Japanese Film Festival Returns To Adelaide This November

The Japanese Film Festival returns to Adelaide next month for the first time since 2018.

Held at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas from Monday 23 to Saturday 28 November, there will be three films screened across six sessions.

The three titles are drawn from the Festival's wider 2026 lineup and include a live action drama, samurai thriller and animated flick.

Horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's period drama The Samurai and the Prisoner, Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Koreeda's adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga Look Back and Kōhei Kadowaki's animated debut We Are Aliens give Adelaide film fans a taste of the full national program.

"Thirty years on, the Japanese Film Festival remains the premier destination for Australian audiences to experience Japan's best contemporary cinema," says Japanese Film Festival Programmer Manisay Oudomvilav.

"We're thrilled to share a selection of this year's Festival with Adelaide audiences, with films moving from intimate stories of friendship and grief to samurai intrigue and bold new animation, showcasing the range and creativity of contemporary Japanese filmmaking in our 30th year."

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Period drama The Samurai and the Prisoner is adapted from Honobu Yonezawa's Naoki Prize-winning novel of the same name. Premiering at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, the film follows a besieged samurai lord who forms an uneasy alliance with a brilliant, dangerous prisoner while a traitor hides within his own court.

Hirokazu Koreeda's take on Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga Look Back had its World Premiere in Competition at the 2026 Venice Film Festival and focuses on two young manga artists whose childhood rivalry turns into friendship and, eventually, real grief, set against the quiet isolation of a small town in northern Japan.

Lastly is We Are Aliens, the directorial debut of Kōhei Kadowaki about two boys whose childhood friendship is shattered by a single careless moment.

The 2026 Japanese Film Festival takes place at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas from Monday 23 to Saturday 28 November. Tickets are on sale now at jffau.jpf.go.jp.