Inspiration struck Waikoloa resident Leo Sears during a reception at the Maui Film Festival in 2002. Turning to Marilyn Killeri, then the Big Island's film commissioner, he asked, “;The Kohala Coast has beautiful weather and world-class resorts. Why don't we have a film festival?”;

Killeri replied, “;Because we need someone to make it happen.”;

Sears decided he would be that “;someone.”; A Screen Actors Guild actor, screenwriter, filmmaker and playwright, he added his own ideas to concepts he had seen at film festivals he had attended in Hawaii and on the mainland, and voila! The Big Island Film Festival—BIFF—was born in May 2006.

Last year, MovieMaker, the nation's leading magazine on the art and business of making movies, named BIFF one of the “;25 Coolest Film Festivals.”; Sears, BIFF's founder and executive director, and wife Jan, assistant producer, were thrilled to receive the acknowledgment. “;We've been pleased to watch the festival grow into one of the Big Island's premier events,”; Sears said. “;As usual, this year's fifth annual event will spotlight an international array of new short (30 minutes or shorter) and feature (60 minutes or longer) independent narrative films.”;

Celebrity guests include actors Tom Berenger (”;Platoon,”; “;Major League,”; “;Third Watch”;) and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (”;Pearl Harbor,”; “;Memoirs of a Geisha,”; “;Rising Sun”;); screenwriter Ron Osborn (”;The West Wing,”; “;Moonlighting,”; “;Meet Joe Black”;), who will be teaching a screenwriting workshop; and director Scott Stewart (”;Legion”;).

Each year, Golden Honu Awards are presented to outstanding films in 17 categories. Sears and Jan select the honorees for acting and filmmaking; this year they are Berenger and Stewart, respectively. They also chose Tagawa as the recipient of the inaugural Hookano (Pride) Award, which pays tribute to a person in the film industry who has resided in Hawaii and brought pride to the state.

“;We've been truly blessed to have veteran actors and filmmakers of their caliber share what they've learned, then grab beach chairs and head out to watch movies under the stars with the rest of the guests,”; Sears said.

Independent filmmaker and Seattle native Rick Stevenson is one of the high-caliber talents who have participated in the festival in recent years. Stevenson (”;The Dinosaur Hunter,”; “;Anthrax”;) received the Golden Honu Award for filmmaking in 2007. He brought “;Expiration Date”; (which won the Best Family Feature and Audience Choice awards) to BIFF that year, along with a notable concept in filmmaking.

A studio filmmaker in Hollywood for many years, Stevenson decided to return to Seattle in 2004 to make his own independent films with the help of a consortium he formed with peers in the Pacific Northwest. They came together to share ideas, screenwriters, equipment and production crews.

“;Their goal was to make as many films as possible each year by supporting each other's projects,”; Sears said. “;That sounds like filmmaking Hawaiian style to me!”;

“;Viola”; is a story about teens overcoming racial barriers in a small beachside community in California. Created entirely by students from 12 high schools in Southern California, it won the Golden Honu Award for Student Feature in 2007.

“;They collaborated over vacations during Christmas and spring break to complete it,”; Sears said. “;When BIFF accepted the film, their parents told them, 'Congratulations, that's great! Now figure out how to get to Hawaii.' Five students raised money to come here and represent their film. What a fantastic learning experience!”;

Sixty-six films (12 features and 54 shorts) will be screened this year, including 10 from foreign countries and 11 shot in Hawaii. They run the gamut from thrillers and dramas to comedies and animated films. “;We're impressed with the quality as well as the quantity of the shorts this year,”; Sears said. “;They're great stories told in a very concise and entertaining way. Maybe it has to do with the popularity of short video as an art form a la YouTube.”;

One of Sears' greatest pleasures is to hear about the filmmakers' success after BIFF. “;They sometimes refer to themselves as the Class of X-year, and the relationships they establish here mirror that kind of college camaraderie,”; he said. “;BIFF is a movie lover's nirvana, with film screenings, a screenwriting workshop, celebrity receptions, an awards brunch and Best of the Fest concert all embraced by the spirit of aloha!”;

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Bulletin have won multiple Society of American Travel Writers awards.