The New Jersey Film Festival is New Jersey's largest continuing public film series devoted to "experimental, offbeat and influential cinema". It began in New Jersey in 1982 and is hosted by Albert Gabriel Nigrin. All the works that were part of the Fall 2021 New Jersey Film Festival Competition were selected by a panel of judges including media professionals, journalists, students, and academics. These judges selected the 20 finalists which were publicly screened at the Festival. The finalists were selected from 401 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the judges chose the Prize Winners in conjunction with the Festival Director. Into Schrodinger’s Box, a Canadian feature from Canada won the best narrative feature of the New Jersey Film Festival. The film is directed by Nasim Naghavi and Amir Ganjavie who have teamed up with Arsalan Baraheni as their executive producer from Toronto in order to create a groundbreaking indie art cinematic thriller in the midst of pandemic with a very talented local Canadian cast.
On the set of Into Schrodinger’s Box
Here are the winners of the festival:
Best Feature Film
Into Schrodinger’s Box - Nasim Naghavi, Amir Ganjavie (Maple, Canada)
Best Documentary Film
The Dirt Whisperer - Giorgio Litt (Atlanta, Georgia)
Best Short Film
Swim to Steven - Amy French (Los Angeles, California)
Best Animated Film
Invention in C Major - Richard D. Lopez (North Haledon, New Jersey)
Best Experimental Film
The Dark Forest - Martin Del Carpio (New York, New York)
Honorable Mention Winners
The Nine O'clock Whistle – Willa Cofield (Plainfield, New Jersey)
Ailleurs Partout (Elsewhere Everywhere) - Vivianne Perelmutter and Isabelle Ingold (Paris, France)
Parenthesis – Vasilios Papaioannu (Syracuse, New York/Washington, DC)
Zero Gravity – Thomas Verrette (Los Angeles, California)
Painting Class – Yifei Song (Shanghai, China)
Ela: Breaking Boundaries – Swapna Kurup (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)