Edison Film Festival Opens with Added Prestige

At a time when diversity and equity’s place in culture have come under attack, the Thomas Edison Film Festival in Hoboken prepares to launch a new season with a platform to give new voices a national if not global scale.

For the first time this year, the festival will also serve as an Academy Award® Qualifying Festival, making any of the award-winning films on its program eligible for selection by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. 

“The heart and soul of this festival are Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion,” says Jane Stuerwald, executive director and curator of the festival. “Words like ‘diversity’ aren’t bad words and it’s what makes our festival great. These are stories that reflect the human condition.” 

Stuerwald said diversity has always been the “mission” of the festival. 

Stuerwald taught film at New Jersey City University (NJCU) from when it was formerly known as the New Jersey State College. 

The festival was in residence at NJCU until 2018, when Stuerwald retired. It was then that Princeton University would take over sponsor duties in 2019 as an educational partner with the festival.  

The festival focuses on films that address relevant social issues such as climate change, race and class relationships, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, human rights, disability advocacy, and social justice.  

As the 44^th annual festival begins its touring season, it remains a part of Hudson County and returns to the Hoboken Historical Museum on Saturday, March 8, at 6:30 p.m. 

The museum has been hosting the festival since 2018, both virtually and in person. 

With a focus on underrepresented voices, the festival features both accomplished and emerging artists who lack access to live public exhibitions and covers a variety of genres including narrative, experimental, animation, documentary, screen dance, and hybrids from not just filmmakers in the U.S., but from all over the world. 

The festival was founded in 1981.  

Some of the award-winning films include Su Friedrich’s “Jerusalema: From Austria to Zimbabwe,” which is comprised of found footage and looks back at the viral phenomenon known as the Jerusalema Dance Challenge, which rose during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and was embraced by various cultures around the world.  

“I thought it was a very meaningful thing where people were able to come together in a celebratory and joyous way in a time when we were all separated,” says Friedrich. 

“I always ask the audiences I show this film to if they were aware of it, and for the most part they didn’t know about it. 

“But I think that may have to do with the amount of content that is out there,.”  

Friedrich has been a part of the festival since its beginnings when it was first known as Black Maria Festival. 

“As a festival that travels around the country with a huge array of films, it was always such a diverse event not just in terms of genres but the voices of the filmmakers,” says Friedrich. 

“We have this terrible situation in the government where things like diversity and equity are being cut down. Anything that’s giving people jobs is what we need.” 

Other award-winning films that are making the rounds in this year’s festival are Art21: Amy Sherald, a documentary that focuses on the eponymous artist, who went from being an unknown to one of the most talked-about artists in the world when she was selected by Barack and Michelle Obama to paint the First Lady’s Presidential Portrait in 2018. 

The documentary film was a winner of the 2025 Jury’s Choice Award.  

Another 2025 Jury’s Choice winner, Art21: Linda Goode Bryant, which follows the artist Bryant, who made the gallery Just Above Midtown (JAM) in New York City in the 1970s, as she prepares for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. The film also coincides with the 40^th anniversary of JAM’s opening and takes a look at how Bryant brought together artists to experiment in Black and contemporary art.  

Saturday’s program will include a wine and pizza reception, followed by a selection of the festival’s award-winning films for 2025 and a talk with guest Marta Renzi, a filmmaker and choreographer who will share her work and history with TEFF.  

The complete program for the 2025 TEFF and info on the festival’s award-winning films can be found at tefilmfest.org.

The Hoboken Historical Museum is located at 1301 Hudson St., Hoboken.