[3] The Hawai'i International Film Festival (HIFF) has earned the distinction of being the nation's preeminent source of discovery and exhibition of Native Hawaiian and Asian-Pacific cinema and new media.

HIFF's mission is two-fold: to bring the best in international cinema to Hawai'i, and to advance the understanding and cultural exchange among the people of Asia, the Pacific, and North America through the medium of film.

[4] HIFF was founded in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko as a project of the East-West Center located at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus in Honolulu.

[7][8] The festival has premiered such movies as A Leading Man, Once Were Warriors, The Piano, Shine, Shall We Dance?, Y Tu Mama Tambien and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

HIFF celebrated its 40th edition in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic with a hybrid festival combining online video on demand streaming with drive-in theaters and a small number of conventional cinema screenings.

[4] From its early history, HIFF has maintained a programming focus on films from the Asia-Pacific, with an emphasis on new and emerging filmmakers: Documentary Panorama, Eat.

Previous HIFF honorees include Awkwafina, Joan Chen, Sonny Chiba, Maggie Cheung, Destin Daniel Cretton, Dave Filoni, Stan Grant, Sterlin Harjo, Josie Ho, Samuel L. Jackson, Jung Woo-Sung, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Jason Scott Lee, Dana Ledoux Miller, Moon So-ri, Elisabeth Moss, Randall Park, Albert Pyun, Keala Settle, Taika Waititi, Ken Watanabe, Wong Kar-Wai, John Woo, Steven Yeun, and many other Hollywood luminaries.

[13] KĀINGA (New Zealand) directed by Michelle Ang, Ghazaleh Golbakhsh, HASH, Nahyeon Lee, Angeline Loo, Asuka Sylvie, Yamin Tun, Julie Zhu also received a special mention.