Best New Narrative Director Award for Miiku Sakanishi “MEMORIZU”
June 12, 2026
World Premiere in TRIBECA 2026
Jury Statement: “This is a film about the ability to create an extraordinary depth of pure emotion through images and how they meet. This is also the great gift he bestows on the audience. From the very first shots, we are taken in by an unpretentious filmmaker completely clear in his intention, someone who trusts both himself and us. He bravely tells a small, precise story, taking risks in narrative, rhythm, and voice in order to achieve something cinematic, capacious and lasting. This is coupled by beautiful writing that deeply understands both the family condition he is observing so intimately and the society within which the story is set. This director has made something completely modern and devoid of cliché, taking us to the heart of the matter. Watching the movie, we all felt, ‘Let me have a life where I can receive these feelings.’”
Jury List
David Haskell (editor-in-chief of New York Magazine)
Mira Nair (Academy-Award nominated film director)
Haley Lu Richardson (award-winning actress, producer and poet)
