From eager production assistants looking for a steppingstone to frustrated directors hoping for a big-screen breakthrough, local filmmakers have often been showcased at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

But this year’s selection in the festival’s “Made In Hawaii” section offers an explosion of talent, much of which is featured in a pair of anthologies. There are six locally made films in the category but the anthologies “6B” and “The Short List” combine for nine short features that used different directors, actors and crew.

Gerard Elmore, who directed a segment of the “The Short List” and serves as the vice president of the Film and Video Association of Hawaii, believes this year’s body of work is a harbinger of good things.

“I think we are looking at a pivotal year for local filmmakers,” said Elmore, who runs a separate festival, the Ohina Short Film Showcase. “There have been great films in the past, but I don’t think there has been a year like this with such a broad range of well-made, well-produced films from here.”

James Sereno, founder of Kinetic Films and the driving force behind “6B,” said the anthology was the product of discussions that began when he invited six local directors to a meeting. Like himself, they had not made a feature film in several years even though many of them worked regularly making TV commercials. “I said, ‘You guys make great local storytelling on the film side, so why aren’t you still doing it? Do you have plans to do more? Are you too busy? Did you give up? Is it not worth it?’”

The group met for a year and created a theme: Although each director could create whatever story he wanted, it had to include a room marked “6B.” And the stories had to be about Hawaii, Sereno said.

“The most important thing was we needed to tell local stories,” he said. “Local-themed films that are based around our local lifestyle about who we are.”

The stories describe the darker side of Hawaii: underground gambling, drug addiction, redemption and race relations. Two of the six, however, were not completed in time for the festival: an unnamed film about a haole boy moving to Kahaluu that was written by local author Chris McKinney and will be directed by Sereno; and “The Second Sign,” which was based on the legends of Pele and written and directed by celebrated cinematographer Paul Atkins.

In “Vacancy,” director-writer Nathan Kurosawa created a detailed vision of pre-contact Hawaii that includes a fight scene with nearly 100 people engaged in a rarely seen Hawaiian martial art called lua.

Kurosawa shot it on a lava field about 30 miles outside of Hilo. “I think people will really be surprised that we captured that scene,” he said. “I believe it’s unprecedented. You have re-enactments and people shooting things for visitor industry videos and documentaries but never on this scale.”

Careful research went into creating authentic costumes, weapons and pre-contact dialogue that closely resembles Hawaii’s Tahitian roots, Kurosawa said.

“Vacancy” marks a return to films for Kurosawa, a 2003 HIFF award winner who took a complete break from the industry for eight years while raising his son as a single parent.

“I looked at this as a noble cause that James wanted to do,” Kurosawa said. “Make some really good stuff and show the community that the local independents can do just as good a job as Hollywood can.”

“THE SHORT LIST” was produced by TalkStory Productions, the local film company that produced “The Tempest,” last year’s Shakespeare adaption by Julie Taymor that was filmed on Lanai.

Although “The Short List,” too, sought to help Hawaii filmmakers shine, the initial goal was to create multiple episodes of a locally produced TV series, said TalkStory co-founder Jason Lau. TalkStory stitched the project’s first five episodes into a single feature that could be shown at the festival.

The project drew entirely from the local industry, with about 30 people involved in each film, Lau said. Many already work on TV shows such as “Hawaii Five-0,” but “The Short List” gave almost half of those involved a chance to go beyond their daily routine, Lau said.

“It tells me that there is a lot of good talent here but it’s hidden,” Lau said. “They don’t get the chance to show what they can do.”

Lau and TalkStory co-founder John Ching, who each directed films in “The Short List,” pored over hundreds of story ideas and scripts for four years before selecting the final five. Although they wanted to use local talent, they did not limit the stories to Hawaii topics. And while three out of the five have Hawaii themes, there’s a western and a tale from a deserted island.

“Just good storytelling, that was what it was,” Ching said. “I was very selective in trying to find things that were different or took a different take on something. I wanted to challenge the audience and have the audience enjoy something that hasn’t been seen before.”

HIFF’s “Made In Hawaii” section also includes a separate film by Sereno called “Paradise Broken.” Also written by McKinney, it was originally part of the “6B” anthology but evolved into its own feature. It’s another dark tale, this time about a couple’s descent into a world of drug dealing and prostitution along the back streets of Waikiki.

Friends have asked Sereno why he was making competition for himself. He said the festival venue means something more to local filmmakers than an audience award.

“We’re just trying to tell local stories,” he said. “We’re all trying to give everybody opportunities. If something clicks, we can all win.”