Naomi Kawase

I'll be honest, Naomi Kawase is the kind of director I have to be in the right mood for, but when I am, nobody else will do. She's a Cannes regular for a reason, winning the Camera d'Or in 1997 and the Grand Prix in 2007, and she has a patience where she'll just let light flicker through leaves for what feels like forever and somehow earn it. Her films sit quietly with life and death and the people who pass through both, never rushing, never showing off. I love that she keeps circling back to her own home and family while going toe-to-toe at the biggest festivals in the world. On a night when I want fireworks, she's a tough watch. On a night when I want to actually feel something slow and human, I'm grateful she exists.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Naomi Kawase is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and editor born on May 30, 1969, in Nara City, Nara Prefecture. She gained international recognition when she won the Camera d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, and went on to receive the Jury Grand Prix at Cannes in 2007. She has been a recurring presence at major international film festivals and was awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier) in 2015, as well as the Mainichi Film Award for Best Director.

Name (English)

Naomi Kawase

Name (Japanese)

河瀨直美

Reading

かわせ なおみ

Born

May 30, 1969 (age 57)

Origin

Nara City, Nara Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Film Director / Screenwriter / Film Editor / Film Producer / Cinematographer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Rooster

Awards & achievements

• 1997 — Camera d'Or (Cannes Film Festival)
• 2007 — Jury Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)
• 2009 — Carrosse d'Or (Golden Coach)
• 2015 — Order of Arts and Letters, Chevalier (France)
• Year Unknown — Mainichi Film Award for Best Director

• Official sitehttps://www.kawasenaomi.com/
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/naomi.kawase/
• Xhttps://x.com/KawaseNAOMI
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%B3%E7%80%A8%E7%9B%B4%E7%BE%8E
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q271247

Tags

• From Nara Prefecture
• Film Director
• Screenwriter
• Film Editor

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.