OFFICIAL SELECTION - 82nd Venice International Film Festival

THE OZU DIARIES, from Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim, offers both an intimate biography and revelatory portrait of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, one of cinema’s most original and enduring auteurs.

Drawing from a treasure trove of archival materials — journals, notebooks, correspondence, photographs, interviews and unseen home movies — the film opens a rare window into Ozu’s inner world and artistic process. With Ozu’s own words as guide, and enriched by reflections from filmmakers Wim Wenders, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Tsai Ming-liang, Luc Dardenne and others, Raim traces how Ozu transformed personal loss and wartime trauma into enduring masterpieces such as LATE SPRING, TOKYO STORY and AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON.

Ozu's films didn't come easily to me at first. But his poetic portraits of family life and loneliness lingered. An Autumn Afternoon became the gateway, not through plot or drama, but through presence. As Kiyoshi Kurosawa says in this documentary, "Watching Ozu for the first time, I felt I was glimpsing the very secret of cinema itself."

In 2017, while making a short film for The Criterion Collection titled In Search of Ozu, I sensed a deeper story waiting to be told: the human being behind the films. The most challenging part was confronting Ozu's wartime experience. His diaries from that period and postwar interviews reveal a rupture—a profound loss. As Masasumi Tanaka wrote, "Ozu survived the war. But we cannot deny that his humanity was in crisis."

And yet, in the decades that followed, he created some of the most tender, humorous, formally playful, and emotionally resonant films in cinema. This documentary is told largely in Ozu's own words. It's an attempt to sit with him across time—to understand his pain, his joy, his contradictions, and his singular way of seeing the world.

—Daniel Raim

Written, Directed & Edited by: Daniel Raim

Produced by: Yuki Machida, Daniel Raim

Director of Photography: Koichi Furuya

Original Music: Dave Lebolt

Executive Producers: Matthew & Natalie Bernstein, Hiromi Fujii, Charlie Tabesh, Eric Nyari

Featuring: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Wim Wenders, Luc Dardenne, Isao Shirosawa, Michiko Yamanouchi, Tsai Ming-liang, Kyoko Kagawa, Akiko Ozu, Shizuo Yamanouchi

Voices:
Yasujiro Ozu – Koi Ohori
Shiro Kido & others – Rin Takagi
Kinuyo Tanaka & Asae Ozu – Kie Nakai

Archivists: Yukiko Wachi, Kazuhiro Odashima, Hidenori Okada

With support from Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, Kamakura Museum of Literature, National Film Archive of Japan

Made in Association With: Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Shochiku, Office OZU

Poster Design: Adrian Curry

© 2025 Adama Films; Photo: Shochiku Co. Ltd.

"A portrait of astonishing depth and tenderness." —Josh Siegel, Curator, MoMA

"The Ozu Diaries can be regarded as the definitive documentary about Ozu's life and work. At last, Yasujiro Ozu receives the comprehensive and poetic cinematic portrait he deserves." —Ritter Fan, Plano Crítico

"A film to be savored patiently, much like Ozu's own masterpieces." —Marco Fialho, Cinefialho

"The Ozu Diaries is a true labor of love, faithful to Godard's statement that 'editing is the resurrection of life.'" —Marcella Leonardi, Nubi Fluttuanti

World Sales: Shochiku Co., Ltd.

Festival Inquiries: Kathy Susca

Press Inquiries: Yuki Machida