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JAPAN SOCIETY ANNOUNCES KOTA NAKANO’S RETAKE WINNER OF OBAYASHI PRIZE AT 2024 JAPAN CUTS: FESTIVAL OF NEW JAPANESE FILM HELD JULY 10–21, 2024
PIA-winning Feature by Kota Nakano Selected Within
Festival’s Next Generation Section by Festival Jury
New York, NY (July 30, 2024) – Japan Society announces RETAKE directed by Kota Nakano as the winner of the fourth Obayashi Prize at JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film. 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 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: writer, curator and distributor Ariel Esteban Cayer (Kani Releasing); Edo Choi, Associate Curator of Film at Museum of the Moving Image; and journalist/critic Matt Schley. The jury remarks:
"With its inventiveness, simplicity and sense of play, Kota Nakano’s RETAKE is at once a flirty, sun-drenched teen comedy and a reflective, Hong Sang-soo-esque meditation on the blurry line between reality and fiction. We were impressed by the film’s raw, touching performances, its lack of affect, and the way it reminded us that the smallest choices have repercussions that ripple ever outward like the rippling waters seen throughout the film."
The jury also recognizes director/actor Urara Matsubayashi’s directorial debut Blue Imagine with a Special Mention for “tackling sexual harassment so directly, an important issue facing the film industry in Japan and beyond. We were impressed by its positive portrayal of women in solidarity, offering support, understanding and community to each other, throughout the film’s many conversations.”
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). This year’s iteration of the Next Generation section is comprised of six titles: Urara Matsubayashi’s Blue Imagine, Gen Nagao’s Motion Picture: Choke, Noriko Yuasa’s Performing KAORU’s Funeral, Toshihiko Tanaka’s Rei, Koto Nakano’s RETAKE and Shun Nakagawa’s Sayonara, Girls.
RETAKE
『リテイク』(Riteiku)
Dir. Kota Nakano, 2024, 110 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Yuta Muto, Urara, Areina Takano.
North American Premiere. Winner of the 2023 Pia Film Festival Grand-Prix, RETAKE follows a high school student who decides to make a movie over summer break with her friends. Old friendships are tested, new friendships are made, and secrets and crushes are revealed as the group makes their film. RETAKE is a dear celebration of adolescence and the raw joy of cinema.
Kota Nakano
Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1987. He started making films in the broadcasting club at high school and studied filmmaking at Tokyo Zokei University. He is currently the representative of the NPO Shonan Citizens Media Network. He spent over two years to make RETAKE while holding filmmaking workshops for young people.
Ariel Esteban Cayer is a Montreal-born writer and film curator based in Hong Kong. As a programmer, he has worked with SXSW Sydney for its inaugural edition in 2023 and with the Fantasia International Film Festival as Co-Director of Asian Programming and curator of the Camera Lucida section, dedicated to arthouse genre cinema, from 2017 to 2023. As a freelancer writer, he has contributed to outlets such as 24 Images, Panorama-cinéma and more. In 2021, he co-founded Kani Releasing, a boutique distributor dedicated to releasing emergent and restored Asian cinema in North America.
Edo Choi is a film programmer, critic, and projectionist based in New York City. Since 2019, he has worked at the Museum of the Moving Image as its Associate Curator of Film. His critical writing has been published in Reverse Shot, Film Comment, and other online film journals. He was formerly a programmer at the Maysles Documentary Center and has projected at venues in New York City and Chicago.
Matt Schley is a Tokyo-based film journalist and critic whose work appears in Screen International, The Japan Times, BBC News, Time Out Tokyo, Otaku USA Magazine and elsewhere. He also works as a localizer of films, TV, manga and books, including Kazuhiro Soda’s Why I Make Documentaries.
About Japan Society Film
Spurred on by the success of the 1970 Donald Richie-curated MoMA retrospective The Japanese Film: 1896-1969, Japan Society committed to making film one of its key programs in the early seventies—quickly becoming the premier venue for the exhibition of new Japanese cinema as well as career-spanning retrospectives on seminal directors and actors. In 1979, Japan Society established the Japan Film Center, formalizing film as a full-fledged, year-round program aimed at cultivating a deep appreciation and understanding of Japanese film culture among American audiences. Over the years, Japan Society Film has hosted numerous high-profile premieres and programs that include visits from Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune, Hideko Takamine, and Nobuhiko Obayashi. In 2007, Japan Society Film launched JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film, the largest festival of its kind in North America.
