We had met and interviewed him in Rome during the 2026 Asian Film Festival Rome, on the occasion of the presentation of his intense film Love on Trial. Even back then, Japanese director Kōji Fukada had shown that rare sensitivity capable of transforming intimate and fragile emotions into a universal cinematic language.
Today, Fukada once again steps into the international spotlight, this time at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where he presents Nogi Notes in competition for the prestigious Palme d’Or. An important return, almost a natural one, for a filmmaker who for years has built a cinema made of silence, humanity, and deep emotional observation. In a recent interview, the director explained that the heart of the film is loneliness, a feeling that, according to him, “belongs to everyone.” And this is precisely the strength of his cinema: the ability to speak about isolation, fragility, and distance without ever confining them to individual drama, but instead transforming them into something profoundly collective and universally recognizable.
Nogi Notes therefore seems to fit perfectly within the director’s artistic journey, continuing that delicate exploration of human relationships we had already perceived during our meeting in Rome: a cinema that leaves a deep mark.
Kōji Fukada is no stranger to the charm of the Cannes Film Festival. Over the years, the Japanese director has built an increasingly strong relationship with the French festival, becoming one of the most respected Asian auteurs in contemporary independent cinema. His name first attracted major international attention in 2016 with Harmonium, a deeply unsettling and profoundly human film that won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section. From that moment on, Cannes began to recognize Fukada as one of those filmmakers capable of portraying modern Japan through universal emotions, tension-filled silences, and fragile human relationships.
His cinema stays far away from visual excess and spectacle. This extraordinary director builds slow, intimate, often suspended stories, where the greatest weight lies not in action, but in unspoken emotions. And it is precisely this delicacy that, over the years, has captivated critics and international festivals alike.
With Nogi Notes, presented in competition for the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2026, the director seems once again to continue his exploration of contemporary loneliness. For those who have followed his artistic path for years, this return to Cannes feels almost inevitable. Fukada continues to move within a deeply personal cinematic space: a cinema that observes human beings without judging them, allowing gazes, pauses, and silence to express what words often cannot.
In a Cannes Film Festival often dominated by major productions and strong media impact, Fukada’s presence also represents a return to a more essential, emotional, and profoundly human cinema.
Nagi Notes marks his very first official entry into the Main Competition for the Palme d’Or, representing one of the most important moments of his international career.
The film is set in the rural town of Nagi and tells the delicate and complex relationship between two former sisters-in-law, played by Takako Matsu and Shizuka Ishibashi. Judging from the first released images, the tone appears highly contemplative and poetic, perfectly in line with Fukada’s cinematic style.
Kōji Fukada’s Nagi Notes does not have an official trailer yet, but this image alone already seems capable of revealing the soul of the film.
Silent, delicate, suspended in time. Just like Fukada’s cinema itself, able to transform small gestures and quiet glances into deeply emotional experiences. Even within this first visual fragment, you can already feel the film’s intimate and melancholic atmosphere, moving between art, memory, and that silent loneliness that Fukada has always portrayed with extraordinary sensitivity.
