Made in Hawai‘i Film Fest Comes to Kona’s Aloha Theatre

Festival co-founders Phillips Payson (L) and Zoe Eisenberg (R) with actor Randall Galius Jr. PC: Made in Hawai’i Film Festival/Gro Films

The Made in Hawai’i Film Festival will come to Kona for the first time this Friday, June 14, 2019, at the Aloha Theatre, showcasing 10 Hawai‘i-made films over the course of one evening.

Now in its second year, MIHFF is the only film festival nationwide to solely spotlight Hawai‘i-made cinema.

Presented by the Hilo Hawaiian hotel and Castle Resorts, the festival kicked off at the Hilo Palace Theater on June 1 and 2, and continues this week with a one-night-only “best of fest’ followup at the Aloha Theatre in south Kona on Friday.

From 6 to 7:30 p.m., the festival will play a selection of eight Made in Hawai‘i short films, including the award-winning film Ho‘omau, which took home MIHFF’s “Best Short” award, and Upstream, which took home the festival’s “Best Cinematography” award.

At 8 p.m., the visually breathtaking short film Kaumakaiwa will precede the critically acclaimed Big Island-born feature film August at Akiko’s to close out the evening. August at Akiko’s, directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi, centers on a young musician who returns to his Hawai‘i hometown and befriends a woman running a Buddhist bed and breakfast. In attendance to represent the film will be iconic Big Island resident and star of the film Akiko Masuda.

“We’re excited to play in Kona for the first time,” said festival co-founder and Executive Director Zoe Eisenberg. “The Hilo portion of the festival brought in a crowd of 300, and we hope Kona enjoys the event just as much.”

View the festival trailer here.

Tickets start at $10 a block and run to $16 for the entire evening.

For tickets and more information, visit www.MIHFF.org, http://apachawaii.org or www.Facebook.com/Madeinhawaiifilmfestival.