About Japan Society
Founded in 1907, Japan Society in New York City presents sophisticated, topical and accessible experiences of Japanese art and culture, and facilitates the exchange of ideas, knowledge and innovation between the U.S. and Japan. More than 200 events annually encompass world-class exhibitions, dynamic classical and cutting-edge contemporary performing arts, film premieres and retrospectives, workshops and demonstrations, tastings, family activities, language classes, and a range of high-profile talks and expert panels that present open, critical dialogue on issues of vital importance to the U.S., Japan and East Asia. Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street between First and Second avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 and 7 subway at Grand Central or the E and M subway at Lexington Avenue). www.japansociety.org
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: writer, curator and distributor Ariel Esteban Cayer (Kani Releasing); Edo Choi, Associate Curator of Film at Museum of the Moving Image; and journalist/critic Matt Schley. The jury remarks:
"With its inventiveness, simplicity and sense of play, Kota Nakano’s RETAKE is at once a flirty, sun-drenched teen comedy and a reflective, Hong Sang-soo-esque meditation on the blurry line between reality and fiction. We were impressed by the film’s raw, touching performances, its lack of affect, and the way it reminded us that the smallest choices have repercussions that ripple ever outward like the rippling waters seen throughout the film."
The jury also recognizes director/actor Urara Matsubayashi’s directorial debut Blue Imagine with a Special Mention for “tackling sexual harassment so directly, an important issue facing the film industry in Japan and beyond. We were impressed by its positive portrayal of women in solidarity, offering support, understanding and community to each other, throughout the film’s many conversations.”
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). This year’s iteration of the Next Generation section is comprised of six titles: Urara Matsubayashi’s Blue Imagine, Gen Nagao’s Motion Picture: Choke, Noriko Yuasa’s Performing KAORU’s Funeral, Toshihiko Tanaka’s Rei, Koto Nakano’s RETAKE and Shun Nakagawa’s Sayonara, Girls.
RETAKE
『リテイク』(Riteiku)
Dir. Kota Nakano, 2024, 110 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Yuta Muto, Urara, Areina Takano.
North American Premiere. Winner of the 2023 Pia Film Festival Grand-Prix, RETAKE follows a high school student who decides to make a movie over summer break with her friends. Old friendships are tested, new friendships are made, and secrets and crushes are revealed as the group makes their film. RETAKE is a dear celebration of adolescence and the raw joy of cinema.
Kota Nakano
Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1987. He started making films in the broadcasting club at high school and studied filmmaking at Tokyo Zokei University. He is currently the representative of the NPO Shonan Citizens Media Network. He spent over two years to make RETAKE while holding filmmaking workshops for young people.
Ariel Esteban Cayer is a Montreal-born writer and film curator based in Hong Kong. As a programmer, he has worked with SXSW Sydney for its inaugural edition in 2023 and with the Fantasia International Film Festival as Co-Director of Asian Programming and curator of the Camera Lucida section, dedicated to arthouse genre cinema, from 2017 to 2023. As a freelancer writer, he has contributed to outlets such as 24 Images, Panorama-cinéma and more. In 2021, he co-founded Kani Releasing, a boutique distributor dedicated to releasing emergent and restored Asian cinema in North America.
Edo Choi is a film programmer, critic, and projectionist based in New York City. Since 2019, he has worked at the Museum of the Moving Image as its Associate Curator of Film. His critical writing has been published in Reverse Shot, Film Comment, and other online film journals. He was formerly a programmer at the Maysles Documentary Center and has projected at venues in New York City and Chicago.
Matt Schley is a Tokyo-based film journalist and critic whose work appears in Screen International, The Japan Times, BBC News, Time Out Tokyo, Otaku USA Magazine and elsewhere. He also works as a localizer of films, TV, manga and books, including Kazuhiro Soda’s Why I Make Documentaries.
About Japan Society Film
Spurred on by the success of the 1970 Donald Richie-curated MoMA retrospective The Japanese Film: 1896-1969, Japan Society committed to making film one of its key programs in the early seventies—quickly becoming the premier venue for the exhibition of new Japanese cinema as well as career-spanning retrospectives on seminal directors and actors. In 1979, Japan Society established the Japan Film Center, formalizing film as a full-fledged, year-round program aimed at cultivating a deep appreciation and understanding of Japanese film culture among American audiences. Over the years, Japan Society Film has hosted numerous high-profile premieres and programs that include visits from Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune, Hideko Takamine, and Nobuhiko Obayashi. In 2007, Japan Society Film launched JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film, the largest festival of its kind in North America.
About Japan Society
Founded in 1907, Japan Society in New York City presents sophisticated, topical and accessible experiences of Japanese art and culture, and facilitates the exchange of ideas, knowledge and innovation between the U.S. and Japan. More than 200 events annually encompass world-class exhibitions, dynamic classical and cutting-edge contemporary performing arts, film premieres and retrospectives, workshops and demonstrations, tastings, family activities, language classes, and a range of high-profile talks and expert panels that present open, critical dialogue on issues of vital importance to the U.S., Japan and East Asia. Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street between First and Second avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 and 7 subway at Grand Central or the E and M subway at Lexington Avenue). www.japansociety.org
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