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Blake Simons

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London, Tokyo
As seen in: Yahoo Entertainment, Financial Times, The Guardian, Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News Malaysia, Yahoo News UK, IGN, IGN Middle East, IGN Nordic, IGN Spain and
🎥 interview evangelist, freelance programmer, 2026 Daiwa Scholar ✍ romance, japan, animation, queer at @BFI @IndieWire @Variety @japantimes and more
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John Waters on restoring Hairspray and Desperate Living: "The mistakes are part of the charm"

John Waters on restoring Hairspray and Desperate Living: "The mistakes are part of the charm"

BFI — His biggest popular success and one of his darkest comedies are arriving in the Criterion Collection at the same time. We spoke to Waters to hear why "The very fact that Desperate Living is in 4K is funny."
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Leave a Trace: Nagisa Isogai on 'Polar Night' and 'The Lust of Angels'

Leave a Trace: Nagisa Isogai on 'Polar Night' and 'The Lust of Angels'

Desperately Seeking Subtitles — An anthropologist of colliding emotions explores her distinct and defiant cinema
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'We Are Aliens' Director Kohei Kadowaki On Mixing Techniques

'We Are Aliens' Director Kohei Kadowaki On Mixing Techniques

Cartoon Brew — Kohei Kadowaki discusses blending rotoscoping with traditional animation, crafting emotional realism, and the influences behind his debut feature.
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'All the Lovers in the Night' film adaptation brings 'unstable beauty' to the screen

'All the Lovers in the Night' film adaptation brings 'unstable beauty' to the screen

The Japan Times — During the Cannes Film Festival, director Yukiko Sode and actors Yukino Kishii and Tadanobu Asano reflected on the process of bringing Mieko Kawakami's novel to life.
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Elliot Tuttle, Kieron Moore, Reed Birney on 'Blue Film'

Elliot Tuttle, Kieron Moore, Reed Birney on 'Blue Film'

Purple Hour — The team behind the year's most controversial queer film explores its nuance as they look back on their experience.
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Short, Sweet, and Steady: Shinnosuke Abe talks MIRRORLIAR FILMS

Short, Sweet, and Steady: Shinnosuke Abe talks MIRRORLIAR FILMS

Desperately Seeking Subtitles — The Shōgun star discusses MIRRORLIAR, the Japanese film industry's short film secret weapon
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Yusuke Hirota On Studio 4ºC's 2D-3D Animation Blend

Yusuke Hirota On Studio 4ºC's 2D-3D Animation Blend

Cartoon Brew — The director discusses hybrid animation, Tim Burton influences, and the evolving creative philosophy behind StudioºC ahead of an Annecy Presents appearance.
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Nurturing Empathy: Shun Nakagawa on '90 Meters'

Nurturing Empathy: Shun Nakagawa on '90 Meters'

Desperately Seeking Subtitles — The Kalanchoe filmmaker turns his empathic lens on himself with his new feature. Our interview takes a similar turn.
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Japan's Cannes moment signals a new global push

Japan's Cannes moment signals a new global push

The Japan Times — Tao Okamoto made history at Cannes, while Japanese filmmakers and producers looked ahead, embracing collaboration as the future of the industry.
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Inside Chronically Online: a big-screen celebration of small-screen curiosities

Inside Chronically Online: a big-screen celebration of small-screen curiosities

Little White Lies — From 'Charlie Bit My Finger' to 'The Nick Clegg Apology Song', Chronically Online brings some of the internet's most beloved cultural touchstones to big...
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'Another World' Director & Producer Explore Life and Death in Award-Winning Animated Feature

'Another World' Director & Producer Explore Life and Death in Award-Winning Animated Feature

Animation Magazine — Director Tommy Ng Kai Chung and producer Polly Yeung on how they made the afterlife come alive in their new feature 'Another World.'
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Growing Pains: A Conversation with Chie Hayakawa on Renoir

