We Are Aliens

Official Selection, 2026 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight
Official Selection, 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival
Official Selection, 2026 Tokyo International Film Festival

Tsubasa is all too familiar with alienation. Overshadowed by his classmates, a father abroad, and an overbearing mother at home—his school life is dictated by expectations rather than personal ambition. One day, walking home alone, he throws his origami ninja star into a stream. As he chases it down to retrieve it, he finds his popular classmate Gyōtarō knee-deep in the water, shuriken in hand—a first encounter of the innocent kind.

As they mature, however, Gyōtarō’s boyish imagination breeds paranoia of an extraterrestrial origin. When an after-school playdate ends in horror, Tsubasa severs the tether for an infamous life of teenage delinquency, leaving Gyōtarō stranded in radio silence. Will they be able to make contact after the betrayal or lose themselves in the vacuum of their regret and self-loathing?

WE ARE ALIENS is the triumphant debut feature from director Kohei Kadowaki. A perspective-bending narrative structure in the spirit of Kore-eda’s Monster (SDAFF ’23) with a darker take on formative friendships seen in Look Back (2024), WE ARE ALIENS is a must-see for its out-of-this-world visuals and multi-dimensional characters. Through rotoscoped animation sprinkled with the occasional Junji Ito-esque anxiety fuel, the fallout of childhood friendships is understood in retrospect as the casualty of socialized competition and diverting life trajectories—uncovering what makes humanity feel alien.

– Jeremy Aranda