Japan arrived at this year’s Berlinale with nine films in selection and the wind at its back — “Demon Slayer” and “Chainsaw Man” still fresh in the box office record books, Cannes honors on the horizon. But at Monday’s Japan Night, the conversation wasn’t about past successes or established auteurs. It was about who and what comes next.
Hosted by the Embassy of Japan in Germany with the cooperation of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and operational cooperation from Unijapan and VIPO, Japan’s film industry gathered to celebrate the Japanese films in this year’s Berlinale selection and hear from four emerging directors and three emerging producers from Japan, who each announced their new and upcoming projects.
Emma Kawawada joined Bunbuku in 2014, where she served as assistant director on films by Kore-eda Hirokazu. Her commercial feature film debut, “My Small Land,” was invited to the Berlinale in 2022. Kawawada’s new feature, “Life is Yours,” is selected for the Berlinale Co-Production Market. The film explores the interplay between people and nature. Toei and Loaded Films produce.
Hasei Kohki made his feature debut in 2015 with street kid story “Blanka,” which won the Magic Lantern award at Venice. His upcoming feature “Kutheran” explores the lives of children with mixed heritage in Okinawa. Described as a film with a magical realist streak, it features non-professional and professional actors. A Japan-U.K. co-production between IN.2 and Bunbuku, the film will shoot this fall.
Nakanishi Mai has built a portfolio of female-driven, genre-defying short films shot across Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. Her debut feature “Child, Uninvited” is in early development and charts the abrasive relationship between a soon-to-be mother and an abandoned child that she befriends.
Documentarian Ota Shingo’s most recent feature, the queer-focused “Numakage Public Pool,” won the First Cut+ Works in Progress Award at Karlovy Vary in 2024. Following its world premiere at Doc Edge and its Asian premiere at Busan, it is now scheduled for a theatrical release in Japan this year. Ota’s next film is “The Chimney Sweeper.” Dubbed “a creative documentary,” it follows an 85-year-old who sweeps chimneys and maintains five public bathhouses. The film is a Japan-France co-production between Hydroblast and SaNoSi Productions.
The featured producers are participants of this year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market and VIPO Visitors Program. Multihyphenate Iwase Akiko was first invited to the Berlinale in 2020 as an actor, starring alongside Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy, and Sanada Hiroyuki in “Minamata.” As a producer, she has two projects in development: “Rainbow on the Moon,” which explores the topic of assisted dying from the perspectives of two sisters with culturally opposing views on mortality; and historical biopic “Where Compassion Lives.”
Producer Kamiura Yuna left behind her prolific career in late-night drama series at MBS to join K2 Pictures last year, where she promises to develop a diverse array of LGBTQ-focused stories and champion female directors. Kamiura has multiple projects in development, including “The Book of Human Insects,” an adaptation of Tezuka Osamu’s manga to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth — Ninomiya Ken (“Chiwawa”) directs, Takaishi Akari (“Baby Assassins”) stars; “Inside Her,” a lesbian body horror film; and “Moon Palace,” a coming-of-age ensemble drama directed by Okita Shuichi (“The Story of Yonosuke”).
Producer Sato Keiichiro has brought his experience working in line production and international units to recent genre feature “Higuma!!: The Killer Bear,” and upcoming feature “June 2000,” a project concerned with the human impact of systemic collapse.
Other figures in attendance are equally eager to nurture new talent. Veteran producer Moriya Takeshi (“Midnight Swan”) is at EFM to lay the groundwork for Atmovie Global Track, a new festival market-based development and pitching initiative designed to support emerging Japanese creators and producers who have their sights set on the global stage. Watanabe Kazutaka, producer of the 2025 Venice Horizons Jury Prize-winning “Lost Land,” is one of this year’s Berlinale Talents, and has utilized that platform to connect with further international artists who might benefit from fresh co-production possibilities and an outstretched palm.
An air of optimism and anticipation was widespread at the event. This year’s Cannes Film Market will host Japan as its Country of Honor, and there is good reason to expect a presence at the festival from Japan’s most high-profile auteurs — new films from Kore-eda (“Sheep in the Box,” “Look Back”), Hamaguchi Ryusuke (“All of a Sudden”) and Kurosawa Kiyoshi (“Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner”) are coming up. The Japan Night of the Berlinale is evidence that the future is equally bright for the country’s emerging creatives.