TromaDance returning to Asbury Park

If you're a local fan of independent art, this very well may be the coolest news you've read in quite a while: TromaDance is coming back to Asbury Park.

It was recently announced that the 12th annual TromaDance Film Festival will be coming to town on April 22 and 23. After 10 years in Park City, Utah - the town which also plays host to the Sundance Film Festival - TromaDance moved to Asbury Park last year.

Discussing TromaDance in an interview last year, Troma Entertainment president and TromaDance founder Lloyd Kaufman said the move to the Garden State made perfect sense for the studio that gave the world "The Toxic Avenger,'' the 1984 cult classic film co-written and co-directed by Kaufman.

"New Jersey has always figured prominently in the movies I've written and directed,'' Kaufman said. "As you know, Tromaville, N.J., is the center of all the scripts that I've written, and the Toxic Avenger is from New Jersey."

According to a news release, the 2011 TromaDance Film Festival will return to the ShowRoom, the independent arthouse cinema located on Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park, and will wrap up with a closing party at the Asbury Lanes on Fourth Avenue.

The festival, which has a strict policy of no entry fee for submitting films and free admission to all screenings, also recently extended the deadline for accepting submissions - TromaDance will now accept entries postmarked before Feb. 18.

Among the highlights of last year's TromaDance were the east coast premiere screening of the much-hyped shocker "The Human Centipede," the New Jersey premiere of Kaufman's "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead'' complete with a post-film Q&A with Kaufman, and the killer after-party at the Lanes, which featured Philadelphia-based alt-rock band the Extraordinaires, the lovely ladies of Bump 'n' Grindhouse: B-Movie Burlesque and more.

For a sample of last year's TromaDance Film Festival, check out our photo gallery from throughout the weekend. And for more on TromaDance, visit the festival's official website.