The New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission (NJMPTC) has been nominated for Outstanding Film Commission by the Locations Managers Guild International (LMGI) for its work on “A Complete Unknown,” a Bob Dylan biopic filmed mostly in the Garden State.
The 12th Annual LMGI Awards honor the visual contributions by location professionals in film, television, commercials, and film commission. Honorary awards are also presented to location professionals for lifetime achievement.
New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) CEO Tim Sullivan said the nomination reflects the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission’s growing role in attracting high-profile productions.
“Under Governor Murphy’s leadership, the film industry has become a powerful driver of economic growth in New Jersey, creating good-paying jobs and supporting small businesses across the state,” Sullivan said.
“The commission’s hospitality and experience, combined with incentives, local talent, and diverse locations, have made New Jersey a premier destination for major productions,” Sullivan added.
The NJMPTC, a division of the NJEDA, was established in 1976. John Baldasare was appointed NJMPTC Director in January.
Aside from the NJMPTC, other nominees in the Outstanding Film Commission category are:
📽️ British Columbia Film Commission/Creative BC – “The Last of Us” – Season 2 (HBO Max)
📽️ City of Toronto Film Office – “The Handmaid’s Tale” – Season 6 (Hulu)
📽️ Egypt Film Commission – “Fountain of Youth” (Apple TV+)
📽️ Film New Orleans – “Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
📽️ Montana Film Office – “1923” – Season 2 (Paramount+)
About the Bob Dylan Movie
Based on the 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric!” by Elijah Wald, the 141 minute film centers on Dylan’s decision to play an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, marking a significant shift in his musical direction. The move also caused a ruckus at the no-electric-guitars folk fest in Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival.
The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director. The movie was also nominated for three Golden Globes. Unfortunately, the nominees, cast, and crew from “A Complete Unknown” went home empty handed.
The movie stars Timothée Chalamet (Bob Dylan) and Elle Fanning (Dylan’s girlfriend), and co-stars Ed Norton (Pete Seeger), Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez), Boyd Holbrook (Johnny Cash), Scoot McNairy (Woody Guthrie), and Dan Fogler (Albert Grossman).
The Dylan crew shot footage in 17 municipalities across 10 counties, including Hoboken, Jersey City, Paterson, and Cape May. New Jersey locations doubled for settings in New York City, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, Washington, D.C., and Northern California.
Here’s where all the filming took place:
🎼Cape May: Exit 0 in NJ has a Newport, Rhode Island vibe that worked perfect and looked legit in the scenes depicting the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
🎼Hoboken: The Mile Square City took on the role of the 1960s Greenwich Village bar scene at Moran’s Pub and other downtown settings.
🎼Jersey City: Filming took place at locations like the Miss America Diner, White Mana Diner, and the William J. Brennan Courthouse.
🎼Newark: Several scenes were shot in Brick City, intending to represent the West Village from 1961-69. Newark Symphony Hall doubled as a San Francisco concert venue.
🎼Paterson: Paterson City Hall was used as a filming location for scenes set in the West Village
🎼Belleville: The former Essex County Isolation Hospital in Belleville was used to depict Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, where Bob Dylan visited Woody Guthrie.
🎼Clifton: Rutt’s Hut in Clifton was used as a filming location.
🎼Elizabeth: The Ritz Theatre in Elizabeth doubled as Carnegie Hall.
🎼Kearny: Palisade Stages in Kearny were used for stage work.
🎼Lower Township: Scenes were filmed at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal in Lower Township, near Cape May, standing in for a Newport, Rhode Island ferry slip.
🎼Red Bank: Downtown streets and venues in Red Bank were used, according to the Asbury Park Press.
🎼Mountainside: Echo Lake Park in Mountainside was used to recreate scenes of the Newport Folk Festival.
The film crew spent over 60 days in various locales across the state and local economies saw the dollars and sense. Over 4,700 people were hired to work on the movie, and all told, the production dropped $81 million in New Jersey, according to local reports.
Jon Crowley, the commission’s executive director, said the nomination underscores New Jersey’s versatility for filmmakers.
“From big-city stand-ins to coastal towns, productions like “A Complete Unknown” show how New Jersey can double for a wide range of places,” Crowley said. “It’s recognition that our variety of locations and the work of location scouts continue to draw top-tier projects.”
The LMGI awards will be presented on Aug. 23 in Santa Monica, California.
About Bob Dylan, the Screenplay, and Woody Guthrie
When Bob Dylan left his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota in January 1961 at 19 years old, he had a guitar strapped to his back and was heading to Jersey to meet his idol: Woody Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – Oct. 3, 1967). Suffering from the genetic degenerative neurological disorder Huntington’s disease, Guthrie was admitted to Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey in 1956.
When Dylan finally did get to sit down with Guthrie, the two became fast friends. Dylan became a frequent visitor to Greystone, often meeting up with folk singer great Pete Seeger. On Feb. 14, 1961, Dylan was moved to write “Song to Woody,” and sang it to Guthrie during their many visits.
The song was released on his debut album, Bob Dylan, in 1962.
