Luke Wilson, who has appeared in "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums," "Old School," and other films, said the brothers were honored to be invited to Maui and didn't hesitate to come.

While there are hundreds of film festivals, the Maui festival is one of only a few that Luke Wilson said he'd heard of — along with Cannes, Sundance and Toronto.

"This is on the map — at least in Hollywood," he said.

That would be good news for Maui Film Festival founder and director Barry Rivers, who has worked hard over the past six years to build the prestige and name of the five-day event.

This isn't an industry or film buyer's event, so no stars are required to attend. Nevertheless, Rivers doesn't seem to have much trouble bringing in a handful of big names each year.

Owen Wilson

Luke Wilson

Rivers said one of the reasons the stars come out is because the actors appreciate what the film festival stands for — meaningful, visionary filmmaking with life-affirming messages, as Rivers categorizes it.

The film festival is also a Hollywood event with ethics. For example, instead of giving honorees and VIPs freebie gift bags like most film festivals, the Maui Film Festival is making donations, in the name of all of the festivals' honorees, to two nonprofit organizations: the Maui Community Food Bank and Film Aid International, which brings film screenings to refugee camps and other distressed areas of the world.

Rivers said the celebrities respect the "world-class" quality of the Maui Film Festival.

"We do it better than any other festival. Well, we at least do it as good as any other festival. We take pride it what we do, and we do what we do really well. We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this," Rivers said.

Of course, the power of Maui can't be underestimated.

Three years ago, when Clint Eastwood received a Maui Film Festival award, he predicted big things for the festival, saying its location means it won't have any trouble attracting stars and movie people.

Eastwood also said he probably wouldn't be there if it was the "Pacoima Film Festival" and joked that it helped that the Maui event was only five minutes from his Wailea home.

Many of the celebrities honored over the past six years seem to have some kind of connection to Hawai'i, or Maui in particular. Among this year's celebrity honorees, Helen Hunt has been quoted as saying she's visited Maui since her teen years, and she's maintained a special bond with the island. Last year she named her baby "Makena Lei."

Luke Wilson said before he came to Hawai'i, a lot of people he ran into on the West Coast told him they had already heard he and his brothers were going to be honored at the Maui Film Festival.

Both Luke and Andrew, actor, director and the eldest of the Wilson brothers, said they've appreciated the laid-back and friendly vibe they've been getting from folks they've met on Maui, in between golfing, swimming and bodysurfing.

"The nice thing about the Maui Film Festival is that you can go straight from the ocean to the movie, which I did," said Owen Wilson.

The brothers predicted the festival would grow in popularity.

"Then (film) buyers will come and ruin it," Andrew Wilson said, smiling.