Born in Tokyo in 1962, Hirokazu Kore-eda first cut his teeth as an award-winning documentary filmmaker for television before emerging as one of the darlings of the international film festival circuit.

In this special filmmaker spotlight, MIFF salutes Kore-eda’s career as a writer, director and editor of highly challenging, independent Japanese cinema largely examining issues of memory, loss and death.

Along with retrospective screening of all his cinematic feature films beginning with his debut Maborosi (MIFF 96), Kore-eda’s most recent release, Hana, appears as part of this spotlight.