Growing Pains: A Conversation with Chie Hayakawa on Renoir

In Review Online — Ahead of Renoir’s U.S. theatrical release this week from Film Movement, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Hayakawa to discuss mentally storyboarding during adolescence, capturing the ineffable on screen, and why children should see her film, which, at first glance, isn’t made for them.
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"It's my life's work" - Suga Munemitsu on Utawarerumono, storytelling, Project Kizuna, and more

"It's my life's work" - Suga Munemitsu on Utawarerumono, storytelling, Project Kizuna, and more

RPG Site — As the Utawarerumono series comes to an end, we look back on the series with writer Suga Munemitsu.
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'All the Lovers in the Night' Review: Sensitive and Restrained Kawakami Adaptation Shimmers Upon ...

'All the Lovers in the Night' Review: Sensitive and Restrained Kawakami Adaptation Shimmers Upon ...

IndieWire — Nothing but life happens in Yukiko Sode's elusive adaptation of Mieko Kawakami's bestseller.
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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review

Sight & Sound — The American director's third narrative feature explores the relationship between the spectator and the spectated with a meta story of a young director who has been tasked with reviving a cult horror franchise and goes in search of its original 'final girl' Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson).
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Studio Ghibli's Atsushi Okui On 'Arrietty' 'Whisper Of The Heart'

Studio Ghibli's Atsushi Okui On 'Arrietty' 'Whisper Of The Heart'

Cartoon Brew — The Ghibli veteran shares stories from the making of the beloved anime features, from sunrise shoots to the films' lush new 4K restorations.
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Nagi Notes - first-look review

Nagi Notes - first-look review

Little White Lies — Koji Fukada explores queerness across two generations in an understated artistic drama.
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'Sheep in the Box' Expands Kore-eda Hirokazu's Empathy to Humanoid Androids

'Sheep in the Box' Expands Kore-eda Hirokazu's Empathy to Humanoid Androids

Variety — 'Sheep in the Box' expands Kore-eda Hirokazu's empathy to humanoid androids and the architecture they inhabit.
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THE TASTE OF TEA Interview: Katsuhito Ishii Talks Family Dramas and Funky Forest 2

THE TASTE OF TEA Interview: Katsuhito Ishii Talks Family Dramas and Funky Forest 2

ScreenAnarchy — A memorable slice of countryside surrealism, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl and Party 7 director Katsuhito Ishii’s ensemble family dramedy THE TASTE OF TEA premiered in Directors’ Fortnight during the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. It’s a charmingly...
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Curtain call: Lee Sang-il's final thoughts on 'Kokuho'

Curtain call: Lee Sang-il's final thoughts on 'Kokuho'

Desperately Seeking Subtitles — The Kokuho director's rise has been as dramatic as that of his characters. Now, I ask him: what's next?
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Queer as Punk review

Queer as Punk review

Sight & Sound — Documentarian Yihwen Chen's film about charismatic punk band Shh... Diam! has the feel of a hang-out movie, but uses the group's experiences to probe the increasingly hostile policies faced by queer Malaysians.
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Animated Features And Shorts Headed To Cannes 2026

Animated Features And Shorts Headed To Cannes 2026

Cartoon Brew — A Pixar alum's 2D debut, an opera adaptation, a Blender simulation comedy, and a queer virus satire. The animation heading to the Croisette next week.
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How did a film about kabuki break box-office records in Japan?

How did a film about kabuki break box-office records in Japan?

Financial Times — Nobody expected 'Kokuho' to become the country's highest-grossing domestic live-action movie of all time - not even its makers
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"My Best Ideas Come To Me On Walks": Sho Miyake on Two Seasons, Two Strangers

"My Best Ideas Come To Me On Walks": Sho Miyake on Two Seasons, Two Strangers

The Film Stage — Somewhere in a tower block, a Korean woman (Shim Eun-kyung) sits at a table in front of a blank piece of paper and pauses to think. After a moment, she begins to write. From her pencil, a scene emerges, and soon we are inside it.
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