Young filmmakers — including many from the Mountain State —Ìýare bringing their creations to the big screen this Saturday for the West Virginia Youth Film Festival.
For the third year in a row, the West Virginia Youth Film Festival will provide a space for young filmmakers to showcase their masterpieces, including fiction short films, documentaries and stop-motion animation.
This year, the festival will be held at Park Place Cinemas in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, on Saturday. The festival will show 16 different short films and audience members will receive informational pamphlets about them, said festival organizer Liberty Morgan.
This is an April 2026 contributed photo of Liberty Morgan shown in Fayetteville, Fayette County.
Courtesy photo
Morgan, 19, of Fayetteville, in Fayette County, is studying psychology at Shepherd University. She has organized the festival since she was 17, inspired by the need for a safe space for young Appalachian filmmakers like herself.
It can be intimidating for young filmmakers to submit their work to large international film festivals, Morgan said. The West Virginia Youth Film Festival hopes to take some of that pressure off by only accepting submissions from people under the age of 24.
“There’s a really big untapped market for kids in this area,†Morgan said, referring to young filmmakers. “There’s so much creativity in West Virginia that isn’t really allowed to be expressed. It was really important for me to be able to have a safe space for kids to be able to share their ideas and share their creative projects.â€
Morgan is a filmmaker herself and has shown her work in previous West Virginia Youth Film Festivals. This year however, Morgan will focus on organizing the event.Ìý
This is a promotional image of the film "Maple Leaves," directed by Elena Alves.
Courtesy photo
The West Virginia Youth Film Festival focuses on building a sense of community among young artists. They have held workshops and educational events in the past to encourage skill development, but there isn’t one on the lineup for this year’s festival. Morgan hopes to do another workshop in the future so the young filmmakers can continue to learn from each other and from more experienced professionals.
Keeping their celebration of the arts accessible to everyone is also important for the film festival. Saturday's event is free and open to the public, and the submission fee for filmmakers was $5. As a nonprofit, the film festival used the proceeds to pay for their web domain on FilmFreeway, a web platform where they post information about the festival and accept submissions.
This is a promotional image for"Hall's Service Station," a documentary film by Olivia Conley, Jessica Wright and Hannah Damron.
Courtesy photo
Morgan said they received around 30 submissions from people all over the world, which is more than they had received in previous years. They screened each film and chose 16 to show at the festival, about half of which were submitted by West Virginia natives, Morgan said. The other half of the films were created in various places across the United States.
They ask filmmakers to adhere to a PG-13 rating, but the festival is open to all genres, as long as the work is creative and original. Keeping the rules to a minimum helps the festival foster a wide variety of stories and styles, Morgan said. She said she’s excited to showcase the experimental and complex narrative work they received this year.
“Creativity is at an all-time high,†Morgan said.
Kendra Gilchrist is HD Media's regional digital reporter. She can be reached at 304-348-2802, or kgilchrist@hdmediallc.com.Ìý