In interviews even today, when asked if he had a favorite song, Dylan always says “Song to Woody.” The 2 minute 41 second song set to the tune of Guthrie’s “1913 Massacre” struck a chord with many in its ability to evoke raw emotions from seemingly simple words.
Numerous artists have covered the song, including:
🎤David Bowie’s 1971 “Song for Bob Dylan” mirrors the opening lines of Dylan’s “Song to Woody.”
🎤British singer-songwriter Frank Turner references the song in “Pass it Along.”
🎤Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist Christy Moore covered “Song to Woody” as “Tribute to Woody” on his 1972 album Prosperous.
🎤Canadian band Silverstein recorded a punk rock version for the Amnesty International charity album Chimes of Freedom.
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie wrote more than 3,000 American folk songs, including “This Land Is Your Land.” He was regarded as one of the most important American folk music pioneers. He died at the age of 55.
Nominations, Awards, Screenplay, Machine Gun Kelly
In addition to The New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission’s Outstanding Film Commission nomination for “A Complete Unknown,” the movie (Searchlight Pictures, Anthony Pisani, Location Manager) was nominated by LMGI for Outstanding Locations in a Period Feature Film. Other nominees in that category are:
🎬 “The Apprentice” (Briarcliff Entertainment) Richard Hughes
🎬“Fly Me to the Moon” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Maida Morgan, Julieta Rey del Castillo /LMGI
🎬“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures) Khalid Ameskane /LMGI, Christian McWilliams /LMGI, Joseph Formosa Randon /LMGI
🎬“I’m Still Here” (Sony Pictures Classics, StudioCanal) Maria Maria Dunham, Gisele Prado
🎬“Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures) Elston Howard /LMG
The screenplay was co-written by director James Mangold and two-time Oscar nominated writer Jay Cocks. The script can be read on Deadline. Dylan had approval over the script and was said to be active in the writing and editing process, according to multiple reports. He even did a table read of the entire script, Time reported.
Cocks first met Dylan in college. He wrote about his day with Dylan for the Kenyon student newspaper, the Collegian. In recent interviews, he said picking up Bob Dylan from the airport on Nov. 6, 1964 was the catalyst that led to his music journalism and screenwriting career.
“You knew you were in the presence of something and someone who changed the definition of special. I wrote it all up in the Collegian, and it was a good calling card. It got me my gig at Time,” Cocks recently told the Collegian. He was a film critic for Time right out of college before pivoting to screenwriting.
Cocks was nominated for three Academy Awards: “The Age of Innocence” (1993), “Gangs of New York” (2002), and “Silence” (2016), all with with Martin Scorsese.
Colson Baker, AKA Machine Gun Kelly (MGK), was stunned and amazed when he was getting alerts and texts that Bob Dylan gave him a shout-out on Instagram in February. Dylan shared a 2016 MGK performance in a record store.
The two reportedly met during the 2025 Outlaw Music Festival. MGK said Dylan gave off an energy that felt almost mythical. MGK’s new album “Lost Americana” dropped its trailer in June 2025 and it’s narrated by Bob Dylan. On “The Tonight Show,” MGK said he had “no idea how he [Bob Dylan] even knows who I am.”
About Bob Dylan
“Chaos is a friend of mine,” Bob Dylan said during an interview with Nora Ephron at Woodstock in 1965 and with Newswedek in 1985.
Born Robert Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist who has been a major figure in popular culture since the 1960s. He was raised in a middle-class, Jewish home in the mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota, where his family owned a furniture store. He developed a passion for music early on, learning to play piano and guitar. His yearbook inscription indicated he wanted to “join Little Richard.”
With an estimated 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. His songs have been covered more than 6,000 times by artists as diverse as Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, Guns N’ Roses, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, the Staple Singers, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Marley, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Adele and U2.
Dylan has said he sees the world as a place of inherent disorder and flux, which he embraces as a creative force, according to reports.
He received an honorary doctorate of music from Princeton University, New Jersey, in 1970 and another from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, in 2004. President Clinton presented him with a Kennedy Center Honor at the White House in 1997.
The father of six was married twice. He has a brother David, five years younger, who was a music teacher.
About the NJMPTC
The New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission, part of the NJEDA, promotes film and television production in the state and serves as a resource for production companies.
About the NJEDA
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) serves as the state’s principal agency for driving economic growth. The NJEDA is committed to making New Jersey a national model for inclusive and sustainable economic development by focusing on key strategies to help build strong and dynamic communities, create good jobs for New Jersey residents, and provide pathways to a stronger and fairer economy.
Through partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders, the NJEDA creates and implements initiatives to enhance the economic vitality and quality of life in the state and strengthen New Jersey’s long-term economic competitiveness.
About the LMGI
The Location Managers Guild International / LMGI is a global organization of career location professionals in the motion picture, television, commercial and print production industries dedicated to upholding the highest ethical standards.
Founded in 2003, LMGI is a 501 (c) 6, non-profit corporation dedicated to the promotion and interests of its members and its relations with the general public, communities, and industry partners.
“Through local commitment and international strength, we support strong relationships between production and government agencies, businesses and communities. We promote awareness of our place in the entertainment industry as indispensable creative collaborators through a variety of innovative programs,” according to the LMGI website.
