Renoir, the latest film by Japanese writer-director Chie Hayakawa, is set to have its world premiere on May 17 at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. It is in the running for the Palme d’Or, the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film in the Competition section of the festival. The Japanese writer-director is heading to Cannes for the second time in three years, following her dystopian sci-fi film Plan 75, which won the Camera d’Or Special Mention for Best First Feature in 2022.
Hayakawa’s Renoir is the only Japanese film selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Competition section this year, competing alongside works by Wes Anderson, Julia Ducournau, Oliver Hermanus, Ari Aster and more. There are 22 films in total competing for the Palme d’Or.
Renoir will be released nationwide in Japan on June 20, 2025.
© Renoir – Loaded Films
A Story of Resilience and Coming-of-Age
Set in suburban Tokyo in 1987, Renoir is a coming-of-age drama about navigating adolescence and family struggles. The film follows 11-year-old Fuki, whose father, Keiji, is battling a terminal illness. Her mother, Utako, is constantly stressed out from caring for Keiji while holding down a full-time job. Left alone with her rich imagination, Fuki becomes fascinated by telepathy and falls ever deeper into her own fantasy world.
“My intention was to create a film that would jolt my own emotions more than anything else,” Hayakawa says. “And the first thing that came to my mind was my personal experience as an impressionable youth living with a father ailing and ultimately dying of cancer.”
While Fuki’s story and surrounding plots are fictional, Hayakawa’s childhood colors the film’s thematic threads. “The emotions of vague fear and guilt, the breadth of imagination, and the innocent awe felt toward fine works of art are drawn from my own youthful emotions,” she explains.
© Renoir – Loaded Films
More broadly, Hayakawa explores the universal question of whether we can truly empathize with the pain of others through a compassionate lens, depicting each family member’s emotional experience. “The story is for all who may be feeling alone within their family, including my past self,” she says.
“If I had attempted to write this in my 20s the story would have been more destitute and egocentric. Now that I’m nearing the age of my parents when I was a child, I can vividly relate to the solitude [of my parents],” Hayakawa continues. “I feel I’ve now gained the capacity to look sympathetically at my younger life haunted by anxiety and loneliness, and to illustrate with compassion our human imperfections.”
© Renoir – Loaded Films
The Cast of Renoir
The main character, Fuki, is played by Yui Suzuki, who made her film debut in Fureru (2024) by Kyosuke Takada. Hikari Ishida plays Fuki’s mother Utako, while Lily Franky plays her father Keiji. Known as an illustrator, writer and actor, Franky has acted in films such as Shoplifters (2018), Cottontail (2022) and recently, Harbin (2024). Ayumi Nakajima, Yumi Kawai and Ryota Bando play supporting characters.
Chie Hayakawa Biography
Born in Tokyo, Chie Hayakawa studied photography at the New York School of Visual Arts. Her short film, “Niagara” was selected in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes Film Festival 2014 and received awards in numerous international film festivals. Her feature film debut Plan 75 (2022), which was expanded from a short that was the opening segment of anthology feature Ten Years Japan (2018), was awarded the Camera d’Or Special Mention at Cannes Film Festival 2022. The film was nominated as a Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, and earned Hayakawa the Best Director Award at Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Renoir Film Trailer
