Waikiki may not be Hollywood, but you can still enjoy the 81st Academy Awards like a movie star — and know who the winners are before your friends do — if you attend a special advance presentation party that benefits the Hawai'i International Film Festival.

The party — Oscar Night America at the newly remodeled Royal Hawaiian Hotel — will air segments of the awards show an hour or more ahead of the Hawai'i broadcast on KITV.

The party starts at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Monarch Ballroom and guests will see the ceremony on large TV screens starting at 5 p.m. The public broadcast of the awards won't begin until 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are $250. Organizers hope to seat 350 people. To purchase tickets, contact film festival officials at 528-3456, ext. 113, or via e-mail at oscar@hiff.org.

This is one of 46 parties being held nationwide that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has sanctioned as a fundraiser for local charities. Now in its 16th year, the party has raised $23.7 million since it started.

A wide variety of items will be auctioned, including a cane used by Hugh Laurie who stars in "House," a copy of the pilot of "Mad Men" autographed by the cast, a copy of "The Queen" signed by Helen Mirren, who won an Oscar for the title role, and three posters from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" signed by Harrison Ford.

Established in 1982, the Hawai'i International Film Festival is dedicated to using films as a way to help the people of Asia, the Pacific and North America better understand one another's cultures.