The 2009 Maui Film Festival, scheduled June 17-21 at the Wailea Resort and the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului, will honor Willie Nelson and Zooey Deschanel in person during the event.
The festival is scheduled to open with Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film winner “Departures,” along with “Highwater,” and will close with “More Than a Game” at its outdoor Celestial Cinema screening.
The Maui Film Festival takes place outdoors, run by solar power.

AWARDS

The festival is presenting Willie Nelson with its Maverick Award on Friday, June 19 at the Celestial Cinema followed by the world premiere of “One Piece at a Time,” a film on solutions to global problems from director Turk Pipkin, with music from Ben Harper and Jack Johnson and appearances by Willie Nelson, among others.
Zooey Deschanel (Yes Man) will receive the Nova Award on Thursday, June 18 at the Festival’s inaugural Toes in the Sand tribute at the SandDance Theatre. This award honors a film artist “whose stunningly original and seamless performances consistently infuse each character they play with unique insight and wisdom.” Past recipients include Felicity Huffman and Claire Danes. The Festival will also screen Deschanel’s film “(500) Days of Summer” from Fox Searchlight on its Closing Night.

FILM SCREENINGS

“Highwater” opens this year’s festival on Wednesday, June 17 at the Celestial Cinema, an open air, Dolby Digital-equipped outdoor theater with a 50-foot wide screen at the Wailea Gold & Emerald Golf Course. The documentary, directed and narrated by Dana Brown, takes place at the 2005 Vans Triple Crown of Surfing on Oahu. The film stars Kelly Slater, Tom Curren, Rochelle Ballard, Andy Irons, Jon Jon Florence, Carrissa Moore, Malik Joyeux, Mark Healy, Poncho Sullivan, Kalani Chapman, Sunny Garcia, Pat O'Connell, Sofia Mulanovich, Chelsea Georgeson and Eric Haas.
The Oscar-winning foreign language film “Departures” screens on opening night, Wednesday, June 17 at the Castle Theatre. Stephen P. Jarchow, chairman of Here Media and Regent Releasing, which distributed the film, will attend to introduce the movie. The plot follows a cellist whose orchestra has been dissolved, who returns to his hometown to work as a funeral professional preparing bodies for burial.
The Festival closes with the Celestial Cinema screening of the Kristopher Belman-directed “More Than a Game” from Lionsgate on Sunday, June 21. Led by future NBA superstar and 2009 Most Valuable Player LeBron James, and a charismatic yet inexperienced player’s father, five talented young basketball players from Akron, Ohio star in this remarkable true-life coming-of-age story about friendship and loyalty which leads them from a decrepit inner-city gym to the doorstep of a national high school championship.
The Festival will also mark the world premiere screening of “Cash Crop,” directed by Adam Ross, which takes a road trip into the heart of the Emerald Triangle in Northern California, a region where marijuana is grown in abundance, where it is the number one cash crop, and where (in some places) it is the mainstay of the local rural economy.

FILM SCHEDULE

For a complete list of Festival films, go to http://www.mauifilmfestival.com.