JT Trinidad (b. 2001) is a filmmaker, photographer, and critic based in Cebu. They graduated summa cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman and were the class valedictorian of the UP College of Mass Communication, Class of 2024. 

 

Trinidad’s debut documentary short <as if nothing happened> competed at the London Short Film Festival. Their other shorts were included in CNN’s Best Filipino Films of 2020 and 2022. Their debut narrative short <the river that never ends> won Best Southeast Asian Short Film at the 34th Singapore International Film Festival and the Student Award at the 18th JOGJA-NETPAC Asian Film Festival. Their shorts were selected for festivals including QCinema, SeaShorts, Ji.hlava, Kaohsiung, Hamburg, XPOSED, NFFTY, BFI, and Tampere. <the river that never ends> is currently streaming on The Criterion Collection.

 

Their film essays and reviews have been published in Sine Liwanag, Sinegang.ph, Sinekultura, and Kino Punch. They received an Ani ng Dangal award from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2024. Their photographs have been exhibited at Orange Project, UP Fine Arts Gallery, BenCab Museum, and ArtFair PH as part of Fotomoto 2024.

 

An alumnus of Ricky Lee’s Screenwriting Workshop, Mowelfund Film Institute, and the US-based nomadic film school Film Futura, Trinidad envisions using cinema to organize communities. They co-founded [kino] kolekta with friends, a nomadic cinema that screens short films.