Japan is having a major moment at the Cannes Film Festival this year. For the first time in 25 years, three Japanese directors — Hirokazu Koreeda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Koji Fukada — are simultaneously in competition for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize.
This kind of confluence hasn’t occurred at the festival since 2001, and the timing couldn’t be more fitting. Japan has been named the Country of Honor at the 2026 Marché du Film, becoming the fifth nation to hold the title since the initiative launched and the first from East Asia. The designation celebrates Japan’s contributions to global cinema by spotlighting its animation and genre films across panels, screenings and events.
Back home in Japan, the film industry is in the midst of a boom. Annual revenues soared 32% to $1.79 billion in 2025, surpassing the pre-pandemic record of $1.70 billion set in 2019. Production also hit an all-time high, with 694 Japanese films released in 2025.
Here are the three competition titles drawing the biggest buzz at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
© Festival de Cannes
Sheep in the Box: Hirokazu Koreeda
Few directors have made the family drama their own quite like Koreeda, and he returns this year to the competition where he made history. Sheep in the Box is a futuristic story in which a married couple adopts a humanoid robot resembling their late son, starring actress Haruka Ayase and Daigo of the male comedy duo Chidori.
It’s a notable tonal shift for the director, pushing his familiar territory of grief and domestic life into near-future science fiction. The film explores memory, grief and the tense emotional boundaries between humans and artificial intelligence as they increasingly intertwine in daily life.
Koreeda is no stranger to the festival — he took home the Palme d’Or in 2018 for Shoplifters. Expectations are high that Sheep in the Box could deliver him a second win.
© Festival de Cannes
All of a Sudden: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Hamaguchi returns to Cannes with his most outward-looking film yet. A best screenplay winner at the 2021 festival alongside co-writer Takamasa Oe for Drive My Car (starring Hidetoshi Nishijima) he presents the French co-production All of a Sudden — a clear pivot away from his Japanese-language work.
The film is set in France and follows a woman running a struggling nursing home alongside a stage director living with terminal cancer, played by Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto. Their encounter leads both characters into a reflection on mortality, human connection and dignity in the final stages of life.
Hamaguchi has been on a remarkable run for years; Drive My Car gained worldwide acclaim after its Cannes premiere, before later winning the Academy Award for best international feature film. A Palme d’Or this year would cement his place among the festival’s most essential contemporary voices.
© Festival de Cannes
Nagi Notes: Koji Fukada
Of the three competing directors, Fukada is making the biggest leap up. He previously took the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2016 for Harmonium, and Nagi Notes represents his first time competing for the Palme d’Or itself.
The film follows Yoriko, a sculptor living quietly in the rural town of Nagi in Okayama Prefecture, whose routine is upended by a visit from her former sister-in-law Yuri, a Tokyo architect at a crossroads in her own life. As the two women reconnect over a few days in the countryside, the film examines loneliness, healing and the lingering weight of unresolved past experiences.
These are themes Fukada has returned to throughout his career, rendered here at a slower, more meditative register. It may be the most understated of the three competition titles, but one well worth watching when the jury — chaired this year by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook — sits down to deliberate.
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Updated On May 25, 2026
