Atlantic City Cinefest returns October 14, 15 and 16 at Stockton's Atlantic City campus. We will have another awesome party for filmmakers and guests. This year, we hope to have an honoree and an awards ceremony. We will have our annual filmmakers panel on Saturday afternoon. A good time will be had by all.

Submissions will be open for anyone in North America, about any subject. That said, we like to screen some New Jersey-based films.

And since October is National Arts and Humanities month, we would like to see submissions celebrating the arts, beyond the fact filmmaking is one of those arts.

The screenwriting competition will also return for 2022. Again, any subject matter, but scripts that celebrate the arts would be welcome.

In the past and again in subsequent years, we consider ourselves an independent festival which screens films from North America, but still pays special attention New Jersey movies. We like to bring at least one person from Hollywood/New York as an honoree. Past guests have included Kevin Smith, Robert Downey, Sr. Terry Winter, Peter Dobson, Blanche Baker, Bonnie Bedelia, William Forsythe, Christopher Mann, Chris Mulkey, Brian O'Halloran, Garry Pastore, Scott Schwartz, Al Sapienza, Tom Malloy, Louis Mandylor and Dominique Swain.

Awards & Prizes

Trophies for best of this and best of that.

Rules & Terms

RULES FOR FILM SUBMISSIONS 2022
• We accept short and feature length films, narrative and documentary

• Shorts must be under 60 minutes; features no more than two and a half hours

• All genres accepted, but we are seeking films by NJ filmmakers and films that celebrate the arts and humanities

• All films must be submitted to FilmFreeway in digital format

RULES FOR MUSIC VIDEOS 2022
• Must be 2 to 10 minutes

• All genres are welcome

• Must not be vulgar, according to MPAA standards

RULES FOR SCREENPLAY COMPETITION 2022
• Short and feature length scripts accepted

• Short scripts must be 45 pages or less

• Feature scripts must be 130 pages or less

IMPORTANT DATES

• Submissions close: September 15

• Acceptance notification: October 1
38 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Doug Bollinger

    This is one of my favorite festivals. I've been multiple times and I love that many of the same filmmakers keep coming back. Enjoy AC and network!

    October 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you, Doug.

    We always look forward to seeing you again and especially seeing your films.

  • JoeBert Entertainment

    Atlantic City Cinefest was great! Both of our films looked and sounded amazing. There was plenty of opportunities to network with other filmmakers. The festival was really well run.

    October 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for your kind words.

  • Victoria Bruce

    We would have liked to attend the film festival and were honored to be a part of it, but the short notice time gave us no time to addend or do publicity for our screening. I appreciate all festivals and this one as well, but I'm afraid that I don't really have any information on how our screening was attended or how the festival went other than there were not issues with our thumbdrive playing the film. I would suggest that the the organizers give a longer lead time to film teams in order to get the most out of the screening. Since this was our NJ premiere, it would have been very helpful to have more time to do a more robust preparation. I hope we at least had a few people see the film.

    October 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you, Victoria for your recommendations. We did not provide enough lag time. In the future we will strive to have decisions on acceptance four weeks in advance of the festival, not two. We should also keep better tabs on attendance per film block. And increase efforts to draw filmgoers beyond the friends and relatives of the filmmakers.

  • Douglas Clayton

    Love this film festival! Participated in 2018 and 2021; both times we were treated with great respect by a classy team of professionals. Thank you to Bill and his team for providing a terrific platform for film makers to feature their stories. Of course, we were thrilled that our doc "The Heart of Camden - the Story of Father Michael Doyle" narrated by Martin Sheen won Best Documentary.

    October 2021
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks for the kind tribute, Doug.

    Nice meeting you and your son.

  • Jack Foley

    Atlantic City Cinefest is a first-rate festival that enabled us to screen our film "Cue the Sun" before a large audience. Our lead actress, Lisa Campbell, was fortunate enough to win the "Best Actress" award. Communication with William was easy throughout the entire process and his daughter Joelle was very accommodating throughout the festival weekend. As a New Jersey filmmaker, it was a delight to participate such a well-run, local festival as Atlantic City Cinefest.

    October 2021
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks so much for the kind words, Jack. It was a pleasure meeting you and your wife. Hopefully you'll return with another film.