The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival (HIFF) is an annual film festival held in the United States state of Hawaii.
HIFF focuses on Asian-Pacific cinema, education, and showcasing the work of new and emerging filmmakers. HIFF's main festival takes place annually in Honolulu in October and November, with additional screenings and events held across the Hawaiian Islands of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Kauaʻi and Maui. The festival also holds a smaller Spring Showcase in March and runs education and industry events throughout the year.
In 2018, HIFF welcomed over 44,000 attendees.
The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival (HIFF) has earned the distinction of being the nation's preeminent source of discovery and exhibition of Native Hawaiian and Asian-Pacific cinema and new media. HIFF is the only statewide film festival in the United States and the only Academy Award-qualifying film festival with a focus on Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander content. HIFF's mission is two-fold: to bring the best in international cinema to Hawaiʻi, and to advance the understanding and cultural exchange among the people of Asia, the Pacific, and North America through the medium of film. HIFF also presents educational content including panels and workshops in the fields of film, music, technology, and media.
History
thumb|300 px|right|Jury members [[Sun Daolin, Nagisa Ōshima, Donald Richie, Roger Ebert, and Aruna Vasudev, join Jeannette Paulson at HIFF in 1983]]
HIFF was founded in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko as a project of the East-West Center located at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus in Honolulu. Due to this academic association, HIFF prominently featured academic seminars and discussions in its early years, and was delivered free to the public. The relationship between HIFF and the East-West Center ended in 1994. Film critics Donald Richie and Roger Ebert had close personal relationships with the festival and frequently attended before their deaths.
The festival has premiered popular movies such as A Leading Man, Once Were Warriors, The Piano, Shine, Shall We Dance?, Y Tu Mama Tambien and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
In 2018, HIFF launched its virtual reality program, with a focus on Asian-Pacific and environmental storytelling.
HIFF celebrated its 40th edition in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic with a hybrid festival combining online video on demand streaming with drive-in theaters and a small number of conventional cinema screenings.
In 2022, HIFF held its 42nd annual Fall Festival which drew in over 52,000 viewers to 276 films from 37 countries. Adding to the Festival's international prominence were 178 filmmakers, actors, critics, and film industry professionals from throughout the world. These delegates participated in post-screening discussions, special events, and free educational programs. Since its inception, HIFF has benefited more than 1.6 million people. The Halekulani Maverick Award is given to accomplished artists and filmmakers with unconventional career trajectories, often to rising stars of the global film industry.
|Dark Red Forest
|Jin Huaqing
|-
|2022
|Bad Axe
|David Siev
|-
|2023
|Asog
|Seán Devlin
|-
|2024
|Molokaʻi Bound
|Alika Tengan
|}
Made in Hawaiʻi Film Awards
The Made in Hawaiʻi Film Awards is presented by the Nichols Family Fund and Hawaii Film Office for feature and short films produced by local filmmakers.
{| class=wikitable
|-
!Year
!Film
!Director
|-
|1990
|My Aunt May
|Roland Tharpe
|-
|1991
|Hawaiʻi: Beyond the Feathered Gods
|Paul Atkins
|-
|1992
