shashasha

Born and raised in Nara, KAWASE graduated from Visual Arts Osaka in 1989. Her films, ‘Embracing’ and ‘KATATSUMORI’ received international recognitions and awards at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in 1995. With her first feature, SUZAKU (1997), she became the youngest filmmaker to receive the Camera d’Or at the Festival de Cannes with her. At the Fesitival de Cannes, she has also won the Grand Prix with The Mourning Forest /MOGARI (2007), the Carrosse d’Or in 2009, and also served as one of the jurors for the competition in 2013. In 2015, KAWASE was bestowed with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French Minister of Culture. In 2017,“Hikari”(RADIANCE) was selected as one of the competition films and given Ecumenical Jury awards. She appointed the direct Official Film of the Olympics Game Tokyo 2020.

Aside from being a filmmaker, she is the founder and Executive Director for the Nara International Film Festival.