Guest appearances for 2026!

We’re delighted to announce that we’ll be joined by as many as three directors of JFTFP26 titles at select screenings, where they’ll be giving exclusive Q&A sessions!

IIZUKA Kasho, director of Blue Boy Trial, will be appearing at:

• HOME, Manchester (12 Feb)
• Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London (13 Feb)
• Chapter, Cardiff (14 Feb)

YOSHIDA Daihachi, director of Teki Cometh, will be appearing at:

• Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London (14 Feb)
• QUAD, Derby (15 Feb)
• Showroom, Sheffield (16 Feb)
• The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford (17 Feb)

KAI Sayaka, director of Adabana, will be appearing at:

• Storyhouse, Chester (25 Feb)
• Riverside Studios, London (26 Feb)
• Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast (27 Feb)
• Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds (3 Mar)

We’re excited to welcome them, and we hope you’re looking forward to meeting them!

Check out our film or venue pages for more details.

About IIZUKA Kasho

Born in Gunma Prefecture in 1990, IIZUKA is a filmmaker who openly shares his identity as a transgender man. During his university years, he trained under film director NEGISHI Yoshitaro and screenwriter KATO Masato. After receiving the Special Jury Prize at the Pia Film Festival for Our Future – a film inspired by his own experiences – he went on to direct The World for the Two of Us, his first commercially released feature (2020, Breath Inc.). He later made Angry Son (2021, Repro Entertainment), for which he was honored with the Most Promising New Talent Award at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.

For more information about Blue Boy Trial, please click here.

About YOSHIDA Daihachi

Born in Kagoshima Prefecture in 1963, YOSHIDA made his theatrical debut with Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!, which was selected for Critics’ Week at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and later screened at the Karlovy Vary and Warsaw International Film Festival, where it received the Free Spirit Award. His 2012 film The Kirishima Thing, adapted from ASAI Ryo’s bestselling novel, became a major box-office success and earned him multiple honors, including Best Film and Best Director at the Japan Academy Film Prize. He continued his acclaimed career with Pale Moon (2014), which won both the Audience Award and Best Actress Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and later received the Kim Jiseok Award at the Busan International Film Festival for The Scythian Lamb (2017).

For more information about Teki Cometh, please click here.

About KAI Sayaka

Born in Tokyo in 1979, KAI is a graduate of Joshibi University of Art and Design and has been involved in film and theater since her teenage years, working as both an assistant director and a production designer. Her debut feature, Red Snow (2019), went on to earn the Best Picture and Best Actress awards at the 2019 Los Angeles Japan Film Festival, as well as the Up-and-Coming Director Grand Prix at the Takasaki International Film Festival. KAI was also nominated for the Kaneto Shindo Award, presented by the Japan Film Makers Association to emerging directors of exceptional promise. In addition to filmmaking, she is the author of two novels — Red Snow (2019, Kadokawa Shoten) and Shelter (2020, Bessatsu Bungeishunju) — and wrote and directed the stage production Sacred Monster, which premiered at Tokyo’s New National Theatre in March 2023.

For more information about Adabana, please click here.

Posted on: 12 January 2026

Young Ambassador Scheme

Are you between 18 and 30 years of age?
We are looking for Young Ambassadors!

Help us promote the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026 by joining the Young Ambassador Scheme and get up to two free tickets!

Click here to apply

Posted on: 7 January 2026

Guest appearances for 2025!

We’re delighted to announce that we’ll once again be joined by two directors of JFTFP25 titles at select screenings, where they’ll be giving exclusive Q&A sessions!

SEKINE Kosai, director of Stay Mum, will be appearing at:

• Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London (7 Feb)
• Frankopan Hall, Jesus College; Cambridge (8 Feb)
• QUAD, Derby (9 Feb)
• Phoenix, Leicester (10 Feb)

TODA Akihiro, director of Ichiko, will be appearing at:

• Depot, Lewes (13 Feb)
• The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford (14 Feb)
• Chapter, Cardiff (15 Feb)
• Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London (16 Feb)
• Showroom Cinema, Sheffield (17 Feb)

We’re excited to welcome them, and we hope you’re looking forward to meeting them!

For more information, check out our film or venue pages.

About SEKINE Kosai

Film director/cinematographer. He directed his first short film RIGHT PLACE in 2005, which won the Best Foreign Film at the New York Short Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the Young Director’s Award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity the following year. In 2018, he made his feature film directorial debut with Love At Least which won the Jury Prize at the KINOTAYO Film Festival and the Silver Award at the SHINDO Kaneto Awards. In the same year, he released his feature documentary Tower of the Sun. He announced his collaboration with UNHCR about the immigrants and released his new documentary Dust to Dust which focus on clothes and dust issue in 2024.

About TODA Akihiro

Born in Nara Prefecture in 1983. Founder of theatre unit cheese theater.

TODA Akihiro graduated with a degree in theatre arts from Kindai University. He learned filmmaking on his own and won several prizes for his short films. In 2014, he made his feature debut with TANGERINES ON CAT. TODA also works as a writer and stage director. Stage play Ichiko no Tameni which Ichiko is based on, won Best Screenplay at Sun Mall Studio Awards in 2015.

Posted on: 6 January 2025

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The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme Online Talk 

Online roundtable discussion – “Action!”: Dealing with Social Issues in Cinematic Narratives

Join us for a fascinating online roundtable with film experts KIMBARA Yuka, ISHIZAKA Kenji, Julian Ross, James Mudge, Jennifer Coates, and Espen Bale, who together will explore how filmmakers past and present have addressed social issues through their cinematic practice, in view of this year’s theme of Am I Right? Justice, Justification and Judgement in Japanese Cinema.

Date: Wednesday 26 March, 13:00 GMT
Online roundtable discussion hosted on Zoom

Click here to book your space

Posted on: 7 March 2025

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Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025 report now available

Another massive thank-you to everyone who attended or otherwise supported this year’s JFTFP!

We’ve now made a report on the programme available, containing details on attendance, audience members’ highest-rated films, and more – check it out at the following link!

Download the report (PDF)

Posted on: 8 May 2025

Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2024 interim report now available

Thank you again to everyone who supported the JFTFP this year!

We’ve now made our interim report on the programme available at the following link.

Download the interim report (PDF)

Feel free to give it a read!

Posted on: 2 April 2024

Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2024 photo album

Thank you to all of you who attended and supported the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2024!

We’ve prepared a special collection of photos from the event below, for you to look back on and remember this year’s unforgettable programme.

Click here to view the photo album.

Posted on: 2 April 2024

JFTFP fans' most memorable films revealed

As part of our roundtable discussion held on 22 March to complement the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2024, we asked participants to tell us which Japanese films were most memorable to them, and compiled a list of their responses.

We’ve now published this list of films at the link below for you to look through!

Is your most memorable Japanese film on the list? Do you agree with everyone else’s choices? Take a look and find out!

Click the links below to download the list, in PDF format:

List of memorable films (by popularity)
List of memorable films (by director)

Thank you to everyone who submitted their most memorable Japanese films!

Posted on: 22 March 2024