Catch the Best of Wailuku Film Festival encore screenings June 21 at the MACC

Ride a new wave of storytelling when the inaugural Wailuku Film Festival culminates with two audience-choice-winning films on June 21, 2026, at Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Called the “Best of the Wailuku Film Festival,” the screenings will feature two encore screenings from the Hawaiʻi and Watersports categories.

The Best of Hawaiʻi Short and Feature screens at 3 p.m., followed by the Best Watersports Short and Feature at 6 p.m. at MACC’s Castle Theater on June 21. Best of Wailuku Film Festival tickets are $20 per screening (fees included) and are now on sale at www.mauiarts.org/events.

The “Best of the Wailuku Film Festival” offers audiences a final chance to experience bold regional storytelling on the big screen and connect with the filmmakers behind the work. The screenings celebrate film as a bridge between cultures, a spark for conversation and a shared cinematic experience rooted in community.

The encore screenings will close out the Wailuku Film Festival, running from June 17-21, 2026. This new, five-day celebration — an initiative of the Maui Film Office and supported by the County of Maui — is building real momentum, growing a vibrant, local film industry while fostering a rising tide of storytellers, creators and audiences drawn to meaningful cinema.

The initial sampling of 12 independent, grassroots motion pictures offers a cross-section of work across Wailuku Film Festival’s four categories: Hawai‘i, Indigenous Voices, Watersports and Student Shorts. The festival will also feature industry panels, workshops and training, including several free events open to the community. Screenings run across two Wailuku venues: the Naylor Theater on Main Street and the Historic ʻĪao Theater on Market Street.

Maui filmmakers are strongly represented throughout the inaugural competitive program, including former University of Hawaiʻi Maui College students Josiah Castillo (“Ka Pō Lōʻihi”) and Tim McHugh (“Obstacle”). Additional Maui-based filmmakers include De Andre Makakoa Takahashi (“Remembering Wai”), Tom Vendetti (“The World Ukulele Program”), Stephen Boeker (“The Safe Space”), Belle Casares (“The Last Puestero”), Matty Schweitzer (“Lāhainā Rising, Finding True North”), and Maui High School graduate Austin Alimbuyuguen (“Concrete & Salt”).  Their work joins films from student, emerging and established filmmakers across Hawaiʻi and beyond, reflecting the festival’s mission to elevate local voices and strengthen Maui’s creative community.

Tickets for Wailuku Film Festival screening blocks are $15. The full program will be announced when tickets go on sale May 27, 2026. For more information, visit www.wailukufilm.com.