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
NAKAMURA Yukiko (Japan)
Programming Producer, Le Cinéma
Born in Tokyo. After working for Nippon Herald Films, NAKAMURA joined Tokyu Bunkamura in 1989 and currently works in the Art and Film Division. She has been responsible for the programming of Le Cinéma since the opening of Bunkamura. She attends film festivals such as Cannes, Toronto and Berlin every year to select films. Major films screened at Le Cinéma include Farewell My Concubine, In the Mood for Love, Oasis, Amour, and Evil Does Not Exist. She served as a jury member at the 15th TOKYO FILMeX in 2014.
Farkhat SHARIPOV (Kazakhstan)
Director
SHARIPOV graduated from Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts and the New York Film Academy. His films include his debut feature The Tale of a Pink Bunny (2010), The Secret of a Leader (2018), which won Best Film at the Moscow International Film Festival 2019, 18 Kilohertz (2020), which won Warsaw Film Festival 2020’s Grand Prix, and Skhema (2022), which won Berlinale 2022’s Generation 14Plus Grand Prix. His latest film, Soldier of Love (2024), will be screened as the OAFF2025 Special Opening Film.
Angela YUEN (Hong Kong)
Actor
Angela began her acting career in 2016. She has recently starred in Hong Kong Family and box-office blockbuster Chilli Laugh Story, etc. Moreover, Angela was nominated Best Actress for her outstanding role in the film The Narrow Road at the 59th Golden Horse Awards as well as the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards. Ambassador for the 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2025.
Members of the Housen Short Film Award Jury
John HSU (Taiwan)
Director
HSU, born in Taipei, 1981, graduated from the Department of Radio, Television and Film at Shih Hsin University and works in VR, TV and film. His debut feature Detention (2019), an adaptation of a same-name video game, was a box-office hit and was nominated for twelve prizes at the 56th Golden Horse Awards and won five. His latest film, Dead Talents Society (2024), will be screened at OAFF2025 Special Program [Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2025].
KINOSHITA Chika (Japan)
Film Researcher
KINOSHITA is a professor of Film Studies at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, Japan. She received a joint PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations and Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago in 2007. She taught film studies at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, and Tokyo Metropolitan University before joining Kyoto in 2016.
Her book “Mizoguchi Kenji: Aesthetics and Politics of the Film Medium” (Hosei University Press, 2016) received the Ministry of Education’s 67th Art Encouragement Award in the Criticism in the First Book category. She has published academic essays on Japanese film history and gender in both English and Japanese and film reviews in film magazines such as “NOBODY” and “Kinema Junpo”.
Adam WONG Sau-ping (Hong Kong)
Director
WONG, born in Hong Kong, 1975, is best known as the director and writer of The Way We Dance (2013, OAFF2014) and The Way We Keep Dancing (2021, OAFF2021), the former of which won him Best New Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Hong Kong Directors’ Guild in 2014. Other works include She Remembers, He Forgets (2015) which was screened at OAFF 2016. His latest film, The Way We Talk (2024), will be screened at OAFF2025 Special Program [Special Focus on Hong Kong 2025].