3rd Annual Cranford Film Festival
Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd annual Cranford Film Festival, which will be held Saturday, April 22 at the Cranford Theater from 6-10p.m., and virtually from April 23 – May 7. Tickets may be purchased by going to the festival website: cranfordfilmfestival.org.
Festival proceeds support performing arts education enrichment for students grades K-12 in the Cranford Public Schools.
Last year’s event drew enormous community interest. Tickets sold out for last year’s film festival and there are only 200 remaining seats available for this year’s event. There is also a virtual option for those who prefer to purchase tickets and watch the films at home.
In addition to the film festival, Arts Day in Cranford will also be in the afternoon of April 22 in the downtown. Arts Day is a celebration of arts in the public schools and the community and will host performing groups from the high school and private businesses. Arts day will be held outside and is free to all. It will conclude with a Jazz Jam at the clock at 4 p.m. All levels are welcome to play!
Arts Day is a collaboration between Downtown Cranford and Cranford Schools Friends of Performing Arts (CSFOPA), with sponsors Julia Murphy and Citizens Bank.
After Arts Day, you can get a bite to eat downtown and take your purchased festival ticket to the Cranford Theater and join everyone to watch selected local and worldwide films from filmmakers in categories such as fiction, documentary, horror, animation, music video and student films. Several of the films were made by local residents and feature Cranford locations. Festival director Lew Goldstein, who also founded in 2015 the annual Nassau Film Festival (this year May 20-21, 2023 nassaufilmfestival.org) in Princeton, is excited about the quality of local and regional films to be screened this year at the Cranford Theater. The film festival committee is led by co-managers Pam Brewster and Stephanie Ashinoff.
“Our volunteer team has spent hundreds of hours preparing for the upcoming festival. We expect this year to be our best yet, and can’t wait to share the line-up of films we’ve assembled,” states Pam Brewster, co-manager of the festival. “It’s also been heartwarming to see the growing support for our film festival from the community, filmmakers, and local business sponsors. Importantly, that support has translated into additional funds for the Cranford performing arts programs throughout the district. For example, with our help, a new, state-of-the-art lighting system was recently purchased for the high school auditorium.”
CSFOPA recently granted $17,000 to Cranford Public Schools for the new lighting system. Cranford Film Festival is the biggest fundraiser annually for CSFOPA, a 501c3 parent group which aims to support the performing arts public schools program. In the past several years, CSFOPA has dedicated tens of thousands of dollars for equipment, field trips and learning experiences. These grants have included buying lighting, camera equipment, classroom chairs, an upgraded stage curtain and valance, laptops, workshops, cello rack, cabinets to organize music, a xylophone, a drumset, and tents for outdoor classrooms.
CSFOPA would like to thank its film festival sponsors especially its producer level sponsors such as Citizens Bank, Cranford Theater, Martin Jewelers and Dream Factory Balloons.
