Hawaii International Film Fest opens with ‘Shadow’

The Hawaii International Film Festival begins on Thursday at Dole Cannery, with 187 films from 35 countries screening over the following 10 days in Honolulu.

The festival will also screen films on Kauai from Nov. 15-18 and Hawaii Island and Maui from Nov. 29-Dec. 2.

Tickets for films are $10-$14; festival passes are $350-$1000. Tickets for the HIFF Awards Gala, 6-10 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Halekulani, are $500.

Tickets and information: hiff.org, 447-0577.

>> NOV. 8: Opening the festival this year is “Shadow,” the latest film from master Chinese auteur Zhang Yimou, (“Raise the Red Lantern,” “House of Flying Daggers”). Zhang has had a longstanding relationship with HIFF, which has screened many of his films before they got broad general release. “Shadow,” which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival to acclaim, is an action movie drawn from the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” a masterpiece of Chinese literature. It screens at 8 p.m. Thursday at Dole Cannery.

>> NOV. 14 AND NOV. 17: HIFF’s centerpiece attraction is “Green Book,” which is already being considered an Oscars favorite. The film, written and directed by Peter Farrelly (“There’s Something About Mary”), stars Viggo Mortensen (“Lord of the Rings”) as the driver for a black classical pianist played by Mahershala Ali (Oscar winner from “Moonlight”) touring the Deep South in the early 1960s. The film screens at 8 p.m. Nov. 14 and 2 p.m. Nov. 17 at Dole Cannery. Producer Jim Burke (“The Descendants”) will be coming to Honolulu for the festival.

>> NOV. 15-17: HIFF is offering a special focus on renowned Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, whose highly stylized vision will be presented in a trio of his best films: “Chungking Express,” 6:30 p.m. Nov. 15; “Happy Together,” 6:45 p.m. Nov. 16; and “In the Mood for Love,” 12:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at Dole Cannery. Wong will attend the screening of “Chungking Express” for a Q&A.

>> NOV. 17: Another special guest at the festival will be Awkwafina, the rapper turned actor who starred in two major films this year, “Ocean’s Eight” and the megahit “Crazy Rich Asians.” She is receiving a Halekulani Maverick Award as someone who has taken an unusual path to film. A HIFF Sound X Vision presentation, “In Conversation with Awkwafina” takes place at 2 p.m. Nov. 17 at the iHeartRadio Music Hall; advance tickets are already sold out.

>> NOV. 18: Closing the festival will be the world premiere of “Moananuiakea: One Ocean, One People. One Canoe.” Directed by Na‘alehu Anthony, the film documents the round-the-world voyage of Hokulea, the traditional Polynesian voyaging canoe. The film screens at 6:30 Nov. 18 at Hawaii Theatre.