MUMBAI: Mike Cahill’s Another Earth has won the Audience Award for narrative feature at the Maui Film Festival while Oren Kaplan’s Hamill won an award in the independent feature category and Building Hope won the same in the documentary category along with Connected and Love Shines.
 
Another Earth is a science fiction drama film in which Rhoda Williams , an astrophysics student kills a family when she sees a planet and leans out for a closer look. She is imprisoned for four years, and upon release seeks out the widower of the family. The planet she saw was a mirror planet of Earth, and an essay contest is held where the winner could ride a space shuttle to visit it. Williams considers the possibility of visiting it to find out what kind of life her mirror self would have led to.
 
Hamill tells the powerful and invigorating story of young Matt Hamill‘s struggles with his disability and the people in his life who have kept him motivated to overcome this major obstacle while Building Hope chronicles the construction of Mahiga Hope High and the connection between a thousand people in the US and an African community working to create a better future for their children.

Said Maui Film Festival Director Barry Rivers in a statement, “Months ago, I chose the mantra ‘Create the Future’ for the 2011 Maui Film Festival. And the Future delivered big time with a stellar list of Audience Award winning and crowd pleasing films, unforgettable culinary arts events, filmmakers panels and impecable weather for each evening’s under-the-stars, lit-by-the-moon and powered-by-the-sun celebrations for the enjoyment of over 18,000 attendees,”
 
As many as 18,000 people attended the film festival held in Wailea, Hawaii from 15 to 19 June.