Japan Society Announces Hiromichi Nakao’s Michiyuki – Voices of Time as Winner of the Obayashi Prize at the 2025 Edition JAPAN CUTS
Japan Society announces Michiyuki – Voices of Time directed by Hiromichi Nakao as the winner of the fifth Obayashi Prize at JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film, Powered by GU. The film is selected from titles within Next Generation—the festival’s sole competitive section introduced in 2020 dedicated to independently produced narrative feature films from emerging filmmakers in Japan. The 2025 Prize is presented by VIPO (Visual Industry Promotion Organization).
The festival’s only juried section, Next Generation awards the Obayashi Prize to the most accomplished title as determined by a jury of industry professionals. This year’s distinguished jurors are: director and distributor Chiaki Yanagimoto (Synepic Entertainment); Dr. Rowena Santos Aquino, Lecturer of Cinematic Arts at California State University, Long Beach; and filmmaker and film programmer Desmond Thorne (Nitehawk Cinema). The jury remarks:
“The jury awards the Obayashi Prize to Hiromichi Nakao’s sophomore feature Michiyuki–Voices of Time for its unique and brave filmmaking perspective. Its interweaving of documentary and fiction; past, present, and the time between; and visual and aural elements is at once assured and thoughtful, as it takes on the crisis of Japanese towns experiencing rapid population decline and inevitable extinction. Its treatment of time and the intergenerational in relation to place and community may be subdued but no less impactful and resonant. In these ways, the jury feels it to be rather complete in its cinematic form.” Director Nakao shares his delight with the award, “I’m truly honored to receive an award bearing the name of the beloved Director Obayashi.”
The jury also recognises Masashi Iijima’s Promised Land with a Special Mention. “An equally brave and impressive debut feature for its clarity of vision of representing the struggle that happens inside human beings in connection to nature and environment, integrating landscape into the narrative of two young men both burdened and challenged by the weight of the tradition in relation to shifting (masculine) identity. With minimal dialogue and a clinical attention to visual detail, it is a great example of how a very specific small story could be very universal.”
Named after the late filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020), the award was created to acknowledge Obayashi’s legacy and to encourage the continued development of Japanese independent cinema through the festival’s Next Generation section. The winner will receive a trophy and monetary award of $3,000 (USD). Past winners of the Obayashi Prize include: Retake (2024), Amiko (2023), Mari and Mari (2021) and Kontora (2020).