Golden Door Film Festival

The opening and closing night awards ceremony are located at the 1929 movie palace Loew's Jersey Theatre at Journal Square with many screenings and other events at various Downtown venues.

Many immigrants passed through the city's Communipaw Terminal and it is sometimes referred to as "America's Golden Door".

[14][15][16][17] Two new categories for competition were added: the Student Filmmaker Award and the Women in Film-Alice Guy Blache Award, named for Alice Guy-Blaché, the narrative film director whose studio was located in Fort Lee, the birthplace of America's first motion picture industry at the beginning of the 20th century.

[21] Michael Wolfe's Maybe Tomorrow won several awards including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay.

[22] The 2013 festival opened on October 10[23] with the documentary Fall to Grace about former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey.

[24][25] Sorvino announced that he would be working with Saint Peter's University to develop a film institute.

Tommy Hilfiger, on the board of Autism Speaks, became a sponsor of the festival in 2014,[29] and kicked off the event.

[30] Best fFlm this year was African Gothic, which also won Best Screenplay (Damon Shalit), Best Director (Gabriel Bologna), Best Actress (Chella Ferrow), Best Cinematography (Massimo Zeri), and Best Editor (Pavel Savchuk).

It hosted the world premiere of Chris Robert's Another You, and screenings of Miles Doleac's The Hollow, Mara Lesemann's Detours, John Asher's Po, and Thomas Baldinger's Who's Jenna..?, starring festival founder Bill Sorvino.

Brooklyn in July received three awards in the short film category: Best Feature, Best Director (Bob Celli), and Best Actor (Thaddeus Daniels).

[43] Tango Shalom won best feature film, while Max Hechtman and Christonikos Tsalikis' Abigail held its New Jersey premiere.