What else is there to do on Maui when the weather is not postcard perfect? This holiday season the Maui Film Festival offers plenty of choices. Located at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center (or the MACC as locals calls it) in Kahului, the film fest brings together a few encore screenings of films previously shown at the MACC as well as a new line up of independents–many of which have been shown at other fests, but are new to Maui.

Before the evening shows, the Candelight Cafe is open in the courtyard, where food, drinks and music are available. For dinner last night before the 7:30 screening of “Juno“, I munched on a chicken caesar salad ($7) and washed it down with a glass of organic red wine ($6) while listening to a jazz trio (free) who brought it.

With an occupied tummy, I laughed heartily along with the near sell out crowd at the prickly dialog delivered by rising teen star Ellen Page along with a talented cast that included Jennifer Garner, Michael Cera, and Jason Bateman. The other films that I have seen so far this festival are “The Walker” starring Woody Harrelson and “I’m Not There” about singer/songwriter Bob Dylan. With another week and so many interesting films to go, I’m going to need to buy a second pass.

The festival started on December 12, 2007 and runs through December 30, 2007. Each day of the festival there are three screening times: 2:00 PM, 5:00 Pm, and 7:30 PM. A different film is shown each time. Screening listings, times and ticket information are available online.