Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, a traditional Japanese-style painter with no prior feature directing experience, made his directorial debut with 'A New Dawn,' which premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2026 and received a mixed review from The Hollywood Reporter.
Yoshitoshi Shinomiya entered the feature film world from outside the usual studio pipeline. A traditional Japanese-style painter, he worked on flashback sequences for Makoto Shinkai's 'Your Name.' and contributed to 'In This Corner of the World.' He had no prior feature directing experience before making 'A New Dawn,' a hand-drawn meditation on cultural heritage and environmental change.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2026, a rare slot for a debut anime feature. Shinomiya directed, wrote, and animated the film. It follows three childhood friends who band together to save a family fireworks factory from being seized by the municipality over unpaid debts. The story is set in a rural town and explores themes of inheritance, environmental change, and the erosion of traditional Japanese communal life. Shinomiya said the project was triggered around 2016 when a field in front of his atelier was suddenly covered with solar panels, and his daughter asked if it was the sea.
The Hollywood Reporter review described the visuals as admirably original, with painterly backgrounds, traditional character animation, and claymation, but noted that the script lacks emotional heft. The film runs 75 minutes and was produced by Asmik Ace, Studio Outrigger, and Miyu Productions. Shinomiya said the ending is intentionally open, inspired by American New Cinema, and meant to leave audiences wondering about the characters after the film ends.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself
sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every
fact links the story it came from.
May 31
Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, a traditional Japanese-style painter who worked on flashback sequences for Makoto Shinkai's 'Your Name.' and contributed to 'In This Corner of the World,' has made his feature directorial debut with 'A New Dawn.' The film had its world premiere this week in the main competition of the Berlin International Film Festival. Set in a rural town, the story follows Keitaro, the son of a vanished fireworks artisan, who seeks a mythical firework called 'Shuhari' as a typhoon approaches and redevelopment threatens his home. Shinomiya said the project was triggered around 2016 when a field in front of his atelier was suddenly covered with solar panels, and his daughter asked if it was the sea. The film explores themes of inheritance, environmental change, and the erosion of traditional Japanese communal life. Shinomiya described the concept of 'Shuhari' as a three-stage process of mastery: follow the rules, break them, then transcend them. He said the ending is intentionally open, inspired by American New Cinema, and meant to leave audiences wondering about the characters after the film ends.
May 30
Yoshitoshi Shinomiya's feature debut "A New Dawn" premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it received a mixed review from The Hollywood Reporter. The film follows three childhood friends-Sentaro Obinata (voiced by Miyu Irino), his brother Keitaro (Riku Hagiwara), and their friend Kaoru Shikimori (Kotone Furukawa)-who band together to save a family fireworks factory from being seized by the municipality over unpaid debts. Shinomiya, a visual artist who worked on the watery flashback sequence in "Your Name," directed, wrote, and animated the film. The review describes the visuals as admirably original, with painterly backgrounds, traditional character animation, and claymation, but notes that the script lacks emotional heft. The climax features a massive firework device called the shuhari, executed with a mix of traditional and CGI animation. The film runs 75 minutes and was produced by Asmik Ace, Studio Outrigger, and Miyu Productions.