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HIFF raises
enough to cover
year 2000 expenses

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By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

Ticket, event and membership sales from the 20th annual Hawai'i International Film Festival last November will cover the organization's expenses for the year 2000, with any surplus going toward its annual $780,000 budget for 2001.

Exact earnings won't be known until next month after late bills are factored in.

HIFF officials aren't yet ready to call the festival the most successful ever financially, but executive director Chuck Boller said he is "very, very pleased."

About 55,000 people attended HIFF films, receptions and seminars this year, some 7,000 more than in 1999, Boller said. And though there were fewer venues on the neighbor islands screening films, attendence more than doubled. Increased advertising on the neighbor islands is largely responsible for the additional attendance, Boller said.

The results are remarkable considering HIFF's shaky start last year with the firing of its executive director Christian Gaines. The organization didn't hire Boller as executive director until April, but still mounted a successful spring festival a few weeks later.

For the first time in years, the festival showed films in Waikiki and for the first time ever, used the Hawai'i Convention Center. HIFF officials' fears that locals would not venture into Waikiki to see the films proved unfounded, Boller said.

Despite the successes, Boller will suggest some major changes for this year's November event when he meets this week with the 30-member HIFF board.

One possible change is returning to an older ticketing system that prints all tickets in advance. The current computerized system, which prints tickets to order, had several glitches, Boller said.

Boller also wants to shorten the festival to 10 days from 18. This year, the event would run seven days on Oahu, Nov. 2 to 8, with the Maile Awards ceremony on Nov. 9. Neighbor island screenings would run Nov. 9 to 11.

Boller wants to use the Waikiki theaters and convention center again but expects to have next year's award ceremony at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel's Monarch Room, which had been its home for years. A large convention at the Royal Hawaiian last year forced the event to be moved to the convention center.

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