Hawaii International Film Festival
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Hawaii International Film Festival Announces its 2017 Lineup
We covered last year’s Hawaii International Film Festival — its 35th edition — and now the fest is back for another year. Asian box-office sensations, Cannes art-house favorites, and a particularly strong lineup of indigenous Pacific filmmaking highlight this year’s edition, which runs November 2-12 in Oahu. Long a bastion of Pacific Rim and specifically Pacific Islander story-telling, the festival this year brings forth a new competition for films made in Hawaii, highlighted by the Closing Night world premiere of Alexander Bocchieri’s Go For Broke: An Origin Story, a narrative feature based on the famed 442nd Infantry Regiment, a World […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 11, 2017 -
A Showcase for Pacific Islands Filmmakers: The Hawaii International Film Festival at 35
How does one measure a film festival’s success? Through the number of world premieres, red-carpet events, and sold-out screenings? Or possibly it’s something that occurs beyond the screen, in terms of how a festival supports its community and helps nurture its local film culture. Turning a respectable 35 this past November, the Hawaii International Film Festival attempted to do both. It kept its usual youthful swagger with a strong lineup of world and international premieres and some glamorous events featuring the likes of Japanese star Tadanobu Asano and Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung, yet made sure to spotlight key new […]
by Jason Sanders on Feb 3, 2016 -
Hawaii International Film Festival 2013
Bryan Cranston as a Polish gangster; Chuuk immigrants in Guam; a Japanese superhero dressed only in women’s panties; Honolulu transit controversies; a home run-hitting gorilla; and filmmaking initiatives from the Cook Islands — all these and more were on display during last month’s Hawaii International Film Festival. New films by Jia Zhang-ke, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Hayao Miyazaki, Brillante Mendoza and Dante Lam dominated the festival’s solid Asian lineup, while emerging talents such as Tze Chun and Steven J. Kung led its selection of American work. Casting its nets far closer to shore, the festival also highlighted local Hawaiian and Pacific Islander […]
by Jason Sanders on Jan 9, 2014 -
Hawaii Critics Notebook #1
To be a film festival in today’s era of instant-streaming gratification and downloading-at-home culture means organizing events and creating a community beyond the traditional movie screen, and this year’s edition of the Hawaii International Film Festival certainly promised its patrons far more than a typical film-going experience. Out with the hot dogs, seating rows, frigid air conditioning, and desultory Q&A’s of your usual festival situation, and—for a few special nights at least—in with artisanal food trucks, outdoor screenings, martial arts demos, live music performances, cosplay displays, lengthy photo ops with various stars, and even, oddly enough, quite a few films. […]
by Jason Sanders on Oct 22, 2012 -
HAWAII AWARD WINNERS AND A STANDOUT WORK
The Hawaii International Film Festival fittingly wrapped up its 31st edition last week with Alexander Payne’s Hawaii-set-and-shot comedy/drama The Descendants, with a gracious Payne in town for the screening (no George Clooney, alas, though a life-sized Clooney cardboard cut-out was certainly a massive hit in the lobby). “Wine always tastes the best in the region it was grown and made,” noted Payne to an appreciative audience. “I hope that this film plays best in Hawaii.” Judging from audience response, Payne got his wish; the film (to be released nationally November 15) won the festival’s Audience Award for Narrative Feature, with […]
by Jason Sanders on Nov 5, 2011
