The New Jersey International Film Festival Marks Its 30th Anniversary
The event, which features both online and in-person screenings, is scheduled for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays starting May 30 through June 8
More than 30 films hailing from all over the world will be screened at Rutgers University-New Brunswick during the 2025 New Jersey International Film Festival, which marks its 30th anniversary.
The festival, presented by the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center in association with the Cinema Studies Program at the School of Arts and Sciences, will be held on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between Friday, May 30, and Sunday, June 8.
“We have a really excellent line-up of films,” said Al Nigrin, executive director, curator and founder of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center.
“We are showing the most films we ever have screened, with 33 being shown,” said Nigrin, adding the festival includes films from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Poland and Spain. “We have never screened more than 30 films before.”
Nigrin said the festival features films made by Rutgers faculty and alumni, including:
- Thomas F. Lennon, director of the Documentary Film Lab within Mason Gross School of the Arts, produced and directed Marine Field Station, a 10-minute film about the scientists who track marine life at this Rutgers research center nestled in New Jersey ‘s coastal marshes.
- Rutgers alum Zuzelin Martin directed Harlem to Harvard, a 15-minute documentary about Edouard E. Plummer, who helped more than 600 students from Harlem attend the most elite boarding schools in the nation.
- Also a Rutgers alum, Viktor Witkowski directed and produced Our Borderlands, a 28-minute film about his 92-year-old grandmother, who lives with her daughter in a village in Poland close to the German border.
All films will be available online via video on-demand for 24 hours on their show date. In-person screenings will be held in Room 105 of Voorhees Hall, 71 Hamilton St., New Brunswick, N.J., beginning at 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. on their respective show dates.
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 $120. Each general admission ticket or festival pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings.
Nigrin said attendees will have exclusive access to filmmaker introductions and question-and-answer sessions for many of the films. He added there will be a number of special pre-screening receptions with food and refreshments and visiting filmmakers interacting with the audience. The first one, set for Friday, May 30, features Irish filmmaker Clea van der Grijn. Her film, Elisa in Wonderland, will make its North American premiere at the festival.
In addition, singer-songwriter Mike Kovacs will perform an audio-visual concert at 7 p.m. Friday, June 13, in Room 105 of Voorhees Hall.
Nigrin, a cinema studies lecturer at the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, 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 700 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world, he added.
Prize winners will be announced on social media sites after the screenings on June 8.
