The 38th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), to be held from October 27 to November 5, 2025, is proud to collaborate for the ninth year with Children Meet Cinema, which runs youth filmmaking workshops, on TIFF 2025: Teens Meet Cinema, a production workshop for teens. A special project of the festival’s Youth Section, it strengthens one element of TIFF’s goal to foster a future for film by cultivating young talent and cinema enthusiasts.
 
This year’s lead mentor will be director Oda Kaori, whose filmography includes Cenote (2019), in which she documented holy springs in Mexico, and Underground (2024), which explores the past in Okinawa’s caves. It had its world premiere in the Nippon Cinema Now section of the 37th TIFF last year, and was selected for the Forum section of the 75th Berlinale.
 
Junior high school students will come together at Tokyo Women’s Plaza to participate in the workshop. With Oda overseeing them, they will make a film assisted by a professional crew. The completed film will enjoy its world premiere at the 38th TIFF.
 

---

Oda Kaori
Born in Osaka in 1987. From 2013 to 2016, Oda was a member of the inaugural class of film.factory, a program to nurture young filmmakers led by filmmaker Tarr Béla. Her first feature, Aragane (2015), shot in a Bosnian coal mine, won a special award in the New Asian Currents section of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. Her essay film, Toward a Common Tenderness, had its world premiere at DOK Leipzig in 2017. In Cenote (2019), Oda documented the sinkhole water pits in Mexico, and the film was invited to the International Film Festival Rotterdam and toured various countries. In 2020, she won the inaugural Oshima Prize, and the following year, she received the Best Newcomer Prize at the 71st Annual MEXT Fine Arts Awards. Gama (2023) has been presented both in Japan and internationally, including at MoMA’s Doc Fortnight, Cinéma du Réel, and the Festival du cinéma de Brive (Prix du Jury SFCC de la Critique.) Her latest film, Underground, was selected for the Forum section at the Berlinale after its world premiere at the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival in 2024.

Comment from Oda Kaori
Just a quick press of the red button, and something gets recorded! How simple is that? If all it takes is pressing a button to film, then maybe I could make something like a movie too! That’s what I thought when I began filmmaking around the age of 20. And I wasn’t wrong. Most of the time, things didn’t go as planned, but I kept making films steadily by reflecting on what I could have done differently and asking people around me for advice. No one can truly teach you how to make films. “Go out into the world, meet people, learn through the process, and set yourself free.” That’s what I kept being told in film school. And I’m so glad there’s no single “right” answer in filmmaking. Of course, intentionally hurting others is never okay, but beyond that red button, there’s a world of endless excitement waiting for you. What will the camera capture? What won’t it? What would I want to film? I’m not sure yet whether eight days will feel long or short, but I hope that through filmmaking, all of you joining the TIFF 2025 Teens Cinema Workshop can learn and have fun to the fullest. I’m filled with excitement and anticipation.

 

---

 

 
TIFF 2025: Teens Meet Cinema
Workshop dates: 8 days (August 4-7, 9-12)
Participants: Junior high school students (Maximum enrollment: 18)
Fee: Free (Physical media or digital file of the completed film and making-of documentary, and booklet: 6,000 JPY)
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza (5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)
 
Organized by Unijapan (38th Tokyo International Film Festival Executive Committee)
Co-organized by Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Project organization: Children Meet Cinema
For further inquiries: teens_meet_cinema＠tiff-jp.net
 

---

 
Comment from Dohi Etsuko, Representative of Children Meet Cinema
There is no “right answer” in film. There is only “conviction,” which is the judgment of everyone on the team as to what is the best answer. The workshop participants will think, communicate and make decisions on their own without adult interference. By meeting filmmakers, they will experience “what a film is” from their serious perspective and attitude toward filmmaking. The mentor and staff members will watch over, support and acknowledge the students. It will be a great confidence-booster for them to experience filmmaking. For impressionable junior high school students, the experience of creating a film that cannot be completed without “interacting with others” and “confronting oneself” will be of great significance in their lives. TIFF 2025: Teens Meet Cinema is a career training program that will also cultivate communication skills and media literacy and above all, provide a great opportunity for the teens to grow as human beings.
 

---

 
Children Meet Cinema kodomoeiga.com
Children Meet Cinema produces filmmaking workshops at schools and organizes symposia to promote a bright future for children and film
throughout Japan and abroad. It celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2024.