The HIFF ONLINE CREATIVES & CRITICS IMMERSIVE (HOCCI) returns for its fifth year in 2026, continuing its mission to cultivate the next generation of film critics and cultural voices in Hawai‘i. Powered by Critical Minded, HOCCI supports sustainable film criticism through mentorship, professional development, and paid career opportunities.
Designed for Hawai‘i-based AANHPI critics and creators, HOCCI expands the idea of film criticism beyond the traditional written review. Participants explore a multidisciplinary approach encompassing online publishing, video commentary, podcasts, social media, interviews, and other forms of digital storytelling.
The 2026 HOCCI Call for Entries is now live, with applications due September 18. Selected participants will become part of the official HIFF46 press cohort, covering films, filmmakers, panels, and events throughout the 46th Hawai‘i International Film Festival, taking place October 21–November 5, 2026 on O‘ahu, followed by screenings across the Neighbor Islands.
FROM CRITICISM TO CONVERSATION
For 2026, HOCCI takes criticism directly into the theater. Cohort participants will help facilitate select post-screening conversations with HIFF46 audiences, transforming criticism into an immediate and communal exchange.
These discussions will encourage audiences to engage more deeply with a film’s themes, cultural perspectives, cinematic language, and filmmaker intent. Participants will learn how to provide context, ask meaningful questions, spark debate, and create thoughtful spaces for discovery—positioning critics not only as writers and content creators, but as cultural interlocutors within Hawai‘i’s film community.
LEARNING FROM TODAY’S CRITICAL VOICES
HOCCI 2026 will also feature a special screening and discussion series led by guest critics representing different approaches to contemporary film criticism.
Confirmed 2026 HOCCI mentors are:
Mia Lee Vicino, who is best known for her work with Letterboxd;
Mick Pilgrim, a critic and content creator whose popular TikTok and Instagram videos spotlight Southeast Asian and queer cinema
@mick.pilgrim
Emerson Goo, film critic, essayist, and curator; Melbourne-based Duncan Caillard, PhD, who has written for Senses of Cinema and is the author of Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Contemplation and Resistance; Jason Sanders, Film Research Specialist and archivist at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive Library.
Each guest will host a select HIFF46 screening followed by an in-depth audience conversation examining the film’s themes, cultural context, and cinematic craft. Guest critics will also contribute accompanying essays for publication online, extending these conversations beyond the theater.
Together, they offer participants real-world examples of how distinctive critical voices can reach audiences through writing, social media, video, curation, archives, and public conversation.
BUILD YOUR CRITICAL VOICE
Throughout HOCCI, participants will develop skills in understanding cinematic language, writing and reporting on film and television from a distinctive point of view, interviewing filmmakers and artists, facilitating public conversations, building an independent media presence, and creating sustainable critical content from Hawai‘i without needing to relocate to traditional media centers like Los Angeles or New York.
Selected participants receive an official HIFF46 press pass, access to festival films and events, opportunities to publish and promote their coverage, hands-on experience facilitating audience discussions, and individualized one-on-one mentorship throughout the festival.
Through HOCCI, HIFF aims to build a more robust, diverse, and locally rooted culture of cinema in Hawai‘i—one where criticism can be written, spoken, recorded, shared, and experienced collectively.
APPLY TO THE 2026 HOCCI COHORT
Call for Entries Opens: August 31, 2026
Application Deadline: September 18, 2026
Applications are open to Hawai‘i-based AANHPI critics and creators interested in developing their voice and contributing to the conversation around cinema at HIFF46.
👉🏼APPLY NOW✍
