The Trenton Film Society is set to launch a new season with an expanded Oscar Shorts Festival on Feb. 27.
The season also includes the Trenton International Film Festival, curated by NYC Anthology Film Archives programmer Jed Rapfogel, and the return of the Trenton Film Festival.
Oscar Shorts Festival has expanded to a three day format in response growing demand and frequent sell-outs. The festival is set to open Feb. 27 with the screening of Documentary Shorts Nominees. A second screening of the nominees is scheduled for Feb. 28.
Multiple screenings of Live Action and Animated Nominees are scheduled for March 1. A dinner and film event, which pairs a screening of the Live Action Nominees with dinner and conversation at Settimo Cielo, is set for 5 p.m. March 1.
Jed Rapfogel is set to join Trenton Film Society to curate the Trenton International Film Festival on its five year anniversary. Cineaste Magazine editor and recipient of Village Voice’s Best Film Programming award in 2011, Rapfogel brings a wealth of knowledge and critical understanding of film to the pulse of filmmaking in 2014.
Rapfogel said his goal for the festival is “to put together a selection of contemporary foreign films that’s as wide-ranging stylistically and tonally as it is geographically…The lineup features searing dramas, deadpan comedies, and musicals both fictional and documentary, with a cast of characters including teenage Swedish punks, Angolan death metal musicians, Palestinian refugees, and dazed and confused Korean high-school graduates, among many others.”
Trenton Film Festival returns after a several year hiatus. The signature event of the Trenton Film Society from 2004- 2008, the festival screened hundreds of films culled from thousands of submissions during its five-year run. The open submission process led to a diversity of films offering audiences a unique window into the world of independent film.
Additionally, filmmaker attendance gave audiences access to the filmmaking process through talk-backs with filmmakers after screenings and through informal conversations throughout the festival.
The society plans on issuing a call for entries soon.
Festivals are scheduled to take place at the Mill Hill Playhouse, 205 East Front St., Trenton.
More information is online at trentonfilmsociety.org.
