The first Rahway Film Festival's inaugural event took place on June 21, 2013 at UC PAC's beautiful Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts to a sold out house. The pre-show Networking Reception filled the lobby with mingling artists and art-lovers alike adorned with name tags while a reel of submitted music videos played on several screens in the background. RFF's host, comedian Max Antonucci, kicked off the night filled with our lineup of specially selected short films. We couldn't have asked for a better audience - there were laughter, tears, and enthusiastic applause. The RFF Team never expected such an overwhelming response and great turnout for RFF's very first year. We thank you ALL for your support!

Founder Gina Rodriguez and her team founded Rahway Film Festival in early 2013. Through the age of social media, the internet, and word of mouth, our small-town idea quickly became an international festival, receiving over 150 entries from within the U.S. as well as internationally across the globe. Entries arrived from as local as Rahway, NJ to as far as India, Australia, and France. The RFF film committee viewed all 150+ entries for selection to arrive at the final lineup of 15 short films for the film competition and 8 music videos/trailers for the networking event. To see the complete film lineup, please check out our Film Lineup page.