Focus on Japan 4-Features & 9-Shorts Pass (Limited Availability

Explore the diversity of Japanese cinema with our Focus on Japan package. Seven films from Japan, selected from AWFF’s Official lineup of more than 70 titles, offer powerful stories, fresh voices, and bold perspectives. Bundle all four and save 50%. Get your pass today!

Nov 13th:

@ 2 PM (opens in a new tab)

(opens in a new tab)Paper Crane & Blue Frog (Short) 20min

Genre: Drama

Country: Japan

Year: 2025

Duration: 19 min 30 sec

Director: Chavo

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Producer: Chavo

Principal Cast: Toki Sakamoto (Aki), Tsuyoshi Terada (Father), Kanoko Mimasu (Woman), Yusuke Hanaoka (Student), Yuka Hamamoto (Mother)

SYNOPSIS

After learning about the “Paper Crane Girl,” a young victim of the atomic bombing who folded paper cranes until her final days, a boy named Aki sets off alone for Hiroshima to visit the Children’s Peace Monument. Along the way, he encounters a lonely woman whose mysterious story of a blue frog leads him to question first love, war, death, and the meaning of life. Meanwhile, his philosopher father follows in search of him, struggling with Schopenhauer’s concept of the “blind will” and the emotional distance between them. As Aki reaches Hiroshima and confronts the tragedy of the past, his journey gradually awakens a Nietzschean affirmation of life. A poetic exploration of love, loss, and the fragile hope that endures in the face of despair.

Tokyo Tourism Paradox (Short) 6:20

Genre: Fiction (fully AI-generated)

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 6 min 20 sec

Director: Hiroki Yamaguchi

Subtitles: English

SYNOPSIS

In a near-future Tokyo pushed to the extreme of hyper-tourism, first-time visitor James is captivated by a carefully staged “Tokyo experience,” but gradually begins to realize that the city is an illusion. In a metropolis designed to be seen, what will he ultimately encounter? *This film is fully AI-generated.

Flower Bloom (Japan) 115 min + Q&A

Genre: Fiction

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 115 min (1:55:05)

Director: Rena Masuyama

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Producer: Ritsuko Oyama

Principal Cast: Itsuki Otosaki, Issei Ishida, Yuki Sakamoto, Daisuke Ito, Nobuko Ikeda, Yudai Uenishi, Hiroyuki Ezaki, Masanori Noyori, Daiki Ichikawa, Takato Murai, Rena Masuyama

SYNOPSIS

Yuka, a single mother working at an advertising agency, is sexually assaulted by her boss, Sakaguchi. Forced to take leave from work due to the trauma, she finds healing once again in the beauty of kimono at her family’s kimono shop back home. While sharing Japanese culture with the world, she nurtures a growing love with her childhood friend Masato, a designer. This is a story of women blossoming into their talents and flourishing in life.

Nov 15th: (opens in a new tab)

@ 12 PM All of a Sudden (opens in a new tab)(Japan's submission for the best international feature category at the 99th Academy Awards®️ In Competition

Synopsis

Director of a care facility for the elderly, Marie-Lou strives to introduce an

innovative care philosophy based on listening and respecting residents’

dignity, despite resistance from part of her staff. Her encounter with Mari,

a Japanese theater director battling cancer, will profoundly reshape her

path. By forming a deep, supportive friendship, the two women join forces

in a shared struggle to “make the impossible possible.

@ 5:45 PM Mopim (Short) 12min

Original Title: ムパン

Genre: Fiction (LED virtual production)

Country: Japan

Year: 2025

Duration: 11 min 42 sec

Director: Yutaka Mizuochi

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Synopsis

On her 100th birthday, Setsu Kurita lies alone in a hospital room late at night when a man in black arrives to take her away. In her last moments, he returns her to her youth and offers to take her anywhere. She chooses a day 80 years ago, to tell her late husband the words she never could. Filmed almost entirely using LED virtual production.

So Far Away, So Close (Short) 22min

Original Title: 彼方の声

Genre: Fiction

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 21 min 49 sec

Director: Tekkou Nogami

Synopsis

Naoto is given one day to reunite with Mio, his deceased lover, through an AI reconstructed from her brain data. Installed on his smartphone, Mio speaks with the same voice, memories, and mannerisms she once had—yet her existence is limited to just 24 hours. As they spend the day together in Tokyo, visiting familiar places, meeting Mio’s mother, and preparing for Naoto’s art exhibition, their conversations oscillate between the ordinary and the profound. While Naoto struggles between holding on to the past and continuing to live in the present, the countdown to their inevitable farewell draws closer.

