Three Japanese directors vie for top prize at Cannes, a first since 2001

Three of Japan’s internationally acclaimed filmmakers are heading back to Cannes. Festival organizers announced last week that Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Koji Fukada have all been selected for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where they will vie for the Palme d’Or.

The 79th edition of the festival, running from May 12 to 23, marks the first time in 25 years that three Japanese directors have been in the running for the top prize. The lineup from 2001 included “Distance” by Kore-eda, “Visitor Q” by Takashi Miike and “H Story” by Nobuhiro Suwa. 

Kore-eda’s entry this time around is “Sheep in the Box,” his eighth competition entry, a story set in the near future and starring Haruka Ayase and Daigo as grieving parents who bring a humanoid modeled after their deceased son into their home. The film is the director’s first original Japanese screenplay since “Shoplifters,” which won the Palme d’Or in 2018, and will have a theatrical release in Japan on May 29.

Hamaguchi’s Japan-France co-production “All of a Sudden,” opening June 19, follows a care facility director (Virginie Efira) and a terminally ill Japanese stage director (Tao Okamoto). It is based on a book of correspondence between philosopher Maiko Miyano and anthropologist Maho Isono. It is the director’s third time in competition at Cannes and his first appearance in five years since “Drive My Car,” which won best screenplay in 2021 and later an Academy Award.

Fukada’s “Nagi Notes,” his first competition entry, centers on a sculptor played by Takako Matsu living in Nagi, Okayama Prefecture. It opens Sept. 25. The director previously won the Un Certain Regard jury prize in 2016 with “Harmonium.” 

Japan’s presence extends beyond the main competition: Yukiko Sode’s “All the Lovers in the Night,” based on a novel by Mieko Kawakami, will screen in the Un Certain Regard section, while Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “The Samurai And The Prisoner,” an adaptation of a Naoki Prize-winning novel by Honobu Yonezawa, has been selected for Cannes Premiere.