Interview with Mai Nakanishi, Director of Swallow
Mai Nakanishi is a long-time horror film enthusiast. After founding and directing the Scream Queen FilmFest Tokyo and working on a wide variety of films in various...
Swallow (Taiwan/Japan, 2021)
One woman’s greedy pursuit of movie stardom leads to a sticky end in Swallow, a 22-minute short from Mai Nakanishi. Winner of a Special Mention at...
Interview with Kahori Higashi, Director of Melting Sounds [OAFF 2022]
Deceptively simple but quite profound, Melting Sounds is a moving and quietly funny first feature film from freelance designer-turned-director Kahori Higashi. In her work, she ruminates on...
Melting Sounds (Japan, 2021) [OAFF 2022]
Melting Sounds is part of the latest wave of films associated with MOOSIC LAB, a competition wherein the titles submitted showcase up-and-coming directors who have created...
Interview with Azusa Hieda, Director of Summer Wedding [OAFF 2022]
Azusa Hieda’a short film Summer Wedding received its World Premiere at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022 where it was one of the few films to directly...
Summer Wedding (Japan, 2022) [OAFF 2022]
Azusa Hieda’s profound short film Summer Wedding uses the Covid-19 pandemic as a prompt for the self-reflection and change in its main character. The titular summer wedding...
Interview with Kasho Iizuka, Director of Angry Son [OAFF 2022]
Starting with his 2011 Pia Film Festival Special Jury Prize-winning autobiographical feature debut, Our Future, Kasho Iizuka has focused on the lives of people who...
Angry Son (Japan, 2022) [OAFF 2022]
For transgender director Kasho Iizuka, representation matters. Starting with his 2011 Pia Film Festival Special Jury Prize-winning autobiographical feature debut, Our Future, his works have...
Interview with Akinori Ikuse, Director of Out of TOKYO 202x [OAFF 2022]
A mood of optimism radiates from Akinori Ikuse’s 14-minute short, Out of TOKYO 202x, a time travel movie where two people from the future, Rika...
Out of TOKYO 202x (Japan, 2022) [OAFF 2022]
From George Pal’s classic The Time Machine (1960) to Robert Zemeckis’ crowd-pleaser Back to the Future (1985), to Shane Carruth’s puzzling low-budget indie Primer (2004) and...