Golden Door Film Festival

The Golden Door Film Festival is a film festival in Jersey City, New Jersey inaugurated in 2011. The four-day festival takes place in Fall, and shows features, documentaries, and shorts. The opening and closing night awards ceremony are located at the 1929 movie palace Loew's Jersey Theater at Journal Square with many screenings and other events at various Downtown venues. The festival was founded by actor, producer, and musician Bill Sorvino. There are competitive awards for features, shorts, documentaries, student works, LBGT-themed films and the Women in Cinema-Alice Guy Blache Award for female directors.

The Statue of Liberty National Monument, comprising Liberty Island and Ellis Island, is located in the Upper New York Bay opposite Liberty State Park in Jersey City. "I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" is the last line of "The New Colossus," the poem by Emma Lazarus. Many immigrants passed through the city's Communipaw Terminal and it is sometime's referred to as "America's Golden Door". The festival's name is inspired by the emigrant experience.

The first festival took place October 14–17, 2011. Forty-three films were shown and there were eighteen categories for competition. Lifetime achievement awards were given to Academy Award winner Leon Gast and Paul Sorvino. Night Club (2011) by director Sam Borowski won awards for best feature, best director of a feature, best male lead in a feature (Ernest Borgnine), best female lead in a feature (Natasha Lyonne), and best acting by a supporting actor/actress (Sally Kellerman).Life! Camera Action... & Another Day Another Life also picked up several nominations.

...
Wikipedia