‘We Are Aliens’ Wins Top Jury Prize at Hawai’i International Film Festival

Japanese director Kadowaki Kōhei’s animated feature “We Are Aliens” won the Kau Ka Hōkū (Shooting Star) Award at the 46th Hawai’i International Film Festival, whose jury prizes were handed out at the Halekulani Hotel in Waikīkī on Nov. 1.

Presented by Hawaiian Airlines, the prize goes to an international filmmaker’s first or second feature. Festival programmers pick the nominees, fiction and nonfiction alike, and an international jury chooses the winner. “We Are Aliens,” which had its world premiere at Cannes, charts a childhood friendship that breaks apart over what looks like a small incident, following the fallout across three decades.

“For giving childhood a physical presence through hand-drawn animation, rotoscoping and dialogue that feels overheard, and for capturing the cruelty children learn from one another and what memory eventually makes of it, we unanimously give Kadowaki Kōhei’s ‘We Are Aliens’ the Kau Ka Hōkū Award,” the jury said. “We offer our highest praise for an emotional force that should not be allowed in a first feature.”

The jurors were Samuel Jamier, president of the New York Asian Film Festival; film critic and San Francisco Bay Guardian producer Jesse Hawthorne Ficks; and film journalist Mia Lee Vicino, former West Coast editor of Letterboxd. They gave an honorable mention to “The Seoul Guardians.”

What did the Hawai’i-focused juries choose?

Zilla Barbosa’s “Making the Line” was named best Made in Hawai’i feature. “The film thoughtfully captures an intense emotional journey often kept behind-the-scenes and celebrates the grit, determination and perseverance required to uphold Hawaiian excellence,” the jury said, adding that it “marks a triumphant debut for a filmmaker from Hilo, Hawaii, whose work in music and radio has long served this community.”

Justyn Ah Chong’s “The Man and the Tree” took two prizes. It won best Made in Hawai’i short, placing it in line for Oscar qualification, and it received the Pacific Award’s short film honor, a category added this year for the first time. The Made in Hawai’i jury said the short depicts “the beauty and weight of an entire life cycle and does so while staying true to a Native Hawaiian perspective.”

Aukai Lagiri’s “Kukulu” earned an honorable mention in the Made in Hawai’i short category. Ty Sanga’s “Lahaina: Voices in Change” [sic — “Lahaina: Voices of Change”] received honorable mentions from both the Made in Hawai’i and Pacific Award juries.

The Made in Hawai’i jury comprised Michelle Sugihara, executive director and CEO of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment; Taylour Chang, Bishop Museum’s director of public programs and community engagement; and producer and location manager Kent Matsuoka. Now in its 10th year, the strand is backed by the Nichols Family Fund and the Hawai’i Film Office, and its titles can be programmed on Hawaiian Airlines flights.

Which Pacific and international films were honored?

Jordan Manley’s “The Navigator” won the Pacific Award for best feature, which HIFF presents with Pacific Islanders in Communications. “At the heart of this film is the indigenous transmission of knowledge, from one generation to the next. It is about the magic we seek, but perhaps do not always find,” the jury said. Its members were Samoan-born New Zealand filmmaker Miki Magasiva; Native Hawaiian academic, curator and lawyer Noelle Kahanu; and independent producer Averie Joy Maikalima O Makua Huffine.

The HIFF Best Short Film Award, presented by Hawaiian Airlines and Oscar-qualifying for international shorts, went to Fraser Pemberton and William Jaka’s Australian drama-thriller “Faceless.” It centers on a Warlpiri man living three parallel lives along the Birrarung-Ga (Yarra River) in Naarm (Melbourne). “Every one of us arrived at the same word: wow. A unanimous wow,” the jury said. “It’s a film that keeps unfolding after it ends.” The panel included screenwriter and producer Philip W. Chung; Christine Yi, president of Gold House Studios and general manager of Gold House Labs; and Sarah Fang, manager of the Doris Duke Theatre and programmer at the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Zou Jing’s “A Girl Unknown” (China) took the Netpac/USA Award from a field of 12 nominees. HIFF is the sole U.S. festival permitted to hand out the Network for the Promotion of Asian-Pacific Cinema prize, which is also given at Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Rotterdam and Busan. The jury called the film a “patient and carefully layered human story in which a young woman finds a way to survive oppression and seek her own future.”

Audiences voted Sung Kang’s “Drifter” favorite narrative feature, Frank W. Chen’s Taiwanese documentary “Beyond the Smiles: Yani Tseng” favorite documentary and Lauren Luke’s “Sons Are Not Earthbound” favorite short. The Audience Awards are presented by Hawai’i News Now.

“This year’s winners reflect the strength and diversity of cinematic storytelling today, here in Hawai’i and across the region,” said Jean H. Lee, the festival’s executive director. “We are thankful to our distinguished jurors for their careful consideration and proud of the quality of films in this year’s festival.”

Who received the gala honors?

Ke Huy Quan received the Halekulani Golden Maile Career Achievement Award at the HIFF Honoree Gala in the Halekulani Ballroom on Oct. 29, hosted by Sisa Grey (“Chief of War,” “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” “Fallout”). Quan began his career as Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and Data in “The Goonies,” left acting for stunt choreography and behind-the-scenes work, then won the Oscar for Waymond in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” He voiced Gary De’Snake in Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” will reprise the role in “Zootopia 3,” and published his memoir “Never Say Die” in September.

Sung Kang, best known as Han in “The Fast & the Furious” franchise, received the Halekulani Maverick Award. He wrote, directed, produced and stars in “Drifter,” in which a loner working as a janitor finds his way back, and a community, through competitive drifting.

Master navigator Nainoa Thompson, CEO of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, was given the Halekulani Legacy Award. In 1980, he guided a voyaging canoe from Hawai’i to Tahiti with no modern instruments, the first Native Hawaiian to do so in centuries. Tongan and New Zealand actor Luciane Buchanan (“The Night Agent,” “Chief of War,” “Evil Dead Burn”) took the Halekulani New Vanguard Award, and Native Hawaiian screenwriter Bryson Chun, whose credits include “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.” and “Moana 2,” received the Leanne K. Ferrer Trailblazer Award, presented by Pacific Islanders in Communications.

Among those at the gala were Stephy Tang, this year’s Spotlight on Hong Kong artist, along with Josie Ho, Daniel Dae Kim and director Bao Nguyen.

HIFF46 opened Oct. 21 at the Hawaii Theatre. After Honolulu, the festival moves to Kapolei, Maui, Moloka’i, Hawai’i Island and Lāna’i for screenings running Nov. 3–15.