The Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF) is an annual international juried film competition and traveling film festival established in 1981. While presenting feature-length films and videos the festival largely focuses on short films from different genres including animation, comedy, drama and documentaries. Based in Hudson County, New Jersey, the festival shows work across the United States and abroad.
The festival was originally known as the Black Maria Film Festival. Its name was tribute to Thomas Edison’s development of the motion picture at his laboratory complex (now Thomas Edison National Historical Park, in West Orange, New Jersey), which was the site of the world's first film studio, erected in 1893 and dubbed the Black Maria . [1]
The TEFF was founded in 1981 by John Columbus. [2] [1] It is a project of the Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium, an independent non-profit organization originally based at Department of Media Arts at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, New Jersey. [3] The consortium has since shifted operations to the Hoboken Historical Museum in Hoboken, New Jersey. [4] [5]
The festival changed its name to the Thomas Edison Film Festival in 2021. [6] [7]
Unlike most film festivals, the Thomas Edison Film Festival is not presented in only one location or a specific date. Following a juried competition, films are shown year round at universities, museums, libraries and cultural centers across the United States and abroad. [8] [9] While including feature films and videos, TEFF largely presents short films which focus on issues and struggles within contemporary society and promotes the work of diverse filmmakers from across the US and around the world, many of whom represent an constituency without opportunities for broader public exhibition. A variety of genres - animation, comedy, drama and documentaries - are included. Many films address environmental and social concerns such as climate change, sustainability, public health, substance abuse, gun violence, immigration, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ topics. [6] [9] [10]
The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over 3000 short films and 12 feature films. During the height of silent film as a medium, Biograph was the most prominent U.S. film studio and one of the most respected and influential studios worldwide, only rivaled by Germany's UFA, Sweden's Svensk Filmindustri and France's Pathé. The company was home to pioneering director D. W. Griffith and such actors as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Lionel Barrymore.
The Black Maria was Thomas Edison's film production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. It was the world's first film studio.
Cinema of Colombia refers to film productions made in Colombia, or considered Colombian for other reasons. Colombian cinema, like any national cinema, is a historical process with industrial and artistic aspects.
Actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that uses footage of real events, places, and things, a predecessor to documentary film. Unlike documentaries, actuality films are not structured into a larger narrative or coherent whole. During the era of early cinema, actualities—usually lasting no more than a minute or two and usually assembled together into a program by an exhibitor—were just as popular and prominent as their fictional counterparts. The line between "fact" and "fiction" was not as prominent in early cinema as it would become once documentaries became the predominant non-fiction filmmaking form. Actuality as a film genre is related to still photography.
Indy Film Fest seeks to create a shared experience by championing films that entertain, challenge, and expand perspectives in Indianapolis and beyond. The festival was established in 2002 with its inaugural edition taking place in March 2004, featuring Lars von Trier's Dogville as the closing film.
The Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) is an annual film festival hosted in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It is the largest film festival in England outside of London. Founded in 1987, it is held in November in various venues throughout Leeds, including Hyde Park Picture House and Cottage Road Cinema. In 2022, the festival showed 140 films from 78 different countries, shorts and features, both commercial and independent.
While the Peruvian film industry has not been nearly as prolific as that of some other Latin American countries, such as Mexico or Argentina, some Peruvian movies produced enjoyed regional success. Historically, the cinema of Peru began in Iquitos in 1932 by Antonio Wong Rengifo because of the rubber boom and the intense arrival of foreigners with technology to the city, and thus continued an extensive, unique filmography, with a different style than the films made in the capital, Lima.
The Gateway Region is the primary urbanized area of the northeastern section of New Jersey. It is anchored by Newark, the state's most populous city. It is part of the New York metropolitan area.
Joanna Priestley is an American contemporary film director, producer, animator and teacher. Her films are in the collections of the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Priestley has had retrospectives at the British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art and Hiroshima International Animation Festival in Japan. Bill Plympton calls her the "Queen of independent animation". Priestley lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
The Edison Manufacturing Company, originally registered as the United Edison Manufacturing Company and often known as simply the Edison Company, was organized by inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison and incorporated in New York City in May 1889. It succeeded the Edison United Manufacturing Company, founded in 1886 as a sales agency for the Edison Lamp Company, Edison Machine Works, and Bergmann & Company, which made electric lighting fixtures, sockets, and other accessories. In April 1894, the Edison laboratory's Kinetoscope operation, which was about to be commercialized, was brought under the Edison Company umbrella. In 1900, the United Edison Manufacturing Company was evidently succeeded by the New Jersey–incorporated Edison Manufacturing Company. The company's assets and operations were transferred to Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in 1911.
Liew Seng Tat is a Malaysian filmmaker based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Richard Roger Reeves is a Canadian animated filmmaker. He is known for his whimsical abstract animated films created using a drawn on film technique.
Branchage is a film festival held in the Channel Island of Jersey. The festival was founded in 2008 by filmmaker Xanthe Hamilton to bring film and arts to the island. It is a mix of site-specific film screenings held across the island in churches, castles, barns, and bunkers alongside more conventional arts spaces and cinemas, alongside film and art commissions, live soundtracks to film, short film programmes, industry networking and spectacular themed parties mixing live performance, name DJs and cabaret.
The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) is an annual nonprofit film festival dedicated to promoting and increasing multicultural awareness and showcases world cinema and independent films in their original language with English subtitles. Independent film producers, directors and actors within the US and abroad are invited to participate in engaging panel discussions and Q&A sessions after the screenings. Each year the festival greets more than 2,000 movie aficionados and shows about fifty films from all over the world with an impressive lineup of premieres. The Arlington International Film Festival also includes a year-round events such as poster contest competitions, pre-festival screenings and art exhibitions with local artists and performances by musicians, singers and dancers.
The Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) is an international film festival which takes place annually in York, England, at the beginning of November. Founded in 2011, it is a celebration of independent film from around the world, and an outlet for supporting and championing filmmaking.
The Smalls Film Festival is an independent film festival which takes place annually in London. Founded in 2006, the festival is one of the UK's major short film festivals, featuring an international programme of short films, talks, panels, discussions and workshops. The festival has had many collaborative partners including BAFTA, Creative Review, Devilfish, UKTV, Panavision, and the London Design Festival.
The London Short Film Festival, founded in 2004, is a film festival held annually at various locations in London, in January. The festival celebrates short film production. Each year the festival appoints an international jury who award prizes worth over £20,000.
The Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series is an annual film festival founded by African Voices magazine and Long Island University's Media Arts Department, Brooklyn Campus. Established in 1997, Reel Sisters is dedicated to providing opportunities for women of color filmmakers to advance their careers in the film industry. In 2018, the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival became the first Academy Award Qualifying Film Festival for narrative shorts dedicated to women of color.