Thursday NOVEMBER 21st – Opening Night @ 7:00pm
Friday NOVEMBER 22nd @ 6:00pm
Saturday NOVEMBER 23rd @ 12:30pm
Sunday NOVEMBER 24th @ 12:00pm

Tickets coming soon!
$8.50 General admission
$7.50 for Seniors & Students with vaild ID
Take advantage of our HIFF pass for access to ALL films, all weekend long!
HIFF PASS = $35

A wonderful weekend full of films from all over the world. The Hawai’i International Film Festival returns to the Palace Theater with 10 feature length films and 10 short films.

For more information on all films, click below to read more

HIFF’s Mission

As the vanguard forum of international cinematic achievement in the Asia-Pacific region, Hawai‘i International Film Festival (HIFF) endeavors to recognize new and emerging talent, promote career development and original collaborations through innovative education programs, and facilitate dynamic cultural exchange through the cinema arts.

Tickets for all screenings are available NOW at the Palace Theater Box Office.
Tickets can be purchased in person or over the phone at 808-934-7010, Monday-Friday between 10am-3pm.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 21ST 

7:00 PM Opening Night Film DAFFODILS

New Zealand 2018 | 93 min

As indie musician Maisie keeps her dying father company for one last time, she learns about her parents’ bittersweet love story, expressed through contemporary re-imaginings of iconic hit songs by New Zealand artists such as Crowded House, Bic Runga, and Dave Dobbyn. Based on an award-winning stage play inspired by a true story, DAFFODILS is a love song to New Zealand’s soundscape with songs that have touched people all over the world.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22ND

6:00 PM THE AUSTRALIAN DREAM

United Kingdom, Australia 2018 | 111 min

When Aboriginal Australian football player Adam Goodes called out someone in the crowd who called him an ape, he triggered a national debate that brought to the surface the dark heart of racism beating in contemporary Australia. Powerfully written by former CNN correspondent Stan Grant, THE AUSTRALIAN DREAM challenges the history of violence and dispossession that divides Australia with a call to arms as universal as it is emotional.

8:15 PM CAN’T STOP THE DANCING

Japan 2019 | 108 min

Shizuka is an overworked salary woman who seriously dislikes musicals. But one day when at a fair Shizuka accidentally falls under the spell of a hypnotist. Suddenly whenever she hears music she can’t help but break into song and dance! The only thing that can be done is locate the hypnotist and have him undo the spell. However, the scheming hypnotist has vanished. With the help of an unlikely friend, Shizuka embarks on a comedic, music-filled roadtrip across Japan to find him.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 23RD

12:30 PM MAUNA KEA: THROUGH THE KIA’I LENS

United States 2019 | 30 min + 45 min panel

Free to the public*, this special film program and panel discussion will capture the zeitgeist defining ‘Kapu Aloha’ movement happening on top of Mauna Kea and the fight to block the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project from breaking ground. Two short documentaries will be screened—STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS follows Native Hawaiian mother-daughter activists at the forefront of the movement and THIS IS THE WAY WE RISE, follows Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio through her creative journey through poetry inspired by the Kū Kiaʻi Mauna. Discussion to follow.

*This event is FREE, but seating is limited. Please reserve a spot over the phone or in person at the Palace Box Office, Monday-Friday 10am-3pm, 808-934-7010.

**Seats do not need to be reserved with a HIFF PASS.

2:30 PM HAOLE with short film CROSSING THE LINE

World Premiere, Made In Hawai’i Drama 2019 | 75 min

Thirteen-year-old David Kealoha dreams of escaping rural Hawaii. But when Jonah Morris, a white kid from Phoenix, Arizona moves into the neighborhood, tragedy strikes, irrevocably changing the trajectory of David’s life and those closest to him. It’s a provocative exploration on race relations couched in a story about three boys who may seem different on paper, but share similar journeys of finding themselves in a environments where they feel displaced.

**Filmmaker Q&A to follow screening

5:30 PM OKINAWAN BLUE

Japan 2018 | 101 min | Japanese with English Subtitles
North American Premiere | Drama

What does it mean to live on an island? Set in the quaint, picturesque island of Zamami, OKINAWAN BLUE explores what the island life means to its visitors and residents, weaving three strands of stories together into an omnibus film. Funny, quirky, and moving, OKINAWAN BLUE captures the breathtaking beauty and uniqueness of the region and its people.

8:00 PM BLOOD QUANTUM

Canada 2019 | 101 min

BLOOD QUANTUM is an astute and bloody entry into the zombie oeuvre via a First Nations perspective. The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi’gmaq reserve of Red Crow (Atlantic provinces of Canada), except for its indigenous inhabitants who are immune to the zombie plague. Amid the chaos, a tribal sheriff must protect his son’s pregnant girlfriend, apocalyptic refugees, and a growing group of rabble rousers from the hordes of walking white corpses.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 24TH

12:00 PM MADE IN HAWAII Shorts | PROGRAM LENGTH 106 min

Presenting the very best in short films from kama’aina filmmakers, as well as stories based and shot in Hawaii, the MADE IN HAWAII shorts program is an early indicator of Hawaii’s emerging talents, both in front and behind the camera.

808: HOW WE RESPOND, DOWN ON THE SIDEWALK IN WAIKIKI, DRIVING, FALL GUY (‘Ohina), LIKE MADDAH (‘Ohina), MO’O (‘Ohina), MOLOKAI BOUND, OTHER PEOPLE (‘Ohina), THE PIT WHERE WE WERE BORN.

2:30 PM BIKRAM: YOGI. GURU. PREDATOR.

United States 2019 | 91 min

Arriving in Beverly Hills from Calcutta in the early 1970s, hot yoga instructor Bikram Choudhury cultivated a celebrity following and built a global fitness empire, but by the 2010s, he battled numerous sexual abuse allegations and stories of an aggressive, cult-like training environment. BIKRAM: YOGI, GURU, PREDATOR shines a light on the women who took him down and explores the contradiction of how this healing discipline could both help and hurt so many.

4:30 PM TOKYO HULA with Short-Before-Feature VOICES OF THE FOREST (both Made In Hawaii films) | PROGRAM LENGTH 81 min

Today it is estimated there are nearly 2 million people dancing hula in Japan—a figure greater than the entire population of Hawaiʻi. With more people dancing hula in Japan than in Hawaiʻi where the native art was born, this explosive growth has created a multimillion dollar industry based on culture as commodity. But what motivates Japanese students and teachers to dance hula and how is it translated into a foreign culture? How do Native Hawaiians participate in this cross-cultural exchange?

7:00 PM Closing Night Film PARASITE

South Korea | 137 min

Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) and his wife and two kids are poor and unemployed, living in a basement apartment and scraping by with the use of handouts and the neighbors’ wifi. One day son Ki-woo learns that his friend is going abroad and leaving behind a prestigious tutoring job for a rich family. A plan is hatched. As Ki-woo manipulates his way in as the rich daughter’s tutor, the family begins to insert themselves into the lives of the wealthy household.