|Simple Courage
|Stephanie Castillo
|-
|1993
|From Hawaiʻi to the Holocaust
|Judy Weightman / Ryan Sexton
|-
|1994
|Ganbare
|Robert Bates
|-
|1995
|Words, Earth and Aloha
|Eddie Kamae
|-
|1996
|Lemon Tree Billiards House
|Tim Savage
|-
|1997
|E Ola Ka ʻOlelo Hawaiʻi
|Na Maka O Ka ʻAina
|-
|1998
|Kahoʻolawe
|David Kalama Jr
|-
|1999
|Red Turtle Rising
|Jay April
|-
|2000
|Kaʻililauokekoa
|Kalaʻiokona Ontai
|-
|2001
|Blood of the Samurai
|Aaron Yamasato
|-
|2002
|
|
|-
|2003
|The Ride
|Nathan Kurosawa
|-
|2004
|Silent Years
|James Sereno
|-
|2005
|Fishbowl
|Kayo Hatta
|-
|2006
|Na Kamalei: Men of Hula
|Lisette Marie Flannery
|-
|2018
|Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable
|Aaron Lieber
|Made in Hawaii Audience Award
|-
|2018
|The Moon and The Night
|Erin Lau
|Made in Hawaii Best Short
|-
|2019
|Molokaʻi Bound
|Alika Maikau
|Made in Hawaii Best Short
|-
|2019
|Down on the Sidewalk in Waikiki
|Justyn Ah Chong
|Made in Hawaii Best Short, Second Place
|-
|2020
|Hawaiian Soul
|ʻĀina Paikai
|Best Short + Audience Award Short
|-
|2020
|Waikiki
|Chris Kahunahana
|Best Feature + Best Cinematography
|-
|2021
|The Wind & the Reckoning
|David L. Cunningham
|Best Feature
|-
|2022
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Film
!Director
!Award
|-
|2022
|The Red Suitcase
|Cyrus Neshvad
|HIFF Best Short Film Award
|-
|2022
|Kumu Niu
|Alex Cantatore
|Deep Blue Environmental Shorts Award
{| class=wikitable
|-
!Year
!Film
!Director
!Country
|-
|2000
|Breaking the Silence
|Sun Zhou
|China
|-
|2001
|Devils on the Doorstep
|Jiang Wen
|China
|-
|2002
|Eyes of a Beauty
|Guan Hu
|China
|-
|2003
|
|
|
|-
|2004
|Peep "TV" Show
|Yutaka Tsuchiya
|Japan
|-
|2005
|Season of the Horse
|Ning Cai
|China
|-
|2006
|4:30
|Royston Tan
|Singapore
|-
|2007
|Owl and the Sparrow
|Stephane Gauger
|Vietnam
|-
|2008
|Brutus - The Adventure
|Tara Illenberger
|Philippines
|-
|2009
|Castaway on the Moon
|Lee Hae-jun
|South Korea
|-
|2010
|Monga
|Doze Chen-Zer Niu
|Taiwan ROC
|-
|2011
|Hanaan
|Ruslan Pak
|South Korea, Uzbekistan
|-
|2012
|Aparisyon (Apparition)
|Isabel Sandoval (credited as Vincent Sandoval)
|Philippines
|-
|2013
|Monsoon Shootout
|Amit Kumar
|India
|-
|2014
|Titli
|Kanu Behl
|India
|-
|2015
|The Kids
|Sunny Yu
|Taiwan
|-
|2016
|Knife in the Clear Water
|Wan Xuebo
|China
|-
|2017
|One Thousand Ropes
|Tusi Tamasese
|New Zealand
|-
|2018
|Still Human
|Oliver Chan
|Hong Kong
|-
|2019
|Another Child
|Yoon-Seok Kim
|South Korea
|-
|2021 In 2019, this program was relaunched as the New American Perspectives.
{| class=wikitable
!Year
!Film
!Delegate
!Country of Birth
|-
|2007
|Owl and the Sparrow
|Stephane Gauger (Director)
|Vietnam
|-
|2007
|Finishing the Game
|Justin Lin (Director)
|Taiwan
|-
|2007
|The Rebel
|Charlie Nguyen (Director)
|Vietnam
|-
|2007
|The GateKeeper of Enmyoin
|Reiko Tahara (Director)
|Japan
|-
|2007
|
|Max Uesugi (Director)
|Japan
|-
|2008
|Chief (Short Film)
|Chief Sielu Avea (Actor)
|Samoa
|-
|2008
|Long Story Short
|Christine Choy (Director)
|China
|-
|2008
|Vietnam Overtures
|Stephane Gauger (Director)
|Vietnam
|-
|2008
|Prince of the Himalayas
|Sherwood Hu (Director)
|China
|-
|2008
|Someplace Else
|Kai-Duc Luong (Director)
|Cambodia
|-
|2008
|Ocean of Pearls
|Sarab Neelam (Director)
|India
|-
|2009
|A Village Called Versailles
|S. Leo Chiang (Director)
|Taiwan
|-
|2009
|Prince of Broadway
|Karren Karagulian (Actor)
|Armenia
|-
|2009
|The People I've Slept With
|Quentin Lee (Director)
|Hong Kong
|-
|2009
|Bombay Summer
|Joseph Mathew-Varghese (Director)
|India
|-
|2009
|White on Rice
|Hiroshi Watanabe (Actor)
|Japan
|-
|2010
|Dog Sweat
|Hossein Keshavarz (Director)
|Iran
|-
|2010
|Au Revoir Taipei
|In-Ah Lee (Producer)
|Germany
|-
|2010
