Kadowaki Kohei’s animated feature We Are Aliens won the Kau Ka Hoku Award at the 46th Hawaii International Film Festival, Variety reported. The jury prizes were presented on November 1 at the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki.
Recognition for emerging filmmakers
The award is reserved for an international filmmaker’s first or second feature. Festival programmers select nominees and an international jury chooses the winner. We Are Aliens, which premiered at Cannes, follows the consequences of a broken childhood friendship across three decades.
The jury praised its hand drawn animation, rotoscoping and dialogue as ways of giving physical form to childhood and memory. The Seoul Guardians received an honourable mention. Making the Line won best Made in Hawaii feature, while The Man and the Tree took both the Made in Hawaii and Pacific short film prizes.
Audience voting produced a separate set of results: Sung Kang’s Drifter won favourite narrative feature, Beyond the Smiles: Yani Tseng won favourite documentary and Sons Are Not Earthbound won favourite short.
Gala honours and remaining screenings
At the earlier October 29 gala, Kang received the Halekulani Maverick Award. Ke Huy Quan was presented with the Halekulani Golden Maile Career Achievement Award. His earlier Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once formed part of the career background, not a new Academy Award presented at this festival.
HIFF46 opened on October 21. Following Honolulu, screenings continue in Kapolei, Maui, Molokai, Hawaii Island and Lanai from November 3–15. The programme’s next stage therefore takes films to more local audiences after the award announcements.