Japan is out in force in Cannes this year across the Official Selection and parallel sections as well as the Marché du Film, where it is the country of honor , with its high-profile presence continuing a long and illustrious relationship with the festival.

Kōzaburō Yoshimura’s The Tale of Genji , Kiyoshi Saeki’s Man in the Storm and Noboru Nakamura’s Nami marked Japan’s entry into the main Competition in 1952. The country clinched its first Cannes top prize — the Grand Prix, which was replaced by the Palme d’Or in 1995 — in 1954 with Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Gate of Hell .

Close to 75 years after its Cannes debut, Japan is celebrating another Competition hat trick this year with Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Paris-set drama All of a Sudden ; Hirokazu Kore-eda’s sci-fi Sheep in the Box and Fukada Koji ’s intimate drama Nagi Notes in the running for the Palme d’Or.

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Elsewhere in Official Selection, Yukiko Sode’s literary adaptation All the Lovers in the Night plays in Un Certain Regard and Kiyoshi…