Celebrating Karen Allen

BIFF WILL HONOR THE SCREEN STAR FOR HER CAREER IN ACTING, DIRECTING, AND COMMITMENT TO THE FILM FESTIVAL

By Anastasia Stanmeyer

Photo by Bobby Miller

May/June 2026

Read Berkshire Magazine's May/June 2026 Issue.

The 20th annual Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) will pay tribute on Saturday, May 30, to one of its own this year, and we couldn’t be more thrilled! The BIFF 2026 honoree will be Karen Allen. Along with a special presentation, she will be in conversation with her close friend, acclaimed production designer Kristi Zea. And Starman, a personal favorite of Allen’s (which co-stars Jeff Bridges), will be screened.

Allen has balanced iconic blockbuster roles—including Animal House, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Scrooged—with acclaimed theater work. And independent films have enabled her to continue acting as a craftsperson and director. She is also an integral part of the fabric of our region whose passion and star power have helped make the 20th annual film festival a world-renowned, four-day event celebrating documentaries, narratives, and shorts.

“It’s going to be a very special evening,” says Kelley Vickery, BIFF founder and artistic director. “It’ll be a great night honoring this wonderful, creative, and talented person who happens to be considered one of our own. She so deserves it. I get very choked up when I even think about it.”

Allen is delighted and humbled by the tribute. “This film festival, more than any other film festival, means the world to me,” she says. “I have been honored at a lot of film festivals, so to be honored at this one is very special to me, because this is my home, and this is my festival.”

BIFF has shown nearly all of the independent films that Allen has appeared in or directed, including Year by the Sea, A Stage of Twilight, White Irish Drinkers, and A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud.

“She’s a true independent film star, as well as a movie star,” says Vickery. “More than that, she’s been the heart of the BIFF. She lent her name and street cred to this fledgling film festival.”

After the BIFF came into existence in 2006, Allen has supported Vickery in growing the film festival into what it is today. Allen has been a BIFF board member for many years and has accompanied Vickery to Sundance, Sonoma, and RiverRun film festivals.

The BIFF has something special that most other film festivals don’t have, and that’s the location, says Allen. It’s all centered around downtown Great Barrington—at The Mahaiwe, The Triplex Cinema, and now the Indigo Room. All are within walking distance of each other and the many restaurants, cafes, and bars. “It has this beautiful community feeling that a lot of festivals don’t have,” Allen says. “You don’t have to get in your car and drive 15 or 20 minutes to go from one film to another. It’s a perfect setup. When filmmakers come here, they fall in love with the festival.”

She also has been involved in some of the most memorable BIFF community screenings, such as the 40th Anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark that was held at the Norman Rockwell Museum and co-presented by Berkshire Magazine, and an Animal House cast reunion at the Mahaiwe that included a performance of “Shout!” by Otis Day and the Knights.

When Vickery asked Allen what film she would like to have screened at this year’s BIFF Tribute Night, Allen suggested Starman, directed by John Carpenter and starring Allen and Bridges, who received an Academy Award® nomination for his performance.

The film was inspired by a true event:In 1977, NASA sent an invitation to extraterrestrials to visit us with the launch of the Voyager 1 and 2 probes, which carried a “Golden Record” created by a team led by Carl Sagan. This record contained sounds, images, and greetings in 55 languages designed to provide a “pocket history” of humanity to any intelligent life that might find it. The film’s plot is about an alien that lands on Earth in response to the message of peace, taking the form of a woman’s deceased husband. He has a strict deadline to reach a rendezvous point, leading to a long road trip in which he learns about human emotions.

“It just has a bit of everything,” Allen says. “It’s a wonderful science fiction story, and it’s a romance.”

Allen continues to make films and work on stage. She was planning to go to New York City the week after we talked to shoot an indie film called The Cutting Room Floor by Victoria DeMartin. Allen also will headline Lovesong for Berkshire Theatre Group this summer. (See page 10 for an interview with its director, David Auburn.) And she is completing a film in Dublin called Other Mommy, directed by Rob Savage, based on the book Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman, with an expected release on Halloween weekend.

Another exciting development at this year’s BIFF is that it was selected by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States to be the inaugural U.S. festival partner for its newly launched Transatlantic Rising Stars Project. Five directors will participate in the festival’s Filmmaker Summit, presenting their work in a dedicated European Filmmakers Showcase. (For passes to the BIFF, go to biffma.org.)