Awards
Grand Prix (Best Picture Award)
The award will be given to the best film among the Competition films, as selected by the jury. The winner will receive 500,000 yen.
Most Promising Talent Award
The award will be given to the most promising artist among those involved in the Competition films, who the jurors believe will play an important role in Asian film world in the future. The winner will receive 200,000 yen.
Yakushi Pearl Award
This sponsor award will be given by Yakushi Shinju to the most brilliant performer among all participating films’ cast members. The winner will receive a pearl accessory from Yakushi Shinju.
JAPAN CUTS Award
This award, selected by the organizers of JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film, held annually at Japan Society in New York City, is granted to a title in the OAFF Indie Forum section that displays an exciting and unique vision in independent Japanese cinema.
Housen Short Film Award
This sponsor award will be given by the Housen Cultural Foundation to the best short film among the less-than-60-minute films which are screened at OAFF 2025 as Japan Premieres, as selected by the jury. The winner will receive 100,000 yen.
Audience Award
The award will be given to the film screened at OAFF 2025 as Japan Premiere which earns the highest points from audience voting. Please take a ballot after screenings.
The winner will receive a pearl accessory from Yakushi Shinju.
Members of the Competition Jury
FU Tienyu
Director
FU is a representative female director from Taiwan. Her work consistently reflects a deep empathy for women’s experiences and emotional lives. Her works, including Somewhere I Have Never Travelled (2009), My Egg Boy (2016) and Day Off (2023, OAFF2023), earned her the Kurosawa Akira Award at the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival, making her the second Taiwanese filmmaker to receive this honor after HOU Hsiao-hsien.
HIDAKA Nanami
Actor
HIDAKA has appeared in films such as Sayounara (dir. ISHIBASHI Yuho), Mugen Foundation (dir. OSAKI Akira), The Real Thing (dir. FUKADA Koji), Step (dir. IIZUKA Ken), and Twilight Cinema Blues (dir. JOJO Hideo). She played the protagonist’s buddy in Back to That Day (dir. MAEDA Seira). Her recent credits include Mikazuki to Neko (dir. KAMIMURA Naho) and Traveling Alone (dir. ISHIBASHI Yuho), which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival. Both Dreams and Paths and Coffee After All, in which she stars, will be screened in the Indie Forum section at OAFF EXPO2025-OAFF2026.
ONG Kuo Sin
Director
ONG is a Singaporean writer, producer, and director who works across television and film on projects that reflect Singaporean identity and societal aspirations. His works include long-running dramas like “Tanglin” (2015-18) and “Kin” (2018-22) and the Golden Horse Award-nominated film Number 1 (2020) and its sequel Number 2 (2025). His latest film, A Good Child, will be screened as the OAFF EXPO2025-OAFF2026 Closing Film.
Members of the Housen Short Film Award Jury
Jun LI
Director
LI, born in 1991, studied journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and earned a master’s in gender studies from Cambridge University. His directorial debut Tracey (2018) premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival, followed by Drifting (2021) which played at Rotterdam. As a producer, he made Fly Me to the Moon (2023). His latest film, Queerpanorama (2025), will be screened at OAFF EXPO2025-OAFF2026 Spotlight section.
LIU Wenbing
Film Reseacher
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities, The University of Osaka. Completed a PhD program at the University of Tokyo. PhD (Academic). Author of monographs including “Japanese Filmmakers and China” (Genshobo, 2021), “The History of Exchange in Japanese and Chinese Film” (University of Tokyo Press, 2016), “The Exuberant Golden Age of Chinese Film” (Iwanami Shoten, 2012), and “Shanghai in Film” (Keio University Press, 2004) (all in Japanese). Supervised the “Studio Ghibli Story Exhibition” (2024) and the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs’ “Special Feature: Films that Bridged the Gap between Japan and China” (2017). Winner of the Japan Film Pen Club Award Encouragement Prize (2015).
Geo LOMUNTAD
Producer
Based in Manila, Geo LOMUNTAD is a bold new voice in the Filipino film scene and founder of Super!, a production company committed to championing original, globally resonant Filipino stories. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, Talents Tokyo, Busan Asian Film School, and Rotterdam Lab. His debut feature as lead producer, The Missing (OAFF2024), directed by Carl Joseph Papa, made history as the Philippines’ official submission to the 96th Academy Awards and won Best Animated Film at the 2024 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. His latest feature, Sunshine, which premiered at the 2024 TIFF and won the Crystal Bear at the 2025 Berlinale, will be screened in the OAFF EXPO 2025-OAFF 2026 Competition section.