Animation offers a boundless space for reimagining how stories are told and felt, where the intangible takes form and the impossible becomes immediate. Drawing across a wide spectrum of styles and techniques, these animated works bends time, stretches gesture, and reorient the view of our everyday.

A collection of sight + sound = together. From the creative fervor to the collective endeavor: Cinema Musica. Let’s vibe forever.

Nonfiction films go to places we might never reach, shaped by years of attention to inaccessible lives and unknown realities. Timeless, poignant, and immersive, these works offer a lens through which we encounter the world more closely, expanding our understanding of the microcosms that surround us.

Explore a selection of our narrative feature films that span landscapes and cultures. Follow characters as they move through cities, villages, and personal crossroads, discovering that the journey itself shapes the stories of our lives.

In our fortified commitment to amplify Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Communities, Pacific Cinewaves programming celebrates stories and storytellers emerging from the Kingdom of Hawai’i, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Cook Islands, Tahiti (French Polynesia), Guåhan (Guam), Samoa, and throughout the Pacific region.

Our Shorts Programs navigate the intimate and the infinite: stories of the neighborhood, the diaspora, and the truths we carry. From voices screaming out loud to the surreal things that move in the night—through narrative, documentary, experimental, and animation—we hold space for it all. In these trying times, these films can be sanctuaries where our collective experiences can be together.

Our Special Presentations highlight powerful, timely works and curated experiences that bring people together–creating space for connection, reflection, and dialogue. Rooted in collaboration with filmmakers and community partners, these programs are shaped by and for the communities we serve, ensuring that these stories foster a sense of belonging, visibility, and shared understanding.

VC’s legacy is built upon what sets us apart and what we do best: and that is our VC Archives and our filmmaker development programs dedicated to emerging voices (AWC) and our beloved elders (Digital Histories).