
Directing
Born May 30, 1969 · Nara, Japan
Naomi Kawase (河瀨直美 Kawase Naomi, born May 30, 1969) is a Japanese film director. She graduated from Visual Arts Osaka in 1989. Many of her works have been documentaries, including Embracing, about her search for the father who abandoned her as a child, and Katatsumori, about the grandmother who raised her. Aside from being a filmmaker, she is the founder and Executive Director for the Nara International Film Festival.

Yakushima's Illusion
2025

echo
2023

Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side B
2022

Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side A
2022
To The Future
2021

True Mothers
2020

The Moon
2018

Vision
2018

Cinema Fighters
2018

Parallel World
2018

Where Does the Sand Go?
2017

Radiance
2017

Amami
2016

Lies
2016

Seed
2016

Sweet Bean
2015

Still the Water
2014

Hikaru Utada: Sakura Nagashi
2012
Trace
2012

Hanezu
2012

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
2011

3.11 A Sense of Home Films
2011

Genpin
2010

Koma
2009

Haiku
2009
Cinematic Correspondences: Isaki Lacuesta - Naomi Kawase
2009

Nanayo
2008

The Mourning Forest
2007

Birth/Mother
2006

Shara
2003

Letter from a Yellow Cherry Blossom
2002

Sky, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth
2001

Firefly
2001

Kaleidoscope
1999

The Weald
1998

Suzaku
1997

Sun on the Horizon
1996

This World (A Correspondence Between Naomi Kawase and Hirokazu Koreeda)
1996
Memory of the Wind
1995
Kaze no kioku: Shibuya ni te 1995.12.26
1995

See Heaven
1995

Katatsumori
1994

White Moon
1993

Embracing
1992

Like Happiness
1991

The Girls' Daily Bread
1990

My Sole Family
1989

A Small Largeness
1989

Presently,
1989

The Concretization of These Things Flying Around Me
1988

Papa's Ice Cream
1988

My J-W-F
1988

I Focus on That Which Interests Me
1988
Untitled Naomi Kawase Film

Emergency Exit
2025

Echoes of Motherhood
2025

The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard
2025

It Stopped Raining
2020

Amami
2016

Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women
2014

The Tale of Iya
2013

Shining Besides Funny Moon
2013
Trace
2012

Destroy Vicious
2011

Birth/Mother
2006

Women Make Films
2004

Shara
2003

Letter from a Yellow Cherry Blossom
2002

Sky, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth
2001

Kaleidoscope
1999

Love & Pop
1998

Sun on the Horizon
1996
Memory of the Wind
1995

See Heaven
1995

Katatsumori
1994

Embracing
1992