Here’s a title that will likely hit many festivals in the fall.
GKids announced on Monday that it has secured the North American rights for Look Back, a new film from Oscar-nominated Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Shoplifters”).
The movie marks the first live-action adaptation of the popular manga by “Chainsaw Man” creator Tatsuki Fujimoto. The story centers on two schoolgirls—one of whom struggles with extreme social anxiety—whose shared ambition of becoming manga artists brings them together.
This means that we will indeed be getting two Kore-eda movies in 2026. Alongside “Look Back,” Kore-eda has wrapped “Sheep in a Box,” a futuristic drama about a couple who raise a highly advanced humanoid as their son — set for release in early summer 2026 via Neon, it’s being positioned as a possible contender for the Cannes Film Festival.
Meanwhile, according to THR, “Look Back,” which is currently in post-production, is expected to premiere later in 2026, potentially at the Venice Film Festival.
Kore-eda has been working for nearly three decades, building a body of acclaimed work that includes “After Life,” “Still Walking,” “Like Father, Like Son,” and “After the Storm.” In 2018 when “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or and went on to gross $72M worldwide—a true “I told you so” moment for Kore-eda’s longtime fans, who had been championing his work ever since his 1995 breakthrough, “Maborosi.”
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