IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025

      NL
      Kawase Naomi

      Kawase Naomi

      Still: Shara
      Award-winning filmmaker, writer and producer KAWASE Naomi (1969, Japan) is well-known for her documentary style and semi-autobiographical approach to filmmaking. Her filmography is an intimate and personal treatment of family relationships, tradition, and the beauty of nature while seamlessly merging fiction and reality. Born and raised in Nara, Kawase graduated directing at the Visual Arts College in Osaka in 1989. She started out by making short autobiographical documentaries, but soon turned to features. Her debut feature Suzaku (1997) made her the youngest director to receive the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She also helped to establish the Nara International Film Festival in 2010, and is the producer and senior advisor for the 2025 World Expo in Osaka as well as the Chair of the Women's Japan Basketball League. She was selected by the International Olympic Committee to direct the official film of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Both parts were selected for IFFR 2023.

      Filmography

      (selection) Ni tsutsumarete/Embracing (1992, short doc), Katatsumori (1994, short doc), Ten, mitake/See Heaven (1995, short doc), Hi wa katabuki/The Setting Sun (1996, doc), Arawashi yo (Ôfuku shokan Kawase Naomi × Koreeda Hirokazu)/This World (1996, doc), Somaudo monogatari/The Weald (1997, doc), Moe no Suzaku/Suzaku (1997), Mangekyo/Kaleidoscope (1999, doc), Hotaru/Firefly (2000), Kya Ka Ra BaA/Sky, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth (2001, doc), Tsuioku no dansu/Letter from a Yellow Cherry Blossom (2002, doc), Sharasôju/Shara (2003), Kage/Shadow (2004, short doc), Tarachime/Birth/Mother (2006, short doc), Mogari no mori/The Mourning Forest (2007), Nanayomachi/ Nanayo (2008), Hanezu no tsuki/Hanezu (2011), Futatsume no mado/Still the Water (2014), An/Sweet Bean (2015), Hikari/Radiance (2017), Vision (2018), Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side A (2022, doc), Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side B (2022, doc). 

      More info: Kawase Naomi

      Kawase Naomi at IFFR