Special Guests

Kiyoshi Kurosawa – CUT ABOVE Award Winner

Appearing at:

Cloud, Serpent’s Path (2024), License to Live

JAPAN CUTS powered by GU is honored to award legendary director Kiyoshi Kurosawa with this year’s CUT ABOVE Award prior to the screening of our centerpiece film, Cloud. Kurosawa was born in July 1955 in Kobe, Japan, and he started directing 8mm independent films while in college. He made his commercial film debut in 1983 with Kandagawa Wars. In 1997, his thriller Cure brought him international attention, and this was followed by further global success with Serpent’s Path (1998), License to Live (1998) and Pulse (2001). His Bright Future was a Palme d’Or nominee at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, his film Journey to the Shore won Best Director in Un Certain Regards in Cannes. In 2016, his thriller Creepy premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2020, Kurosawa won the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the Venice International Film Festival for his film Wife of a Spy. We are honored to present premieres of two of his newest works: Cloud and Serpent’s Path (2024), along with a retrospective screening of License to Live on 35mm.

Yuumi Kawai – Award-Winning Actress

Appearing at:

She Taught Me Serendipity, A Girl Named Ann

Yuumi Kawai was born in 2000 in Tokyo. She began to receive acclaim and awards early in her acting career for films including It’s a Summer Film (JC 2021) and A Balance. In 2024, she starred in Desert of Namibia which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI Prize. She received the Japan Academy Film Prize’s award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for A Girl Named Ann, screening this year at JAPAN CUTS. Her additional recent work include She Taught Me Serendipity and Teki Cometh, both also screening at the festival this year, as well as A Bad Summer, Renoir and Look Back (JC 2024).

Keiichiro Hirano – Original Author of The Real You

Appearing at:

The Real You

Keiichiro Hirano is an award-winning Japanese author whose debut novel Eclipse won the celebrated Akutagawa Prize when he was only 23. Renowned for his psychological insight and exploration of universal themes like identity, love and acceptance, his work spans literary fiction, essays and sci-fi. His novels have been widely translated, and his At the End of the Matinee, A Man and The Real You have all been adapted into films. A former cultural envoy to Paris, he has delivered lectures across Europe and appeared in a TED Talk. His books available in English include Eclipse, At the End of the Matinee and A Man. He has also published in Japan a critical study on Yukio Mishima and, most recently, the short story collection Mt. Fuji.

Stephen Lyman – Executive Producer of The Spirit Of Japan

Appearing at:

The Spirit of Japan

Lyman is one of the leading global experts on authentic Japanese shochu. He has been working at Yamatozakura Distillery in Kagoshima Prefecture seasonally since 2013 and has now made shochu in Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Kumamoto and even Brooklyn. In 2018, he relocated from NYC to Fukuoka, Japan. On International Sake Day 2019 his first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was released worldwide by Tuttle Publishing and in 2020 was nominated for a James Beard Book Award. He is the co-host of the Japan Distilled podcast. The Spirit of Japan is his first documentary. Further in the film world, Lyman has produced five narrative fiction films including the 2006 Native American short film Sunshine which aired on PBS and is now part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He also co-wrote and directed the short film The Fairy Princess which played at film festivals in seven countries and won Best Comedy Short Film at the 2010 Moondance Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado.

Joseph Overbey – Director & Cinematographer of The Spirit Of Japan

Appearing at:

The Spirit of Japan

Joseph Overbey is a Brooklyn-based cinematographer and motion picture colorist whose work celebrates the interplay of light, color and the human experience. With a diverse portfolio spanning narrative, documentary and experimental films, Overbey brings a distinctive aesthetic style shaped by a lifelong love of visual storytelling to his collaborations. His approach is driven by a deep curiosity about life, culture and the dynamic world we live in. As Director of Photography, Joseph has lensed several independent narrative and documentary films featured at prestigious festivals including the San Diego Independent Filmmaker’s Festival, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Fantasia and Toronto’s Inside Out Film Festival. His commercial work includes collaborations with notable clients such as ARTE, Communiqué Magazine and others. A 2024 Filmshop Breakthrough Fellow, Overbey has been an active member of this nonprofit collective of independent filmmakers since 2018. In 2020, he was selected for Filmshop Studio, Brooklyn’s first cooperative film studio and has served as co-leader of the North Brooklyn workshop group (2021~2022).

Shoko Tamai – Director & Choreographer of Flow

Appearing at:

SHORT CUTS

Shoko Tamai is an award-winning choreographer and dancer whose work fuses ballet, contemporary movement and martial arts to explore themes of human connection, mythology and environmental consciousness. Beginning her training at the age of two, she studied at world-renowned institutions including the Central School of Ballet, the American Academy of Ballet and Yumi Classical Ballet Studio. She has performed with leading companies such as the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Cirque du Soleil, Semperoper Dresden Ballet and Roma Ballet, gracing some of the world’s most prestigious stages including the Royal Opera House in London, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Theatre Royal Glasgow, Lincoln Center and Jacob’s Pillow. In 2024, Tamai directed her first dance film—a milestone that garnered critical acclaim across the international film festival circuit. Tamai’s choreography has been featured at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in NAUM at Cenote Cave in Mexico, where she currently directs Amaterasu, an immersive performance unfolding in a natural cenote, with dancers moving both underwater and on land—blending ancient mythology with contemporary movement.