Juries 2025
Competition
President of the Jury
Kei ISHIKAWA
Director（Japan）
Kei Ishikawa studied directing at the Łódź Film School in Poland. His film, GUKOROKU – TRACES OF SIN (17), was selected for the Orizzonti Competition at the Venice International Film Festival and went on to win several awards, including the Shindo Kaneto Awards’ Silver Prize and the Morita Yoshimitsu Memorial New Director Award at the Yokohama Film Festival. Among its many accolades, Listen to the Universe (19) was named Best Japanese Film at the Mainichi Film Awards and received the Japan Academy Film Prize for best film of the year. In 2021, Ishikawa directed Arc (21), based on a story by world-renowned science fiction author Ken Liu. The following year, A MAN (22) was featured in the Orizzonti Competition at the Venice International Film Festival and chosen as the closing film at the Busan International Film Festival. The work attracted significant attention both domestically and internationally, winning a total of eight Japan Academy Film Prize awards, more than any other film that year, including the award for best film. Ishikawa’s latest work, A Pale View of Hills (25), was selected in the Un Certain Regard section at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
Jury Members
Eiko MIZUNO-GRAY
CEO / Producer（Japan）
Eiko Mizuno-Gray is the CEO of Loaded Films Ltd., based in Tokyo. She produced Ten Years Japan (18) with executive producer Hirokazu Kore-eda; To the Ends of the Earth (19), directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa; and PLAN 75 (22), directed by Chie Hayakawa. PLAN 75 won the Caméra d’or Special Mention at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and was Japan’s official submission for the 95th Academy Awards. Her latest production, RENOIR (25), directed by Chie Hayakawa, was selected in Competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Among the projects she is currently developing is a Poland-Japan co-production directed by Kei Ishikawa.
Koen de ROOIJ
Programmer, International Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Koen de Rooij is a Rotterdam-based film programmer and curator. His main interests lie in the ongoing influence of national borders and colonial pasts on people’s lives, and how this is reflected in and explored through cinema. He holds a Master’s degree in Asian Studies with honors and a Master of Arts degree in Media Studies from Leiden University. He has been a member of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) selection committee for short films since 2017 and the selection committee for feature films since 2022.
