Hawaiʻi film and creative media industry gets spotlight, backing as awards season nears

The Hawai‘i state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s Creative Industries Division is supporting awards season marketing for local films. This is in an effort to reach global audiences and pave the way toward a more vibrant locally created media industry.

The department also hopes to strengthen and expand Hawai‘i-based opportunities for creatives to access craft workshops, events and master classes. 

“Together with the collective efforts of education and nonprofit organizations throughout the Hawai‘i creative community, we are carving a pathway to connecting audiences around the world with Hawai‘i films and filmmakers, creating strategic stepping stones towards a robust, independent film and creative media industry,” said Georja Skinner, chief officer of the DBEDT Creative Industries Division and founder of its Creative Lab Hawai‘i. 

Narrative feature “Chaperone,” written and directed by Hawai‘i island filmmaker and CLH Producing Fellow Zoë Eisenberg, will premiere at the 30^th Annual Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah from Jan. 19-25, 2024. “Chaperone” is one of only six selections to be featured in the Slamdance Breakouts program out of nearly 8,000 submissions. The project was developed by Eisenberg throughout two CLH accelerator cohorts, and in 2023, was shot in Hilo with an entirely Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) cast and Hawai‘i-based crew.

In addition to the marketing assistance for “Chaperone” and other awards and festival circuit opportunities, CID is supporting Hawai‘i-made animated short “Aikāne” and feature film “The Wind and the Reckoning” throughout the awards season. Both films have been riding a wave of accolades and wins at prestigious and Academy Award-qualifying festivals. “Aikāne” has garnered 11 awards, among them the 2023 Made in Hawai‘i Award for Best Short at Hawai‘i International Film Festival (HIFF) and Best Short Jury Mention at the 2023 New Orleans Film Festival.

With the development of pathways from curriculum-to-career, DBEDT/CID embarked in 2023 as a lead working with the University of Hawaiʻi, Department of Education, Career and Technical Education, Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Alliance of Hawaiʻi  under the federal Good Jobs Hawaiʻi grant from the US Economic Development Administration.

The goal is to increase training and skills development and formalize a pipeline to job creation through talent development across the spectrum of creative industries sectors. According to the recent DBEDT Research and Economic Analysis Division report, film and creative media are key emerging industries, ready to scale.

CID is focused on creating opportunities for Hawaiʻi students and residents through CLH partnerships with nonprofits such as the International Cultural Arts Network, Pacific Islanders in Communications, and Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking. A recent series of master acting workshops for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Hawai‘i’s television and film industry was conducted at the Entrepreneurs Sandbox from September through December 2023. 

O‘ahu-based ‘Ohina Filmmakers Lab wrapped its 2023 workshop at the end of last year in collaboration with PIC, which provided filmmakers an opportunity to submit their short screenplays to be mentored by leading creative minds in the entertainment industry. The mentors then selected film projects to produce as short films, which may lead to development into full feature films.

“The future is promising for local filmmakers in 2024. Hawai‘i is cultivating local talent both behind and in front of the camera, and creatives have a passionate community from which to initiate and develop projects,” said Eisenberg, a winner of the 2021 ‘Ohina Greenlight Award and who has had prior work supported by Tribeca Studios and Netflix. “With accelerators like Creative Lab Hawai‘i and the vital support CID is providing to advocating for our community building creative media infrastructure, we have an environment in which local filmmakers and our dynamic stories can thrive.”