Alumnus Sets Sights on Film Festivals

A woman and a man pose with a film poster.

Alumnus John Mastandrea and his sister Sophia (left). ‘Beyond the Deli Door’ was Mastandrea’s senior thesis film.

By Rebecca Maxon

July 16, 2025 — It all started in the second grade with a three-minute stop-motion film made with Lego bricks and a 2007 Sony Handicam. John Mastandrea, BA’25 (Flor), submitted the short film to a local Ocean County film competition and won Best Director, eventually setting him on the path to his filmmaking degree.

This year, “Beyond the Deli Door,” a short fantasy/horror film he wrote and directed — and his senior thesis film at FDU — debuted at the Lighthouse Lens Film Festival, held June 8, 2025, in New Haven, Conn. The film took first place in the Student Film category.

Working on this project was the first time Mastandrea rented gear from professional studios, hired freelancers and even a composer for the score and he says, “It paid off terrifically,” Mastandrea says. He is planning to submit the film to more festivals over the next year or so.

Mastandrea also makes political documentaries under the name “Northeast 58.” His latest focuses on the LGBTQ+ community and was released to coincide with Pride Month.

Film clapboard with writing on it for short film called "Beyond the Deli Door."

This year, he’s slated to work at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. At the Student Symposium, which coincides with the festival run, August 28 through September 1, 2025, he’ll have the opportunity to network with like-minded filmmakers as they collaborate side-by-side in small groups.

“This will be my first time working at a film festival at this large of a scale,” he says. Symposium students will attend film screenings and symposia and even interact with and meet established filmmakers. Mastandrea was excited by the chance he might get to interview one of his film idols.

Back in his freshman year at FDU, he won “Best Director” for his short film “Honeydew” at the Florham Campus film award show, The Fairleighs. Some of his high-school projects were honored at the Student Television Network (STN) national convention, held in Seattle, Wash, in 2019.

A man holds up a figurine.He graduated as a member of the Honors Academy, president of FDU Filmmakers and lead nonfiction editor of the Cygnus creative writing magazine.

Some of his films are available to watch on YouTube.

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