With no fewer than 12 films in the official selection, Japan is at the heart of this year's Cannes Festival. Its cinema industry continues to do well with moviegoers as well as critics, making it a notable success story amid the rise of streaming.
It's hard to miss the number of people wearing kimonos in the streets of Cannes.
That's because Japan has pride of place this year, with three films by Japanese directors in the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival and nine more across other categories.
Long associated with animation and horror, Japan has a distinctive storytelling tradition that is winning over broader audiences worldwide, with a growing number of films screened at international festivals.
Filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi – who shared the award for best screenplay at Cannes in 2021 for Drive My Car, which he also directed – is back with the touching All of a Sudden, filmed in a nursing home in France. It’s the story of a woman hoping to bring relief to patients thanks to the techniques of a young Japanese woman suffering from cancer.
Known for his intriguing family dramas, Hirokazu Kore-eda – who won the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters in 2018 – is in the running for the main prize again with Sheep in the Box, set in the not-so-distant future. It focuses on a couple who adopts a humanoid robot built to replicate their late child.
Critic favourites
With a long and storied history of filmmaking, Japan boasts cinema veterans whose technical skill makes them a favourite with critics.
With more than 70 films to her name, cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa is a legend in her homeland. Her pioneering work stands out for its exceptional mastery of natural light and painterly use of colour palettes.
She is the winner of this year's Pierre Angénieux Tribute, a prize awarded by the French camera lens company of the same name for excellence in cinematography.
Starting out in the 1970s, Ashizawa worked in advertising before breaking into feature films, where she was one of only a few women in a profession still dominated by men.
She has collaborated with numerous well-known Japanese directors, notably Koji Fukada – whose film Harmonium won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard category in 2016, and who is competing again this year with Nagi Notes.
Ashizawa also made several prize-winning films with horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose latest feature, The Samurai and the Prisoner, premiered at this year's festival.
Although most of Ashizawa's work has been in Japan, she has collaborated with other directors in Asia, notably from the Philippines and Indonesia, two of the region's burgeoning film industries.
"The directors are all very young, in their twenties. They have so much energy and it rubs off on me and I enjoy working with them," she tells RFI.
Asked what advice she would give, she says: "I think it’s important for young people to learn from other areas outside the film industry, from other parts of the world. The world is full of uncertainty at the moment, so I hope film can light the way for people."
New generation
Despite the rise of streaming platforms, Japan's film industry remains robust, producing around 1,200 films annually and drawing over 150 million cinemagoers.
In a sign of a growing market, Japan is country of honour at the Marché du Film – the business wing in Cannes that brings together distributors, producers and buyers from around the world.
Japanese industry participation at the festival has shot up by 40 percent this year compared to 2025, according to organisers.
Kaori Ikeda, managing director for international promotion with UniJapan – the national body sponsoring the Japanese Pavilion in Cannes – points proudly to walls covered with posters of all the films showing at Cannes.
"It’s a great year for us, especially for the new generation," she says. "Young creators are using a new financing model and are looking out for international co-productions, increasing their potential."
The Japanese government has stepped up its financial support of creative content industries considerably in recent years, Ikeda says. They also offer incentives for overseas projects looking to use Japanese locations.
"There’s a lot of interest from foreign film producers and directors to shoot in Japan, as well as form partnerships with Japanese creative firms."
Whichever way you look in Cannes, the sun is shining on Japanese cinema.
