The Japan Foundation’s free festival runs October 1 to November 29, with sixteen films, filmmaker talks and the festival’s first stop in Cagayan de Oro.
The Japan Foundation, Manila turns thirty this year, and diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Japan turn seventy. The Japanese Film Festival, running October 1 to November 29, marks both, and every screening is free.
The Japan Foundation is the Japanese government’s cultural exchange agency, and its Manila office organizes the festival under the theme “Shared Treasure. Shared Stories.” Sixteen films play across six cities and eight venues, in partnership with SM Supermalls and SM Cinema. Cagayan de Oro is a first for the festival.
The Opening Film
Kokuho, directed by Lee Sang-il, opened the festival on October 1 at SM Megamall. It is set in the world of kabuki, the centuries-old Japanese theater form known for stylized acting and elaborate makeup. The film premiered at Cannes and won several awards at the forty-ninth Japan Academy Film Prize, including Picture of the Year and Director of the Year for Lee. He attended the Manila opening and joined a talkback on October 2.
Lee’s earlier Hula Girls is on the lineup too, alongside classics and animation: Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, Studio Ghibli’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Under Ninja starring Kento Yamazaki, and Yoji Yamada’s Tokyo Taxi.
A Cinema Kabuki program brings filmed kabuki performances to the screen, including a kabuki adaptation of Nausicaä. The festival’s Nausicaä Day on November 28 pairs the Ghibli film with a two-part screening of that stage version.
Where and When
The festival moves city by city through SM cinemas:
- SM Megamall: October 1 to 4 (opening run)
- SM Baguio: October 9 to 18
- SM Cebu: October 16 to 25
- SM Manila: October 16 to 25
- SM Iloilo: November 6 to 15
- SM Lanang, Davao: November 13 to 22
- SM North EDSA: November 20 to 29
- SM CDO Downtown, Cagayan de Oro: November 20 to 29
For Metro Manila viewers who missed the Megamall run, SM Manila’s ten days are the next chance, and SM North EDSA hosts the final stretch.
The Filmmakers
Several films come with their makers in the room. Director Kasho Iizuka holds talkbacks for Blue Boy Trial, a film inspired by a 1960s Japanese court case, at SM Cebu on October 22 and SM Manila on October 24.
Two more talks come in November through Journey through Japan on Screen in Manila 2026, a program presented with Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Japan Film Commission. On November 21, Filipino producer Alemberg Ang and international producer Jason Gray discuss Chie Hayakawa’s Renoir after its screening.
On November 22, director Jaime Pacena II and producer Masumi Soga take questions after Kono Basho. Pacena’s first feature is a Filipino–Japanese co-production set in Rikuzentakata, the Japanese city devastated by the 2011 tsunami. It won him Best Director at Cinemalaya 2024, the Philippines’ leading independent film festival.
It isn’t the only recent Filipino film to look at Japan. Mono No Aware, which won Best Picture at this year’s Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival, the supermarket chain’s grant-backed festival for new Filipino features, follows a man who cleans up after Japan’s loneliest deaths.
KinoFest, the German Film Festival, runs October 15 to 18 at GH Ortigas Cinema in Greenhills for viewers who want a second festival in the same week.
What: Japanese Film Festival 2026, presented by the Japan Foundation, Manila
When: October 1 to November 29, 2026
Where: SM Cinemas in Metro Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and Cagayan de Oro (schedule above)
Admission: Free
Full schedule and film list: japanesefilmfestph.jfmo.org.ph
Supported by: the Embassy of Japan, SM Supermalls, SM Cinema, JTI Philippines, Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Japan Film Commission and the Film Development Council of the Philippines