Trifest International Youth Film Festival Returns to Hudson with Global Lineup

When Trifest International Youth Film Festival lands at Time and Space Limited in Hudson July 24-26, it will bring with it a remarkably global vision for a festival only in its second year: 84 short films by emerging filmmakers age 25 and younger, representing voices from 29 countries. The festival grew out of the Berkshire County Teen Film Festival, held at the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington in 2024. After an influx of non-local submissions, founder and Festival Director Nicki Wilson and her team expanded the project in 2025 from a local teen showcase into an international festival for filmmakers under 25. Trifest officially launched at the Triplex in September 2025 and now arrives in Hudson with a larger footprint, an ambitious slate, and a high-powered jury.

Founded by Wilson alongside Molly Cooper, Andreas Engel, Ben Elliott, and Sam Handel, Trifest was created to support the next generation of cinematic storytellers—not only by screening their work but by connecting young filmmakers with peers, mentors, and industry professionals. This year’s lineup spans narrative, documentary, animation, and experimental work, with submissions from Mexico, Ireland, Singapore, Spain, France, Armenia, Taiwan, Poland, Rwanda, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and across the United States.

For Trifest Programming Director Mari Kishi, this year’s selections push back against the idea that younger generations raised on phones and social media are abandoning traditional cinematic language. “One thing that stood out to us this year was how cinematic these films are,” Kishi says. “In a day and age when so much of what we watch is made for smartphones and tablets, these are films that still strive to be experienced on the big screen. They embrace scale, movement, sound, and the kind of energy that can only be appreciated in a theater surrounded by other people. Those are the films we’ve chosen to celebrate at this year’s Trifest.”

Beyond the screenings, the festival has been designed as an incubator for young filmmakers. The weekend includes a speed networking event with industry professionals, a filmmakers-only breakfast, a 16mm workshop, keynote conversations, and a dance party at Spark of Hudson.

“Aside from the many terrific films we will be screening, we will have a speed networking event with industry professionals, a filmmakers-only breakfast, a 16mm workshop, a dance party with a DJ at Spark of Hudson as well as exciting keynote speakers,” Wilson says. “Last year, we listened to what our young filmmakers wanted most from a festival, which was more time to connect with each other and to have young keynote speakers share how they got their first feature films made. We have tried to give them a festival that would do just that!”

This year’s keynote guests reflect that focus on filmmakers building careers outside traditional industry pathways. Kit Zauhar, an Asian-American filmmaker whose features include Actual People and This Closeness, will discuss her journey from winning festivals as a teenager to navigating independent cinema. Trifest will also screen This Closeness, which won the 2023 New American Cinema Competition Special Jury Prize.

On Sunday, members of the Los Angeles-based Omnes Films Collective will discuss collaboration and the benefits of making films with friends. The panel includes Carson Lund, whose film Eephus was named one of the best films of 2025 by the New York Times, along with Ramzi Bashour, whose Hot Water was developed through the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters and Directors Lab and selected for the US Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

Perhaps the clearest signal of Trifest’s rapid ascent is the caliber of filmmakers and cultural figures who have signed on as jurors. This year’s panel includes DreamWorks Animation President Margie Cohn; Emmy and PGA Award-winning filmmaker Tony Gerber; two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage; actor and filmmaker Karen Allen; The Grand Budapest Hotel executive producer Molly Cooper; award-winning filmmaker Haley Elizabeth Anderson; filmmaker and producer Juliane Hiam; experimental filmmaker and UMass Boston professor Wenhua Shi; and Secret Mall Apartment director Jeremy Workman.

For a festival founded on the idea that young filmmakers need more than a place to show their work, that jury represents exactly the kind of access Trifest hopes to create: a chance for emerging artists to have their films seen by people actively shaping the future of the medium.

Trifest International Youth Film Festival runs July 24-26 at Time and Space Limited in Hudson. All events are open to the public. Visit Trifest.org for more information.