Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is Imagine 2026’s Guest of Honour. The director of films including Cure, Pulse and Cloud will receive the Imagine Career Achievement Award during the festival in recognition of his exceptional contribution to fantasy cinema. Imagine will also be presenting a special programme dedicated to Kurosawa, featuring his latest film The Samurai and the Prisoner and a selection of films from various stages of his multifaceted career.
Kurosawa is regarded as one of the most important contemporary Japanese filmmakers. He gained international renown for his unsettling psychological horror films, but for decades he has moved effortlessly between genres such as thriller, drama, fantasy, science fiction and horror. In doing so, he delights in blurring the boundaries between these genres and between reality and imagination. His films are characterised by an eerie atmosphere, ambiguous narratives and characters who grapple with feelings of alienation, meaning and connection.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa was born on 19 July 1955 and studied sociology in Tokyo and filmmaking in the United States. Kurosawa made his international breakthrough with the psychological thriller Cure (1997). This was followed by, amongst others, Charisma (1999), Pulse (2001), Bright Future (2003), Doppelgänger (2003), Tokyo Sonata (2008), Journey to the Shore (2015) and Creepy (2016). His work has frequently been screened at major international film festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin. In 2020, he won the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice for Wife of a Spy. His latest film, The Samurai and the Prisoner, had its world premiere at Cannes this year and went on to become the most successful Japanese film of the year at the Japanese box office.
A programme dedicated to Kiyoshi Kurosawa
In honour of Kurosawa, Imagine is presenting a programme that highlights different periods and aspects of his body of work. Alongside The Samurai and the Prisoner, the programme includes Pulse (2001) and Creepy (2016). Two further titles from his body of work will be announced later. A special feature of the programme is an in-depth post-screening discussion about Pulse. The 2001 film, in which a mysterious internet connection appears to break down the barrier between the living and the dead, ties in directly with this year’s main theme programme, Ghost in the Feed.
