INSPIRED BY THE PANDEMIC: A still from “Ten Degrees of Strange,” an animated short film by Lynn Tomlinson, one of the works to be screened at the 41st Annual Thomas Edison Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of Lynn Tomlinson)

The 41st season of the Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF), a series of virtual events in collaboration with Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, runs from February 12-26.

Award-winning films representing experimental, animation, documentary, screen dance, and narrative genres by Lynn Tomlinson, Joe Quint, Caleb Slain, Zillah Bowes, David De La Fuente, Lisa Fuchs, Richard James Allen, and Karen Pearlman will be available to view on Vimeo. A live-streamed awards ceremony and panel discussion with filmmakers will be held virtually on Saturday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m.

The TEFF is an international juried competition celebrating all genres and independent filmmakers across the globe.  For more than 40 years, the TRFF has been advancing the creativity and power of the short film by celebrating stories that shine a light on issues and struggles within contemporary society. It was founded in 1981 as Black Maria Film Festival and originally named for Thomas Edison’s West Orange, New Jersey, film studio dubbed the “Black Maria” because of its resemblance to the black-box police paddy wagons of the same name. Renamed in 2021, the TEFFl’s relationship to Thomas Edison’s invention of the motion camera and the kinetoscope and his experimentation with the short film is at the core of the festival.

The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium also showcases the New Jersey Young Filmmakers Festival and the Global Insights Collection, an archive of films focusing on the environment, LGBTQ subjects, people with disabilities, international issues, race and class, and films with themes of social justice. 

Admission is free and open to the public. Visit arts.princeton.edu for the Zoom link.