(ATLANTIC CITY, NJ) -- After 11 years as a
signature annual attraction in and around Asbury Park, the Garden State
Film Festival (GSFF) is moving to Atlantic City. The festival is held
over a long weekend in early spring and screens hundreds of shorts,
features, documentaries, music videos and trailers from around the
world, with a special emphasis on New Jersey filmmakers. The event is
highlighted with celebrities, workshops, casting calls, seminars,
parties, awards and outreach to special populations like members of the
military and veterans, the elderly, people with special needs and
students K-12.
Lingering disputes between the City of Asbury
Park and developer Madison Marquette raised questions about the future
use of the festival's main venues, the Paramount Theatre and Convention
Hall Atrium. GSFF cannot be presented in Asbury Park without those
spaces dedicated to the four-day event. "Timing is everything," said
Ms. Raver. "The festival has had a wonderful home in Asbury Park for
more than a decade but Atlantic City can provide us the opportunity to
present and compete at a whole other level. With almost limitless
venues for screening, events, and hospitality plus a local airport, the
possibilities are endless." The festival draws an estimated 30,000
people annually to the off-season event which has been a boon to local
business. GSFF received the 2012 Monmouth-Ocean Development Council
(MODC) Tourism Achievement Award in recognition for its significant
contribution to improving the economy of the bi-county area through
tourism. According to Asbury Park's Department of Commerce, the event
generates more than $825,000 into the city each year.
"This is a
terrific example of a great public/private partnership. The festival is a
great event which will continue to grow year after year; Atlantic City
is an amazing venue that is reenergized and revitalized and the
combination of the two will make for phenomenal synergy," said John
Palmieri, executive director, CRDA. "We are thrilled to partner with the
Garden State Film Festival and to add this event to our growing number
of attractions and reasons to DO AC!"
The partnership with CRDA
includes support that will afford the festival time and fiscal stability
to replace sponsors attached to the Asbury Park location, build new
relationships, and increase attendance numbers by marketing to audiences
from Philadelphia in the west to Washington, D.C. in the south, and
continue to serve their audiences from Northern New Jersey and New York
City. "Asbury Park is a wonderful, nostalgic place to thousands upon
thousands of film aficionados who grew up on the Jersey Shore but
Atlantic City is an international destination that can provide all the
amenities and infrastructure we need to grow the festival," added Ms.
Raver.
The festival has attracted a long roster of artists from
famed actors - including its co-founder the late Robert Pastorelli, - as
well asGlen Close, Celeste Holm, Laine Kazan, Ed Asner, Phillip Bosco,
James Gandolfini and Diane Ladd, to famed musicians including Bruce
Springsteen, and many up and comers who made their debut as filmmakers
and performers at the GSFF. The four-day festival includes an array of
events in addition to the screenings, and a robust arts education
component that will be replicated in the Atlantic City area public
school districts. "Currently, we mainly serve as a presenter to
students but have long relished the idea of providing related curricula
and even hands-on film making training," notes Ms. Raver.
Since
the 2011 Tourism District Act legislation was enacted, the CRDA and its
non-profit marketing partner, The Atlantic City Alliance, the nonprofit
marketing arm of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development
Authority, has had great success implementing the strengths and appeal
of arts and culture to market and attract more visitors to Atlantic
City. Attracting the GSFF is a cornerstone of this effort. The
festival's 12th anniversary in its new home will be held April 3-6,
2014.
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