“Look Back,” the live-action film directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda and based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga of the same name, has won three Collateral Awards at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, organizers announced.
Collateral Awards are prizes given to films in the festival’s official lineup by groups and juries operating independently of Venice itself, each judging entries by its own criteria. “Look Back” took home the Cinema & Arts Award for best film, which recognizes works that blend contemporary cinema with a range of artistic expression. It also won the SIGNIS Award, presented by the World Catholic Communications Association for films that richly portray human dignity, social justice, and peace. The third prize, the CinemaSarà Award for best film, came from a jury made up entirely of 18-year-olds who judge based on creative independence and relevance to a new generation. Winning recognition from three juries with such different philosophies means the film swept the independent-award category at this year’s festival.
“Look Back” stars Natsuki Deguchi as Fujino and Ayaju Maita as Kyomoto, with Fuuri Nanase and Rikka Okada playing the characters as children. The story follows Fujino, a confident fourth-grader whose manga is the pride of her school newspaper, until she encounters the overwhelming artistic talent of her withdrawn classmate Kyomoto. The two are eventually drawn together by their shared love of drawing manga, before an unforeseen event upends their lives. The film opened in Japanese theaters on September 11, 2026.
The festival’s closing ceremony takes place on September 13 Japan time, when winners of the main competition lineup, in which “Look Back” is also entered, will be announced.
Who are Hirokazu Kore-eda and Tatsuki Fujimoto?
Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of Japan’s most internationally celebrated filmmakers, known for family dramas such as “Shoplifters,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018, and “Monster,” which won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes in 2023. With “Look Back,” he takes on his first manga adaptation, serving as director, screenwriter, and editor. Tatsuki Fujimoto is the manga artist behind the hit series “Chainsaw Man.” “Look Back” began as a stand-alone one-shot manga published by Shueisha in 2021 and has since been adapted into both an animated film and now this live-action feature.
Author’s Comment
Three juries, three completely different value systems, and they all landed on the same film — that’s not luck, honey, that’s just good work. I’ll admit I raised an eyebrow when I heard a Palme d’Or auteur was adapting a one-shot manga about two schoolgirls drawing comics, because that premise could go very twee very fast. But Kore-eda has spent his whole career finding the epic inside tiny domestic moments, so honestly, of course it worked. What I really love is a jury of eighteen-year-olds getting a formal say at a festival this stuffy — that’s the kind of thing that keeps an eighty-three-year-old institution from turning into a museum. Now everyone just has to wait two more days to see if the main competition jury agrees with the teenagers.
