incredibly daunting and time-consuming. For musician and filmmaker Robbie C. Williamson, it is an exciting opportunity to craft something extremely unique and intriguing. Williamson’s found footage film God Teeth represents this excitement and exemplifies the exceptional results of his long-term efforts and passion for storytelling.

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