JFF26 We are Aliens

Resoundingly well-received at Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, writer-director Kōhei KADOWAKI's ravishing animated feature follows two boys whose close-knit childhood friendship is shattered by a single careless moment - one that changes the course of their lives. In a quiet Japanese town, awkward third-grader Tsubasa (Ryōta BANDO) struggles to connect with his classmates, until the gregarious Gyōtarō (Amane OKAYAMA) takes him under his wing. The two quickly become inseparable. But an unforeseen event drives a wedge between them and destabilises the whole classroom's social order, setting off consequences that trail both boys through adolescence and well into adulthood. Rendered in a dreamlike blend of rotoscoped and hand-drawn 2D animation, KADOWAKI's remarkable directorial debut is a bittersweet meditation on lost innocence and the fickleness of memory. Beautifully crafted and viscerally impactful, WE ARE ALIENS is a testament to animation's rare capacity to hold beauty and heartbreak in the same frame.