Perini joins finalists Cameron Thrower (California) and Kat Wood (Sheffield, England) in heading to LA, where he'll shoot his film titled The New Empress.
The detention-centre documentary will premiere locally May 5 at the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival in Melbourne.
An AFTRS film will also screen at Hot Docs in Canada, the most prestigious documentary festival in North America.
The second series begins four years after the first, with Elisabeth Moss' Detective Robin Griffin now working in Sydney.
The limited series was written by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for Van Sant's Milk.
Created, written and produced by Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope, the eight-parter will again shoot in Melbourne.
Hothouse is aimed at Victorian students in Years 10, 11 and 12, and is free for selected participants.
US-based Supergravity Pictures will release the film in the US, UK and Ireland next month, in partnership with music label and digital media agency Heard Well.