Yutaro Seki’s My Son has won the second edition of Japan’s Imagica Group Film Project prize.
The project will receive up to $440,000 (¥70m) in investment from leading Japanese post-production and VFX company Imagica Group to help develop and produce the feature.
Now in its second year, the jury included filmmaker Kei Ishikawa, whose A Man premiered at Venice in 2022 and A Pale View Of Hills played at last year’s Cannes in Un Certain Regard; Shozo Ichiyama, programming director of the Tokyo International Film Festival; and Yuka Sakano, executive director of the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute.
My Son will mark the latest from director Seki, whose credits include Sai: Disaster, a psychological suspense thriller that premiered in competition at last year’s San Sebastian last year and was also selected for Busan.
Producer is Sangkeun Han for Tokyo-based production company P.I.C.S. and completion of the film is set for 2027.
Speaking to Screen, Seki said: “The story is based on a real incident, which I came across in an article. It is about a woman who was searching for a sperm doner on social media and received a donation from a man she found. However, after giving birth, she could not give affection to the child, which leads to an incident.”
Seki studied at the Graduate School of Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts and worked in the drama programme department at public broadcaster NHK, where he made films and TV drama series as part of directors’ collective “gogatsu”.
Shorts Happo-en and Duality, both of which he co-directed, were selected for the short film competition at Cannes in 2014 and 2018 respectively. His feature debut Roleless, which he co-directed with Kentaro Hirase and Masahiko Sato, played in the New Directors section of San Sebastian in 2022.
Film project
The Imagica Group Film Project is a five-year initiative that launched last year to mark the 90th anniversary of the company. Its mission is to discover and support emerging talent with original projects not based on existing IP.
The inaugural prize was won las by Tomoka Terada’s Maria, a drama about a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy, and was decided by a jury that included Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Koreeda.
The second edition received 44 submissions from producers affiliated with Imagica Group, comprising OLM, P.I.C.S. and Robot.
“This second round featured a much greater diversity of genres and artistic styles, with social themes being joined by works of science fiction and dealing with contemporary subjects such as AI,” said Imagica Group CEO Shinjaro Nagase.
“We had comments from our judges on how difficult it was to narrow down all these to just one project… and there were many we felt had the potential to take the stage at an international film festival.”
Director and jury member Kei told Screen: “I have made numerous films based on IP but I have been wanting to make original films for a long time. As you might imagine, it is very hard to get funding for original stories and is easier to get finance for IP-based films.
“I really wish this kind of project existed when I was debuting as a director so I could have worked on original films. This is a very good opportunity and a big chance for young filmmakers.”
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