Rutgers Film Festival Is Jan. 24 - Feb. 21, Features NJ Film Students

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — The spring Rutgers film festival runs from Jan. 24 - Feb. 21, and features both in-person and online screenings as well as a concert.

44 films from around the globe will hit the silver screen at Rutgers University-New Brunswick during the Spring 2025 New Jersey Film Festival, which runs on select dates starting Jan. 24, through Feb. 21.

“We have a really excellent line-up of films,” said Al Nigrin, who is the executive director, curator and founder of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, which presents this event and other film festivals. “All the films we are screening are New Jersey premieres. Festival patrons get to see these films before anyone else.”

The event, which marks its 43rd anniversary and is the longest running juried film festival in New Jersey, is a hybrid one: In addition to in-person screenings at Rutgers–New Brunswick, all the films will be available online as on-demand videos for 24 hours on their show date.

Each general admission ticket or festival pass is good for both in-person and virtual screenings. In-person screenings will be held in Room 105 of Voorhees Hall, 71 Hamilton St., New Brunswick, with show times beginning at 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $15 per program; student tickets for in-person screenings are $10 per program. An all-access festival pass is available for $100.

Nigrin said in-person showings may feature special guest appearances by directors, artists and actors. The final day of the festival features Renee Maskin, who will perform an audio-visual concert at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, in Room 105 of Voorhees Hall. The singer-songwriter “is a staple of the thriving music scene in Asbury Park, N.J.,” Nigrin said.

There also will be screenings of films made by directors with Rutgers ties or in conjunction with the university.

A program of short films starting at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, features:

Annabel Lee, a visual response to the last complete poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe, is directed by Liat Kisos, a former Rutgers undergraduate and a New Jersey Film Festival intern between 2011 and 2012 who also stars in the 3-minute short.

His New Girl, a film about a young woman getting ready for a date with her boyfriend, is directed by Madeline Hettrick, a filmmaking and English major at Rutgers-New Brunswick.

You Still Can, directed by Rutgers-Newark alum Samuel Edelsack, is about a father who talks his daughter out of suicide despite their estranged relationship.

The film festival’s lineup of feature-length movies, documentaries and short films also includes:

No Somos Maquinas: We Are Not Machines, a feature-length film directed by Mark Nistico, who worked under contract as a senior producer and director at Rutgers for more than a year. The film examines the Latino workforce and temporary work (5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2).

The Storm & The Boats is a documentary by Jody Small of Fair Lawn, N.J. The film – which received some grant support from the Rutgers University Oral History Archive and the New Jersey Historical Commission – chronicles the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with New Jersey residents sharing their raw emotions and personal stories (7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8).

Nigrin, a cinema studies lecturer at Rutgers, said the films were selected by a panel of judges who included media professionals, journalists, students and academics. The finalists were selected from more than 677 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world, he added. Prize winners will be announced on social media sites after the screenings on Feb. 16.