Spring Film Festival Blooms Bigger Than Ever in Late January
The event, hosted by Rutgers and set for select dates between Jan. 23 and Feb. 22, features in-person and online screenings as well as two free workshops
Forty-six films from around the planet will light up the silver screen at Rutgers University-New Brunswick during the Spring 2026 New Jersey Film Festival.
This year’s event features the most films ever screened during the festival, said Al Nigrin, 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 in association with the Cinema Studies Program at the School of Arts and Sciences. The previous record was 43 films.
“Over the past 44 years, we have provided New Jersey residents and the Rutgers community with many inspiring and provocative programs and activities,” Nigrin said. “Every film festival is different given the wide variety of films we screen from all over the world.”
The festival, which marks its 44th anniversary and runs on select dates starting Friday, Jan. 23, through Sunday, Feb. 22, includes two free filmmaking workshops in Room 105 of Voorhees Hall, 71 Hamilton St., New Brunswick, N.J.
The first workshop, “The Film Business: Basic Legal and Business Aspects of Motion Picture Production and Distribution” is set for 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, and the second, “Intro to Filmmaking,” will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15. The workshops, which are open to the public, require registration as space is limited. (Write to njmac12@gmail.com.)
The festival also features a special screening of the documentary Sun Ra: Do The Impossible at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, in Room 105 of Voorhees Hall. The 84-minute film, which explores the life and work of the jazz musician, composer and poet known as Sun Ra, features Alex Zamalin, a professor of Africana studies and political science with the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences.
“Sun Ra was an amazing artist and musician who is finally getting the attention he deserves,” Nigrin said. “Christine Turner's film takes viewers on an illuminating journey through the life of this multifaceted artist, gracefully balancing recollections from the Arkestra’s still-devout band members and dancers with insightful interviews from music scholars and unforgettable film and performance footage of Sun Ra himself.”
Zamalin isn’t the only Rutgers connection to the festival, Nigrin said. Portrait of a Monastery, a 40-minute documentary about Anglican Benedictine monks living together at Holy Cross Monastery in New York, is directed by John Decker, a Rutgers alum who earned his bachelor of fines arts degree from Mason Gross School of the Arts.
The longest running juried film festival in the state is a hybrid event: In addition to in-person screenings at Rutgers-New Brunswick, most of the films will be available online as on-demand videos for 24 hours on their show date. In-person screenings will be held in Room 105 of Voorhees Hall, 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 $120. Each general admission ticket or festival pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings.
Nigrin said many in-person screenings will feature appearances by directors, artists and actors.
The film festival’s lineup of feature-length movies, documentaries and short films includes:
Arrested at Delaney Hall, a short documentary about the standoff at an immigrant detention center in Newark, N.J., and the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka
Sum Function, a documentary by a quadriplegic Marine veteran
B. F. Skinner Plays Himself, a documentary on the life and works of the acclaimed psychologist
ANDA, a feature film that blends Nordic folklore with surrealist storytelling and modern themes
Don’t Look in the Dark, a New Jersey feature that follows in The Blair Witch Project vein
“The main focus of our mission is to provide thought-provoking cinema for our state and university,” said Nigrin. “Besides seeing great films, the film festival is a great way to meet people who love cinema. Every year I get emails from patrons thanking me for having the festival as they met their spouse or significant other at one of the screenings.”
Nigrin, a cinema studies lecturer at Rutgers, said the films were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students and academics. The finalists were selected from more than 640 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world, he added.
Prize winners will be announced on social media sites after the screenings on Feb. 22.
