Gail Rottenstrich, the former mayor and councilwoman from Fair Lawn, still remembers
how excited the fire department in town got when it had to respond to a call at 3 a.m.
Every member of the department joined in. And there wasn’t even a fire.
The department was needed to serve as a real-life prop for a real-life scene that was
being filmed in town. Rottenstrich said the department was all in.
“They were so excited to think that they might be in the background of what was being
shot that they all showed early,” she said.
It spoke to the excitement that Fair Lawn, a Bergen County town of approximately
35,000 residents, has for the industry.
It’s one thing to be certified as a FilmReady Community by the New Jersey Motion
Picture and Television Commission; it’s another to show it.
That’s why Rottenstrich, now the chair of Fair Lawn Main Street, brought a handful of
members of the Fair Lawn Film Board to the 2026 N.J. Film Expo last week at the
Meadowlands Arena.
“We’re here to promote Fair Lawn as a film-ready town,” she said.
That promotion comes with data on all the locations for shoots that are available in town
(there are more than 100), the simple process to apply to film there (the application fee
is just a 100 bucks) — and all the crews that are in town now.
There is an episode of the Starz series, ‘Power: Origins’ and a Hallmark movie (‘Mom’s
the Bride’), to name just two, Rottenstrich said.
Rottenstrich said the town is an ideal setting for any film.
“If you need a typical Main Street, we have River Road,” she started. “If you’re looking
for a restaurant, we have a bunch of them on Broadway. If you’re looking for a historic
location, we have plenty of those.”
In addition, Fair Lawn and the surrounding area have plenty of places for the cast and
crew to stay.
More than anything, Rottenstrich stressed, Fair Lawn has a willingness to welcome the
industry.
“We make it easy,” she said. “There’s no friction. We want to make this happen.”
Even at 3 a.m.
