(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, in association with the Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies, is proud to present the 2025 New Jersey International Film Festival which marks its 30th Anniversary. The NJIFF competition will be taking place on the Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between May 30 - June 8, 2025 and will be a hybrid one as they will be presenting it online as well as doing 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 screenings. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5:00pm or 7:00pm on their show date. Plus, acclaimed singer-songwriter Mike Kovacs will perform in an audio-visual concert on Friday, June 13 in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ at 7:00pm.
General Admission Tickets are $15 Per Program; Festival All Access Passes are available for $120; In-Person Only Student Ticket are$10 Per Program. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
33 films will have their New Jersey or Area Premiere (Middlesex County) screenings as part of the New Jersey Film Festival and the United States Super 8 Film and Video Festival. Some of these include: Irish filmmaker Clea van der Grijn newest amazing film Elisa in Wonderland -- which has its North American premiere at the NJIFF – is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and is an unsettling cinematic journey that delves into the depths of the human psyche to explore themes of loss and madness.
All the works that we are screening are part of the New Jersey International Film Festival were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 33 finalists which will be publicly screened at the Festival. The finalists were selected from over 700 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the judges will choose the Prize Winners in conjunction with the Festival Director. Prize winners will be announced via their social media sites after the screenings on June 8, 2025.
Additional highlights include Sebastian Lasaosa Rogers’s engrossing documentary Freeing Juanita; Camilla Roos’s Child No. 182 – a feature documentary from Finland about a girl growing up as a foster child in the 60s and 70s; Arturo Dueñas superb feature from Spain Supporting Actresses, which is shot in a single sequence mixing formats, color and black and white and vindicates the role of supporting actresses in theater and cinema; Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Kozera Faces of Agata focuses on an artist who suffers from a lethal disease who turned her struggle into art; Kerry Ann Enright’s feminist film noir feature Nobody Wants to Shoot A Woman.
Several films in the festival have a strong New Jersey connection.
* Vanessa Roth’s short doc A Place of Honor, which is part of a Storytelling Initiative at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial & Museum.
* New Jersey based filmmaker Sabatino Ciatti, Jr.’s WRESTLE-OFF uplifting film about a tenacious female high school wrestler who battles the hostility of her teammates as she fiercely competes for a varsity spot on an all-male wrestling team.
* Henry Donohue Frost, Sarah Ann McCuiston’s feature documentary The Sandy Mack Experience The Sandy Mack Experience is an exploration into the vibrant music scene in a town that needs no introduction—Asbury Park, New Jersey.
* Vinit Parmar’s short doc Down the Line investigates the problems associated with the county line design, exploring the system’s manipulative intent and results and its impact on New Jersey’s political landscape.
* Old Bridge, New Jersey filmmaker Justin Ho’s intricate puzzle feature film Broken Pieces focuses on the lives of five people cross paths with each other in unexpected ways.
There are also an amazing array of short films, animated films and experimental films by Scott Dempsey Keenan, Thomas Lennon, Daniel Fegherty, Katsitsionni Fox, Grace O’Brien, Viktor Witkowski, Jacob Denton, Nick Zweig, Elizabeth Schneider, Michael Covello, Marie Gayeski, Gor Margaryan, Esther Casas Roura, Kamila Kuc, Jeremy Drummond, Alexander Girav, Fernandel Almonor, Heather Waters, and Alex Lee.
Mike Kovacs Audio-Visual Concert: the festival recently started a new concert series with a moving image component as part of our Film Festivals with the hope of reawakening the mostly dormant New Brunswick Music Scene. On September 15, 2023, guitar virtuoso Tim Motzer performed to an experimental film. That was the first true audio-visual concert we put on. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler also did an amazing concert with her own movie projections on June 15, 2024. Noise-Ambient musician Jim Haynes came from California and did a concert on October 18, 2024 with accompanying projections of experimental films by Marjorie Conrad, Anita LaBelle and Al Nigrin. On February 21, 2025, acclaimed singer-songwriter Renee Maskin did an audio-visual concert to videos created by Al Nigrin. On June 13, 2025, Mike Kovacs will do an audio-visual concert as well supported by Chris Zadravec on cello as well as Mary Ann Wilson, Dottie Gallop, and Dorothy Dobkowski on back-up vocals!
Mike Kovacs is a guitarist, composer, teacher, and multimedia artist born, raised, and working in Central New Jersey. His first multimedia work, "sacred/dirty katie" debuted in New Brunswick in the Summer of 1995. His collaboration with New Jersey artist Vladimir Aituganov, "crescendo", debuted at the Ukrainian Institute in NYC in February of 2004.
Following the death of dear friend and bandmate, he returned to music and film with a video for his song "Someday beautiful" and the multimedia rock opera, "After the Valentines" which debuted at The George St Playhouse in the summer of 2009 and in NYC at the NYC Poetry Club in late November of 2010. He then formed the spoken word and music ensemble, "The Fractal Ensemble" playing the NYC Poetry Festival two years in a row, as well as a sold-out benefit show with spoken work legend Buddy Wakefield in Jersey City in February of 2015. Presently he is working on another multimedia project and will be debuting a new piece featuring dancer/choreographer Josie Coyoc who spent many years dancing with both the Bill T Jones and Pilobolus dance companies.
Special Guest Appearances by Directors, Artists, and Actors: the festival is pleased to announce many in-person special guest appearances by film directors, producers, and actors to the NJIFF! Some of these include: New Jersey filmmakers Justin Ho, Fernandel Almonor, Alex Lee, Sarah Ann McCuiston, Sabatino Ciatti, Jr., as well as Clea van der Grijn, Vinit, Vanessa Roth, Kerry Ann, Scott Dempsey Keenan, Thomas Lennon, Daniel Fegherty, Viktor Witkowski, Nick Zweig, Elizabeth Schneider, Michael Covello, Alexander Girav, and many others to be announced. There will also be many virtual Filmmaker Introductions and Q+A Sessions for many of the films.
Sponsors: The New Jersey International 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; 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; 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.
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