Naomi Kawase
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.
Directed (54)
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
Acting (22)
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