House of Gia (Short) 6min

Genre: Fiction

Country: USA (to confirm)

Year: 2026

Duration: 5 min 36 sec

Director: Zachary I. Smith

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Synopsis

House of Gia is a short film drawing from Asian American influences that explores themes of legacy, power, identity, and the sacrifices people make in pursuit of ambition. “What do you do when you get everything you wanted and discover it cost everything else?” Shot in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.

Media Biased (Japan) 90min+ Q&A

Genre: Fiction

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 90 min

Director: Kinshirou Ogino (also writer)

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

SYNOPSIS

Suzuko Yugami is an outspoken director at a production company subcontracted by a regional TV station. When the station’s subsidiary fabricates footage based on unverified claims that the prefectural governor has abused his power, Suzuko is asked to stop the footage from going to air...

Nov 16th:

@ 8PM Chimney Town: Frozen in Time (Japan) US Premiere 98min + Award ceremony

Genre: Animation

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 98 min

Director: Yusuke Hirota

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Executive Producer / Original Story / Screenplay: Akihiro Nishino

Principal Cast (voice): MISSING

Premiere: U.S. Premiere

Trailer (YouTube): MISSING

Q&A / Stage: Screening only. Video message from Akihiro Nishino.

SYNOPSIS

A story about finding the courage to believe again—until the moment he can meet his dearest friend once more. Lubicchi, a young boy, was deep in sorrow after losing his dearest friend, Poupelle. Just as he decides to stop waiting and start moving forward, he accidentally wanders into the “Millennium Fortress”—a mysterious realm that governs time. In this world, any clock that stops ticking is immediately discarded. However, there stands a strange clock tower that remains intact despite being frozen at 11:59. Lubicchi discovers that the only way to return to his own world is to “restart this stopped clock tower.”

Nov 18th:(opens in a new tab)

@6:30 PM - Break Shot (Short) 19min

BREAK SHOT

Genre: Fiction (black comedy)

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 18 min 45 sec

Director / Screenplay: KURUMA

Producer: Mayuko Amanashi, Takumi Katsurada

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Principal Cast: Tomohiro Kodama (Sarugorilla), Kengo Kora, Aoi Morikawa, Oshiro Maeda, Kemuri Matsui, Satoshi Jinbo, Joe Odagiri

SYNOPSIS: Six cars on a gridlocked highway at night. Inside, the conversations run on: excuses and posturing, probing questions, work panic, a pursuit, a reckless stunt for views, and plenty of small talk. Then one incident sets off a chain reaction that links strangers who were never meant to cross paths. The only witness to all of it is the drive recorder.

Deadlock (Short) 21min

Genre: Fiction (crime thriller)

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 21 min 05 sec

Director: Daisuke Takanashi

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

SYNOPSIS: Amid betrayal and conspiracy within his organization, young yakuza Kenta Imaeda is suddenly caught up in a serious crime. The key is a single briefcase. In the closed world of a detention cell, the schemes of a mysterious woman, the yakuza, and a lawyer collide. What truth waits at the end of the lies and mind games?

Lumi Story (Short) 15min

Genre: Animation (Fiction)

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 13 min 32 sec

Director: Michelle Michiko

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Producer: Michelle Michiko

Credits: Original story, screenplay, direction, character design, narration, music and sound: Michelle Michiko / Background art and animation, film editing and original AI system: Kouki Tachikawa

Voice Cast: Allen Mary Claire (Neri), AI (Lumi), Kouki Tachikawa (Father); Narration: Michelle Michiko

SYNOPSIS: Anger, sadness, joy—every emotion is part of the soul’s journey, and there is no single answer for everyone. LUMI STORY follows children connected by bonds formed on distant stars in past lives as they encounter Lumi, the guardian of harmony, and the twelve zodiac signs who offer them guidance along the way. Through memories that journey across the universe, the story invites children growing up in the age of AI to feel that “your address is Earth,” while discovering gratitude for everyday life, prayer beyond religion, and the light that shines within every heart.

Tanabata– Yume Tanzaku (Short) 15min + Q&A

Genre: Drama

Country: Japan

Year: 2026

Duration: 15 min 15 sec

Director / Screenplay / Editor: Rena Masuyama

Language: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Producer: Yuji Matsumoto (Executive Producer / Original Story)

Principal Cast: Yoshimasa Uchida, Risa Hinami, Yuji Matsumoto, Daisuke Ito

SYNOPSIS: Hisho (Yoshimasa Uchida) grew up in an orphanage, haunted by the trauma of having been abandoned at a baby hatch. He meets Yuji Matsumoto (played by himself), president of TANABATA, a company where people write their dreams on tanzaku paper strips and help make one another's dreams come true, and begins working there. At TANABATA, Hisho falls in love with Yui (Risa Hinami), a captivating young woman. Overcoming the bitterness he has held toward his mother since childhood, he reclaims his lost youth and his life.