TRIFI Film Festival's goals are:

- To promote and encourage current and future artists/artisans in the arts, media, and technology of film making.

- To further public awareness and appreciation of motion pictures as an art form, and

- To support the education of the general public in these areas by hosting annual film exhibitions, lectures, seminars, workshops, and other activities.

TRIFI's motto is “To spotlight independent films with limited budgets using unlimited imagination!”

Films may also be selected to screen with no extra fee at other film events/festivals that TRIFI hosts or is invited to.

TRIFI (TCIF3) is a Washington state non-profit organization. A Registered 501c3 Tax-Exempt Organization

Awards & Prizes

GENERAL FESTIVAL AWARDS
All films submitted to our film festival are eligible for one of the following two award categories:

- "Best Independent (genre-specific) Short Film" - To be eligible for this award, your production must be the specified genre and shorter than 40 minutes. A Laurel will be awarded to the film in each genre that was scored the highest by our panel of judges.

- "Best Independent (genre-specific) Feature Film" - To be eligible for this award, your production must be the specified genre and longer than 40 minutes (inclusive). A Laurel will be awarded to the film in each genre that was scored the highest by our panel of judges. This award is currently available for only the Documentary and Animation genres.

SPECIAL CATEGORY AWARDS
These are additional award categories that filmmakers can request their film be considered for (indicated when the film is submitted). An additional Laurel will be awarded to the film in each category that is scored the highest by our panel of judges. Whenever possible, judges will include one or more individuals from and/or familiar with these communities.

- "Best Independent Film submitted by a Student Filmmaker"
- "Best Independent Film submitted by a Pacific NW Filmmaker" (filmmakers that list an address in WA, OR, or ID)
- "Best Independent Film submitted by an LGBTQIA+ Filmmaker"
- "Best Independent Film submitted by a Woman Filmmaker"
- "Best Independent Film submitted by a BIPOC Filmmaker" (BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color)

Rules & Terms

Please read the following carefully. By submitting your film to the TRIFI Film Festival, you agree to abide by the following:

GENERAL RULES FOR ENTRY

1. Films submitted must be in one of the following length categories:
Short Film (under 40 minutes) or Feature Film (40 minutes or longer)

2. All films will be reviewed by a panel of TRIFI staff and/or independent judges.

3. To be accepted, submitted films must be completely edited and in their final completed form.

4. If the film contains non-English dialogue, English subtitles must be included.

5. Entry fee covers one film and/or trailer by submitter.

6. Films can be live action, animation or a combination of both.

7. Films may be submitted as “For exhibition only” at submitter's request. Any such submissions will be excluded from judging and will not be considered for any award category.

8. Preferred video file format - 1080/720HD H.264 mp4 file

9. Submitted films may be screened at other TRIFI events. Films may also be selected to screen with no extra fee at other film events that TRIFI hosts or is invited to.

10. From any genre, TRIFI may give special recognition to films in additional award categories (see SPECIAL CATEGORY AWARDS in the "Awards & Prizes" section above).
27 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Thomas Seymour

    A wonderful, well attended film festival in a beautiful historic movie theater.

    November 2025
    Helpful
  • John Cornelissen

    Tri-Cities Film Festival is an amazing festival. The organizers are very passionate about films! Thank you for choosing my film The Projectionist: A Collector's Journey to participate in this year's festival.!

    December 2024
    Helpful
  • Adam E. Stone

    Although we were not able to attend in person, we had very good pre-festival communication with the organizers, and so far our post-festival follow-up has been great as well. The festival is a very good value for the price of submissions, and the festival plays an important role in providing a screening venue in the Tri-Cities area for films without Hollywood-sized budgets. We hope to submit additional films in the future!

    November 2024
    Helpful
  • Randy LaBarge

    TRIFI is one of my favorite festivals. It's well-organized and everyone is friendly and fabulous to work with. Great networking opportunities. The new venue at the Richland Players Theater is far better than the previous venue. Kudos to the Board and staff of the Tri-Cities International Film Festival for a great annual festival.

    November 2024
    Helpful
  • Janet Krupin

    Sunset Road had a wonderful showing and the cast and I were grateful to be included in this annual festival. Thank you to the team at Tri-Fi!

    November 2024
    Helpful