‘Sheep in the Box’ First Footage: Palme d’Or Winner Hirokazu Kore-eda Returns to Cannes with a Sci-Fi Family Drama

Will Japanese filmmaker and Cannes perennial Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s “Sheep in the Box” be the film to win distributor Neon its seventh consecutive Palme d’Or? It would also mean Kore-eda achieving Ruben Östlund status in winning the festival’s top prize twice; he won in 2018 for the moving family drama “Shoplifters.”

And moving family dramas are Kore-eda’s signature. He’s back in Cannes and in the competition for the eighth time with his latest film, where “in the not-so-distant future, a grieving couple who has lost their son takes into their lives a humanoid with the same appearance and voice as their late child,” per the festival synopsis. Below, IndieWire debuts the first clip from the film as we see the couple (played by Haruka Ayase and Daigo Yamamoto) inquisitively greet their new “child” (Rimu Kuwaki).

Kore-eda was last at Cannes in 2023 with “Monster,” and he’s been in the festival’s main competition many times already for films also including “Broker,” “Our Little Sister,” “Like Father, Like Son,” “Nobody Knows,” and “Distance.”

“Sheep in the Box” is one of three Japanese films in the Cannes competition alongside Koji Fukada’s well-reviewed “Nagi Notes,” and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Neon title “All of a Sudden.” Neon’s other titles set for North American distribution in this section include the Korean sci-fi “Hope” directed by Na Hong-jin, Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” Arthur Harari’s “The Unknown,” and James Gray’s “Paper Tiger.”

Neon has yet to announce a release date for “Sheep in the Box,” though Toho releases the film in Japan starting May 29. With the new Academy rules that say Best International Features no longer have to be submitted by a country, Kore-eda could find himself back in the Oscar mix alongside his fellow Cannes competition filmmakers also from Japan. His 2018 Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters” received the nomination in 2019.

“Sheep in the Box” premieres at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 16.