3 Big Films Featured in Final Day of Firstlight Academy Screenings

The final day of the 19th Annual Firstlight Academy Screenings will take place today, Wednesday, Dec. 27, at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater.

Throughout the week, the festival featured several of the year’s top awards contenders including 60 major film award nominations and counting.

Today’s screenings will feature this year’s most acclaimed films including a special encore screening of “Downsizing,” plus “The Florida Project,” and “Molly’s Game.”

Matt Damon gets downsized in Director Alexander Payne (SIDEWAYS, THE DESCENDANTS) new film DOWNSIZING also starring Kristin Wiig and Christof Waltz. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

“Downsizing”

Director Alexander Payne (“Sideways,” “The Descendants,” and many more) delivers this epic science-fiction comedy about humans who get miniaturized to both shrink their daily dose of stress an to help save the planet stars Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christof Waltz, Jason Sudekis and Hung Chao — Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Drama — in what Variety called “A rare thing” and “resonant crowd pleaser for grown-ups.”
Director: Alexander Payne
Film Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

“The Florida Project”
Wednesday, Dec. 27 5 p.m. (114 min. Rated R)

Willem Dafoe, just nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, stars alongside Valerie Cotto and seven-year-old revelation Brooklynn Prince, in this candy colored cinematic universe from director Sean Baker. Set in the iconic world of Florida’s kitschy visual landscape, this empathetic, bittersweet and heartbreaking and hyper-colored slice of ‘extended family’ life is this one-in-a-million family ‘dreamedy’ (not a typo). Critic Joshua Axelrod raved “It was equal parts whimsical child fantasy and very real adult drama and it simultaneously broke my heart and opened my eyes!”
Director: Sean Baker
Film Courtesy of A24

Jessica Chasten stars in “Molly’s Game,” a fast life story of the woman at the center of a huge stakes, A-List players poker game Courtesy STX Entertainment.

“Mollys Game”
Wednesday, Dec. 27 8 p.m. (140 min. Rated R)

Director and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin tells the based-on-a-true story of Molly Bloom, a beautiful, young, daring entrepreneur who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans and finally, unbeknown to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led people to believe. Golden Globe revealed nominations for Jessica Chastain, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama and Aaron Sorkin for Best Screenplay in a Motion Picture.
Director and Screenwriter: Aaron Sorkin
Film Courtesy of STX Entertainment

4-Film VIP FastPasses are on sale now for $48.($12 per film and a 15% savings on the $14 single ticket price). The FastPass includes four admissions, priority FastPass line and allows the ticket-holder to share FastPass admissions with others.

FirstLight single tickets are $14 for adults, $10 for kids 16 and under for PG and PG-13 rated films.

For FastPass and single ticket purchases contact the MACC Box Office at 808-242-SHOW or click here. Fees do apply to phone and online FastPass orders. There are no additional fees for tickets purchased at the MACC Box Office.