Hawaii International Film Festival
About
Founded in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, Hawaiʻi International Film Festival (HIFF) runs each October–November in Honolulu and across the Hawaiian Islands. HIFF programs Asian, Pacific, and Native Hawaiian cinema and operates an Academy Award-qualifying shorts competition.
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October
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About Hawaiʻi International Film Festival
Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, known as HIFF, was founded in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko. It originally operated under the East-West Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; that institutional relationship ended in 1994 and HIFF has run independently since. By 2022 the festival was reaching over 52,000 viewers, programming 276 films from 37 countries — substantial scale for a festival anchored in the Pacific rather than on a major mainland circuit.
HIFF's identity is regional in a specific sense: it programs Asian, Pacific, and Native Hawaiian cinema with the kind of focus and continuity that mainland festivals rarely match. The festival has been described as the country's preeminent venue for Native Hawaiian and Asian-Pacific cinema, and the leadership reflects that. It is currently directed by Beckie Stocchetti with Anderson Le as artistic director.
When and Where HIFF Runs
The main festival runs from October 16 to November 16 each year, with screenings spread across multiple Hawaiian islands — Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, Kauaʻi, and Maui. HIFF also operates a separate Spring Showcase each March, which typically presents a smaller curated selection of recent films. Filmmakers planning travel should note that the Hawaiian setting is a real factor in production: per-night accommodation costs run substantially higher than at most comparable festivals, and inter-island travel adds complexity for filmmakers attending multiple screenings.
Programming Sections
HIFF's competitive and showcase sections are organised around the festival's regional focus:
- Made in Hawaiʻi — locally produced films
- New American Perspectives — work by immigrant filmmakers
- Pacific Showcase — films by Pacific Islander filmmakers
- HIFF Virtual Reality — VR programming, launched in 2018
Awards Given by the Festival
HIFF presents a substantial slate of juried and honorary awards:
- Kau Ka Hōkū Award — the main emerging-filmmaker prize
- Made in Hawaiʻi Film Awards — recognising the strongest local productions
- Shorts Jury Awards — Academy Award-qualifying for short films
- NETPAC Award — for Asian cinema, presented at HIFF since 2000
- Pasifika Award — inaugural in 2022, recognising Pacific Islander filmmaking
- Halekulani Career Achievement Award
- Halekulani Maverick Award
For shorts filmmakers, the Academy Award qualification on the Shorts Jury Awards is the single most consequential element of the festival's award programme: a qualifying win opens the path to Oscar consideration that the vast majority of festivals cannot offer.
Submitting to HIFF
Filmmakers should review the official guidelines for current deadlines, eligibility windows, and category-specific criteria. HIFF's regional focus is genuinely curatorial — work that is in conversation with Asian, Pacific, or Native Hawaiian cinema has a meaningfully different reception here than work selected purely on general indie festival merits.
Strong submissions tend to share the same characteristics across festivals at this tier: a polished screener, an accurate synopsis, a director's statement that articulates the work's perspective, and complete production credits. For HIFF specifically, a director's statement that connects the work to the festival's regional focus — when that connection is real — is a meaningful signal to programmers.
Award Highlights
HIFF's most consequential award for filmmakers outside Hawaiʻi is the Shorts Jury Awards, which carry Academy Award qualification. A qualifying short here opens Oscar consideration that the vast majority of festivals cannot offer. The festival also presents the Kau Ka Hōkū Award for emerging filmmakers, the Made in Hawaiʻi Film Awards for the strongest local productions, and the NETPAC Award for Asian cinema (presented at HIFF since 2000). The Pasifika Award, inaugurated in 2022, recognises Pacific Islander filmmaking.
On the honorary side, the Halekulani Career Achievement Award and Halekulani Maverick Award have been used to recognise distinguished filmmaking careers, including filmmakers whose work sits within the broader Asian-Pacific cinema conversation that defines HIFF.
Festival Leadership & Programmers
Hawaii International Film Festival is guided by a dedicated team of programmers and arts administrators who collectively bring deep knowledge of world cinema to the selection process. The festival's programming team works year-round reviewing submissions, attending international festivals, and cultivating relationships with filmmakers from around the world.
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