Our Maui Film Festival memories still make us smile. Watching the sunset over the ocean, then walking over to the grass of a golf course to watch a double feature under the stars? Are you kidding me? Add the parties before and after the films, and it was blissfully fun.
By far, this was one of our favorite Maui event experiences. We miss the films, the food and the stars, both the ones in the night sky and the ones on the big screen. Most of all, we miss the feeling of the island coming together for a few special evenings.
The Maui Film Festival is no longer running. Its final edition was in 2024, ending a 25-year run. The Wailuku Film Festival has since brought a new annual film gathering to Maui, with its own organizers, venues and emphasis on local storytelling.
Photos: Natalie Brown Photography.
Maui Film Festival Memories Under the Stars
The appeal was wonderfully simple: good movies in a setting you couldn’t recreate in a conventional theater. At Celestial Cinema in Wailea, the ocean and changing sky were part of the evening before the screen lit up. A double feature could become an entire night out.
A small folding chair, a blanket and warm layers helped make those long evenings comfortable. Families settled in, friends found each other on the lawn, and the atmosphere felt relaxed even when a familiar face from the screen was nearby.
The hand-selected films gave us plenty to talk about afterward. The festival celebrated the art of cinema while making room for the kind of unexpected discovery that keeps you thinking on the drive home. It was more than a checklist of celebrities or premieres.
The Taste Events We Miss
The festival also paid homage to Maui’s culinary scene, bringing chefs, local ingredients and audiences together. Its three “Taste” celebrations were a big part of the experience. These were events from the festival’s Wailea years, rather than activities available to book today.
Taste of Summer
Taste of Summer brought the opening-night energy: oceanfront Wailea, creative cocktails, dishes from resort chefs and the chance to mingle with fellow film lovers. It was a lovely way to ease into an evening of cinema, with the sunset doing plenty of its own entertaining.
Taste of Chocolate
At Four Seasons Resort Maui, Taste of Chocolate gave guests a reason to dress up and indulge their sweet tooth. Chocolate treats, inventive desserts and a chocolate fountain made it easy to forget any sensible plans to pace yourself.
Photos: Natalie Brown Photography.
Taste of Wailea
Taste of Wailea gathered Maui chefs at the Wailea Golf Academy for an evening of food and ocean views. Coming hungry was excellent advice. The variety of dishes and the setting made it feel like a celebration of the island as much as a prelude to a movie.
That combination is what we miss most: a memorable meal, the changing light over the water and a film to share afterward. You could enjoy each part on its own, but putting them together made a festival evening feel special.
Wailuku Carries the Film Community Forward
The Wailuku Film Festival has stepped into the space left by the Maui Film Festival as a new gathering for film lovers. It’s a separate event, organized through the Maui Film Office with County of Maui support, with a stronger focus on Hawaiʻi filmmakers, Indigenous voices, students and the island’s creative community.
Its inaugural festival ran June 17–21, 2026. Maui County’s festival recap reports more than 5,300 attendees across the five days. Screenings included the historic ʻĪao Theater and MAPA’s Naylor Theater in Wailuku, with the final Best of Festival program at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului.
The second Wailuku Film Festival is announced for June 10–20, 2027. Follow the official festival page for the program, tickets and venue details as they’re released. The Wailea Taste parties and Celestial Cinema setup described above aren’t part of that announcement.
It’s a different setting and a fresh chapter for Maui’s film community. Instead of trying to reproduce a night on a Wailea golf course, Wailuku offers a chance to discover films in town and spend time around its theaters, shops and places to eat.
Keeping That Festival Feeling
We’ll always miss the Maui Film Festival’s particular mix of cinema, culinary treats and starry skies. Fortunately, the pleasure of gathering around a story hasn’t gone away. Supporting a screening, making time for a local filmmaker’s work and talking about a film afterward help keep that connection alive.
For more familiar faces and island stories, read our Maui celebrity interviews. And if you’re planning a film-centered trip now, start with Wailuku’s own schedule. We can miss what came before while still being excited to pull up a seat for what comes next.
We’re a small group of full-time Maui residents that LOVE exploring and writing about what we think is the best place on Earth: The Island of Maui, Hawaii! Expect many more articles, reviews, photos and videos of Maui and all of the Hawaiian Islands. ALOHA!
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