(RED BANK – MARCH 27) Official selections have been announced for this year’s Count Basie Center Breakthrough Filmmaker Fest, the annual competition celebrating New Jersey’s emerging crop of young filmmakers.

Selected from a competitive pool of submissions, these films represent a broad range of voices and perspectives and reflect the festival’s mission to elevate and support the next generation of filmmakers.

The onsite Breakthrough Filmmakers Fest event takes place on Saturday, April 25^th on the Count Basie Center campus, 99 Monmouth Street in Red Bank. Both official selections and honorable mention titles will be shown, along with workshops, lectures, a Q&A with industry experts and a networking opportunity for this year’s selected filmmakers. Admission to the event is free by registering here.

This year’s official selections are as follows:

High School Category

Official Selection – High School (Short Film)

• All It Needs (Communications High School) – Directed by Ethan Davis
• DEVIANT (East Brunswick Magnet School – School of the Arts) – Directed by Josias Ortiz
• Drops of You (Bridgewater Raritan High School) – Directed by Brooke Pino
• Echo (Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science) – Directed by Addison H. Steen
• Father Donkey (Middletown High School South) – Directed by Michael Puma, Ethan Castro, and Adriana Rodriguez
• May Miss The Magic (East Brunswick Magnet School – School of the Arts) – Directed by Caleb Sambucci
• Memoria (Donald M. Payne Sr. School of Technology) – Directed by Madison Johansson
• Our DieNasty (East Brunswick Magnet School – School of the Arts) – Directed by Josias Ortiz
• Parallels (Middletown High School South) – Directed by Hunter Denberg
• Perfect (Communications High School) – Directed by Charlotte Mathias
• Puberty (Howell High School) – Directed by Nicholas Rescigno
• Red-Handed (Communications High School) – Directed by Charlotte Mathias
• Rules (Henry Hudson Regional School) – Directed by Savannah Savas
• Surface Scratches (The Pingry School) – Directed by Anthony Truncale
• The Butterfly (Middletown High School South) – Directed by Emily Reese Ommerborn
• The Fallen Tree (Bergen County Academies) – Directed by Aiden Baty
• The Last Checkmate (Morris Knolls High School) – Directed by Kaitlyn Grimaldi
• The Night of the Killer Lemon (Middletown High School South) – Directed by Ethan Castro and Michael Puma
• The Reflection Room (Madison High School) – Directed by Maria Leal and Aanika Ramaiya
• Through Your Eyes (Donald M. Payne Sr. School of Technology) – Directed by Tamir Sears
• What If? (Achievers Early College Prep) – Directed by Dulce Maria Garrido
• What’s Inside My Soup? (Howell High School) – Directed by Hayden Vigdor

Official Selection – High School (Documentary)

• Farm (Lawrenceville High School) – Directed by Nina Morozova
• History of the RBR Buc Band (Red Bank Regional High School) – Directed by Daniela Flores-Sanchez
• One Shot (Donald M. Payne Sr. School of Technology) – Directed by Danielle Ortiz
• REdefining the American Dream (Bergen County Academies) – Directed by Luna Milena Cannone
• The Art of Basketball (Arts High School, Newark) – Directed by Sariyyah Hurt and Luiz Araujo
• The Wild Card (Howell High School) – Directed by Kedar Nair

Official Selection – High School (Animation)

• Tabletop (East Brunswick Magnet School – School of the Arts) – Directed by Devin DeVico
• The Grass Is Always Meaner (Middletown High School South) – Directed by Ethan Castro and Michael Puma
• The Road Not Taken (Howell High School) – Directed by Kedar Nair

Honorable Mention – High School (Short Film)

• A Cardinal Sin (East Brunswick Magnet School – School of the Arts) – Directed by Josias Ortiz, Caleb Sambucci, Jayden De Jesus, Traysten L. Korpi, and Christopher Figueroa-Beltre
• A Day in the Life (Grunin Performing Arts Academy) – Directed by Molly Pease
• Brotherhood of the Fallen (Howell High School) – Directed by Amelia White
• Defying Impermanence (Montclair High School) – Directed by Lucas Milan Aristimuno
• Going Going Gone (Hillside High School) – Directed by Tyler Washington
• In Spirit (Communications High School) – Directed by Ryan Matteo
• Le Nefarious (Hoboken High School) – Directed by Avery Chavez
• LIVE (Donald M. Payne Sr. School of Technology) – Directed by Sabrina Camacho
• Moving On (Wayne Valley High School) – Directed by Amelia Hong
• PARANOID (Grunin Performing Arts Academy) – Directed by Ollie Samantha Duffy
• Reminiscent (Hillsborough High School) – Directed by Ashley Ringel
• The Girl & The Bird (Hoboken High School) – Directed by Moises Compres
• The Other Foot (Communications High School) – Directed by Tyler Luis Walsh
• Where the Path Thins (Cranford High School) – Directed by Ross Micah Reibarkh

Emerging Category

Official Selection – Emerging Filmmaker (Short Film)

• Afterthoughts (Montclair State University) – Directed by Gregory Salvador
• DILATE (School of Visual Arts) – Directed by Justin Thomas Marinelli
• I Am With You Now (Rowan University) – Directed by Parker Bennink
• I Need Your Gum to Save Our Planet (Independent) – Directed by Annie Fleisch
• Mi Cuento de Fantasmas (Rowan University) – Directed by Rosa Isabella Salvatierra
• Muscle Memory (Rider University) – Directed by Reylan Alexis
• The House of Horrors (Montclair State University) – Directed by Brandon Lang
• This Sucks (Montclair State University) – Directed by Colin Christopher Hankenson

Official Selection – Emerging Filmmaker (Documentary)

• Princes to Kings: A Band of Brothers (Princeton University) – Directed by Michelle Tang

Official Selection – Emerging Filmmaker (Animation)

• L’Allunaggio del Lupo (The Lupine Lunar Landing) (Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University) – Directed by Yemi Kanmi and ShowtuneCockatoo

Honorable Mention – Emerging Filmmaker (Short Film)

• Everything (Montclair State University) – Directed by Lance Fule
• Last Variation (Montclair State University) – Directed by Izzy Love
• Notes On My Morality (The College of New Jersey) – Directed by Hyatt Sparks-Woodford
• Quinn’s Quest (Rutgers University) – Directed by Alexis Lynn Thavisack and Ella Lambiase
• Respawn (University of Tampa) – Directed by Sean Andrew Prieve and Russell Koo