You are the Film

Audience Award, 2026 Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival
Official Selection, 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival

Above Tokyo’s Chicago vintage store is the Tollywood movie theater, where B-films provide a momentary escape for Shimokitazawa’s creatives. Struggling to write her theater troupe’s next play, Madoka hopes to find inspiration at the movies. Onscreen, she watches Kazuma, a local guitarist, frustrated with incompetent bandmates and low concert ticket sales. Curiously, Kazuma is not a movie character at all, but a musician who is himself watching a movie. When Kazuma visits Tollywood to see Madoka onscreen, the two discover that their lives are being played out live on opposing sides of the same movie screen.

Desperate for control in their own spiraling story, Kazuma and Madoka begin a partnership to go off-script, disclosing plotlines printed on their movie brochures. Daring to spoil their own movies, the pair unknowingly threaten the very fabric of their cinematic multiverse, putting their creative projects and cherished collaborators in peril. With the fourth wall shattered, will the two follow the plot or dare to rewrite a new ending?

YOU ARE THE FILM is the directorial debut of Europe Kikaku theater troupe founder and award-winning screenwriter, Makoto Ueda, known for River (SDAFF ‘23), Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (SDAFF ‘21), and The Night is Short, Walk on Girl (2017). Filled with genre-bending flair by the outstanding cast of Europe Kikaku members, YOU ARE THE FILM is an unpredictable, lively comedy, navigating the joyful collaborations that arise from overcoming the unexpected—a testament to the community-based inspirations hidden in plain sight.

– Jeremy Aranda

Preceded By

The Last Jiangshi

Directed by Chih-Chieh Yu

From ancient corpse-herding rituals to cult cinema, the jiangshi became a Chinese cultural icon. This documentary follows Lao Li, believed to be the last jiangshi alive today.