|Apart Together
|Lisa Lu (Actress)
|China
|-
|2010
|Beijing Taxi
|Miao Wang (Director)
|China
|-
|2011
|The Price of Sex
|Mimi Chakarova (Director)
|Bulgaria
|-
|2011
|Living in Seduced Circumstances
|Ian Gamazon (Director)
|Philippines
|-
|2011
|Skateistan: Four Wheels and a Board in Kabul
|Nadia Hennirch (Screenwriter)
|Germany
|-
|2011
|Almost Perfect
|Bertha Bay-Sa Pan (Director)
|Taiwan
|-
|2011
|My Last Day Without You
|Christopher Silber (Screenwriter)
|Germany
|-
|2012
|Valley of Saints
|Nicholas Bruckman (Producer)
|United Kingdom
|-
|2012
|Indian Summer (Short Film)
|Mridu Chandra (Director)
|India
|-
|2012
|Starlet
|Radium Cheung (Cinematographer)
|Hong Kong
|-
|2012
|Paraiso (Short Film)
|Ronan Landa (Composer)
|Israel
|-
|2012
|Daylight Savings
|Goh Nakamura (Actor)
|Japan
|-
|2012
|The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octopus
|Alexandre O. Philippe (Director)
|Switzerland
|-
|2013
|Mr. Pip
|Andrew Adamson (Director)
|New Zealand
|-
|2013
|
|Harry Gregson-Williams (Composer)
|England
|-
|2013
|Escape from Tomorrow
|Soojin Chung (Producer)
|South Korea
|-
|2013
|I Learn America
|Jean-Michel Dissard (Director)
|France
|-
|2013
|This is Martin Bonner
|Chad Hartigan (Director)
|Cyprus
|-
|2013
|Sake-Bomb
|Junya Sakino (Director)
|Japan
|-
|2014
|The Artist
|Antoine de Cazotte (Producer)
|France
|-
|2014
|A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
|Ana Lily Amirpour (Director)
|United Kingdom
|-
|2014
|Man from Reno
|Ayako Fujitani (Actress)
|Japan
|-
|2014
|Difret
| Zeresenay Mehari (Director)
|Ethiopia
|-
|2014
|Nuoc 2030
|Minh Nguyen-Võ (Director)
|Vietnam
|-
|2014
|Uzumasa Limelight
|Ken Ochiai (Director)
|Japan
|-
|2014
|Mudbloods
|Farzad Sangari (Director)
|Iran
|-
|2015
|Camino
|Zoë Bell (Actress)
|New Zealand
|-
|2015
|Margarita, with a Straw
|Shonali Bose (Director)
|India
|-
|2015
|Yosemite
|Gabrielle Demeestere (Director)
|France
|-
|2015
|Spellbound
|Alfred Hitchcock (Director)
|England
|-
|2015
|Seoul Searching
|Daniel Katz (Cinematographer)
|Ireland
|-
|2015
|Seoul Searching
|Benson Lee (Director)
|South Korea
|-
|2015
|People are the Sky
|Dai Sil Kim-Gibson (Director)
|North Korea
|-
|2019
|The Perfect Candidate
|Haifaa al-Mansour (Director)
|Saudi Arabia
|-
|2019
|Asian in America
|Jenny Dorsey (Chef)
|China
|-
|2019
|Go Back to China
|Emily Ting (Director)
|Taiwan
|-
|2019
|Lingua Franca
|Isabel Sandoval (Director and Actor)
|Philippines
|-
|2019
|37 Seconds
|Hikari (Director)
|Japan
|-
|2020
|Shadow in the Cloud
|Roseanne Liang (Director)
|New Zealand
|-
|2020
|76 Days
|Hao Wu (Director)
|China
|-
|2020
|Death of Nintendo
|Valarie Castillo-Martinez (Screenwriter, Producer)
|Philippines
|-
|2020
|First Vote
|Yi Chen (Director)
|China
|-
|2020
|Mogul Mowgli
|Bassam Tariq (Screenwriter, Director)
|Pakistan
|-
|2020
|Minari
|Steven Yeun (Executive Producer, Special Guest)
|South Korea
|-
|2021
|7 Days
|Roshan Sethi (Co-writer, Director), Karan Soni (Co-writer, Actor), Geraldine Viswanathan (Actor)
|Canada
|-
|2021
|Americanish
|Aizzah Fatima (Co-writer, Actor)
|Saudi Arabia
|-
|2021
|Red Rocket
|Shih-Ching Tsou (Producer)
|Taiwan
|-
|2021
|Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched
|Kier-La Janisse (Director)
|Canada
|-
|2021
|Users
|Natalia Almada (Director)
|Mexico
|-
|2022
|NAP Feature Filmmaker
|Deborah Chow (Director)
|Canada
|-
|2022
|Finding Satoshi
|Laurent Barthelemy (Writer, Director)
|France
|-
|2022
|Our Father, the Devil
|Ellie Foumbi (Actor, Director)
|Cameroon
|-
|2022
|Land of Gold
|Nardeep Khurmi (Writer, Actor, Director)
|Switzerland
|-
|2022
|Whina
|Rena Owen (Actor)
|Aotearoa
|-
|2023
|The Accidental Getaway Driver
|Sing J. Lee (Director)
|United Kingdom
|-
|2023