Jersey Filmmakers Of Tomorrow Bergen County High School Student Film Festival

JERSEY FILMMAKERS OF TOMORROW BERGEN COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL SPONSORED BY THE FORT LEE FILM COMMISSION 

CONTACT:  TOM MEYERS, JFOT FESTIVAL DIRECTOR / (201) 693-2763  

EVENT DATE:  SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH AT 3 PM AT MEDIAMIX STUDIO, 4 PEARL COURT, ALLENDALE NJ  

The seventh annual Jersey Filmmakers of Tomorrow Bergen County High School Student Film Festival will take place at MediaMix Studios in Allendale, NJ on Saturday November 12th at 3 PM.  The ten finalists, all high school students who reside in Bergen County, will have their films screened before friends, family and the public.  Admission is free and the event is open to the public.   This year our special guest speaker and honoree will be Directors Guild of America Vice President Gary Donatelli.  Mr. Donatelli is a director for ABC television’s One Life to Live.  He also worked with the Fort Lee Film Commission  since 2008 to get the DGA to honor the first woman director in cinema history, Alice Guy Blache of Solax Studio in Fort Lee.  Madame Blache was awarded posthumously in 2011 the DGA Special Directorial Lifetime Achievement Award and Academy Award winning director Martin Scorsese presented the honors at the DGA Honors Award program in NYC this past October 13. The Fort Lee Film Commission will present Mr. Donatelli with the 2011 Barrymore Award, named after the famous American acting family whose patriarch, Maurice Barrymore lived in Fort Lee and his children (John, Lionel and Ethel) acted in Fort Lee during the days when Fort Lee was the motion picture capital of America.    

The Fort Lee Film Commission sponsors this event along with MediaMix, Farleigh Dickinson University, Sirk Productions, the NJEA and the Fort Lee Suburbanite.  The Film Commission is involved with the preservation of films produced in Bergen County in the days when Fort Lee was the film capitol of America and the first Hollywood from 1908 through World War I.  The Fort Lee Film Commission wants to promote this history and at the same time help a new generation of Bergen County based filmmakers.    

Through the annual Jersey Filmmakers of Tomorrow Bergen County High School Student Film Festival  student filmmakers can have their works seen by a wide audience.  The Best of the Fest prize includes a $500 bond and 72 hours post production time at Sirk Digital Studios in Manhattan, which is operated by Bergen County natives Marc Perez and Kris Fraga who produced the films  Severe Clear and Anytown USA.  Also, our finalists are accepted into the Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey.  This festival, the largest annual film festival in the state,  allows our student finalists to be entered at no charge thanks to the GSFF Executive Director Diane Raver.  Here their films will be screened in front of a wide audience comprised of film fans and film industry professionals.     This years ten finalists were selected from a pool of almost 100 students from across the County.  The finalists represent the following Bergen County high schools:   Don Bosco Preparatory High School, Ramsey Bergen County Technical High School - Teterboro Northern Highlands Regional High School - Allendale Paramus High School Lodi High School Rutherford High School Fort Lee High School  

Call (201) 693-2763 for further info or visit www.jerseyfilmmakersoftomorrow.org or www.fortleefilm.org