Cannes, France – When Tao Okamoto became the first Japanese performer to win the Cannes Film Festival’s best actress prize on May 24, sharing the award with Belgium’s Virginie Efira for their roles in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s drama “All of a Sudden,” the honor marked a milestone in Japanese cinema while underscoring its growing international reach.
In a post on X congratulating Okamoto, Hamaguchi and the film’s team, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi highlighted the project’s multinational roots — a coproduction between Japan, France, Belgium and Germany — calling it a model for how Japan can work with “various countries” to create “new value.”
The award was just one sign of Japan’s strong presence at this year’s Cannes. Three new works by Hamaguchi, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Koji Fukada screened in Cannes’ competition section; Yukiko Sode’s “All the Lovers in the Night” was featured in Un Certain Regard; Kohei Kadowaki’s “We Are Aliens” screened in Directors’ Fortnight; Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “The Samurai and the Prisoner” was selected for the Cannes Premiere section; and Greek director Konstantina Kotzamani’s Japanese-language “Titanic Ocean” also screened in Un Certain Regard. Beyond the screenings, filmmakers, producers and industry groups used the festival and its accompanying Marche du Film — which named Japan its country of honor this year — to forge partnerships, pitch projects and explore new avenues for coproduction.
AloJapan.com