HACKETTSTOWN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
2023 HACKETTSTOWN FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS
We are proud to announce this year’s 2023 winners.
Best Feature Film
“Afterwards” Dir. Stephen Wallis
Feature Film Honorable Mention
“Fraudulent Conversion” Dir. Douglas Downing III
Best Short Film
“Amphibia” Dir. Ian Odermatt
Short Film Honorable Mention
“The Stray” Dir. Eric Louis Jimenez
Best Ulta-Short Film
“Short Route” Dir. Julio Cesar Gonzalez
2022 HACKETTSTOWN FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS
We are proud to announce this year’s 2022 winners.
Best Feature Film
“Friday the 13th Vengeance 2: Bloodlines” Dir. Jason Brooks
Feature Film Honorable Mention
“The Things We Can Not Change” Dir. Joshua Nelson
Best Short Film
“When the Time Comes” Dirs. Jondaniel Cornett and Jonathan Frey
Short Film Honorable Mention
“The Old Man in the Rocking Chair” Dir. Eric Michael Yoder Jr.
Best Ulta-Short Film
“Izzy” Dir. Andrew Huggins
2021 HACKETTSTOWN FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS
Best Comedy/Musical Horror
"Maneater!" Director Jack Rooney
Comedy Horror - Honorable Mention
"The Witch Hunters are Coming" Director James Atkins, United Kingdom
Best Short Under 10 minutes
"The Isolated" Director Seif Abdel Raouf, Egypt
Best Short Under 20 minutes
"Hide and Seek" Radheya Jegatheva, Australia
Short Under 20 Minutes - Honorable Mention
"...and Then the Darkness" Director Andrew Huggins, United State of America
Best Horror Film
"Massacre Academy" Director Mark Cantu, United States of America
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR FILM MAKERS AND PAST AWARDS
FILMMAKERS
Congratulations on completing your film! Now it’s time to start entering festivals and getting well deserved exposure
for your work. The Hackettstown Film Festival is a great place to start! This small, intimate, yet prestigious festival is
under the artistic direction of producer, director, writer and entertainment entrepreneur, Chris Lance.
Bringing quality, entertaining cinema to the masses is the mission of this competition. Hosted by the Hackettstown
Center for the Arts, a non-profit 501(c)3 entity, all proceeds from the Hackettstown Film Festival (HFF) benefit the Arts
Center.
Submission Deadlines
Official Submission Deadlines are posted on FilmFreeway.
HFF Film Guidelines
Feature Films
•
Your film must be over 40 minutes in length.
•
All entries submitted to the HFF must be original works by the applicant. If the film is an adaptation or based on
source material to which the entrant doesn’t own the rights, permission to adapt the original work must be
submitted.
•
If your feature film has screened publicly in a theater in the U.S. at one or more non-festival screenings and/or
has been acquired and released via any public online distribution platform (streaming, VOD, SVOD, etc.) outside of a
limited-time virtual festival event before HFF, it is not eligible for HFF 2024.
•
Your project must have been completed in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, or 2024.
•
HFF does not accept trailers or rough assemblies. Please be aware HFF will not screen multiple updates/versions
of your film for programming consideration.
•
HFF only watches the first cut submitted.
•
All feature-length films must be submitted via Filmfreeway.
Short Films
•
Your film must be under 40 minutes in length.
•
All entries submitted to the HFF must be original works by the applicant. If the film is an adaptation or based on
source material to which the entrant doesn’t own the rights, permission to adapt the original work must be
submitted.
•
If your short film has screened publicly in a theater in the U.S. at one or more non-festival screenings and/or has
been acquired and released via any public online distribution platform (streaming, VOD, SVOD, etc.) outside of a
limited-time virtual festival event before HFF, it is not eligible for HFF 2023.
•
Your project must have been completed in 2020, or 2021, 2022, 2023, or 2024.
•
HFF does not accept trailers or rough assemblies.
•
HFF only watches the first cut submitted.
•
All short films must be submitted via Filmfreeway.
Awards and Prizes
Hackettstown Film Festival currently offers over $1,000 in cash and in-kind sponsor prizes to filmmakers and
screenwriters with winners selected by industry professionals - including studio representatives, producers writers
and fellow filmmakers. As the we take on more sponsors, the awards will increase.
Submissions
All film submissions are done exclusively through Filmfreeway. By submitting your film, you give all screening
permissions to the Hackettstown Center for the Arts.
All proceeds benefit the Hackettstown Center for the Arts, a non-profit 501(c)3 entity.