Hawai’i International Film Festival Crowns ‘We Are Aliens’ as Ke Huy Quan, Sung Kang Receive Honors (EXCLUSIVE)

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

Presented by Hawaiian Airlines, the prize is reserved for 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 over 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; Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, film critic and San Francisco Bay Guardian producer; and Mia Lee Vicino, film journalist and former West Coast editor of Letterboxd. They also handed an honorable mention to “The Seoul Guardians.”

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” picked up two prizes. It won best Made in Hawai’i short, which puts it in line for Oscar qualification, and also took the Pacific Award’s short film honor, a category added this year for the first time. The Made in Hawai’i jury said the narrative 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” received an honorable mention in the Made in Hawai’i short category, while Ty Sanga’s “Lahaina: Voices of Change” earned 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 (CAPE); 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.

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, among others. 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.”

Its jurors were Duncan Caillard, a Melbourne-based film researcher and critic who lectures in global creative industries at the University of Melbourne; Libby Hakaraia, head of Māoriland Films; and Therese Hayes, a film festival consultant and Netpac USA member.

“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.”

Festival 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.

Kang was also among the honorees feted at the HIFF Honoree Gala in the Halekulani Ballroom on Oct. 29, hosted by Sisa Grey (“Chief of War,” “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” “Fallout”). Best known as Han in “The Fast & the Furious” franchise, Kang 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.

Ke Huy Quan received the Halekulani Golden Maile Career Achievement Award. Quan, who began his career as Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and Data in “The Goonies,” stepped back from acting, taking stunt choreography and behind-the-scenes jobs, before his comeback in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which won him the Oscar for his turn as Waymond. He most recently voiced Gary De’Snake in Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” a role he will reprise in “Zootopia 3,” and published his memoir “Never Say Die” in September.

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. 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.

HIFF46 WINNERS

Kau Ka Hōkū Award
“We Are Aliens” (Japan)
Director: Kadowaki Kōhei
Honorable Mention: “The Seoul Guardians”

Pacific Award – Feature
“The Navigator” (U.S.)
Director: Jordan Manley

Pacific Award – Short
“The Man and the Tree” (U.S.)
Director: Justyn Ah Chong

Best Made in Hawai’i Feature
“Making the Line”
Director: Zilla Barbosa

Best Made in Hawai’i Short
“The Man and the Tree”
Director: Justyn Ah Chong

Made in Hawai’i Short – Honorable Mention
“Kukulu”
Director: Aukai Lagiri

Made in Hawai’i and Pacific Award – Honorable Mention
“Lahaina: Voices of Change”
Director: Ty Sanga

HIFF Best Short Film Award
“Faceless” (Australia)
Directors: Fraser Pemberton, William Jaka

Netpac Award
“A Girl Unknown” (China)
Director: Zou Jing

Audience Award – Favorite Narrative Feature
“Drifter” (U.S.)
Director: Sung Kang

Audience Award – Favorite Documentary
“Beyond the Smiles: Yani Tseng” (Taiwan)
Director: Frank W. Chen

Audience Award – Favorite Short
“Sons Are Not Earthbound” (U.S.)
Director: Lauren Luke