Group company AOI Pro. has announced that the film "Monster" (co-financed and produced by AOI Pro.), directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, screenplay by Yuji Sakamoto, and music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, will officially compete at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival. The festival will take place from May 16 to May 27, 2023, local time.

This will be the second consecutive year and the seventh time that a film directed by Kore-eda has been selected in Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival, following last year's selection of the Korean film "Broker" (distributed by GAGA, Fuji Television Network, and AOI Pro. in Japan.) This is the ninth time that Kore-eda's feature has been selected for the Cannes International Film Festival.

Kore-eda's feature "Broker" won the Ecumenical Jury Award Prize and its lead actor Song Kang-Ho won Best Actor at Cannes International Film Festival 2022. Previously, Yuya Yagira, who starred in Kore-eda's feature "Nobody Knows,"  won Best Actor in 2004 and Kore-eda's feature "Like Father, Like Son" won the Jury Prize in 2013. "Shoplifters" (co-financed and produced by AOI Pro.)  was awarded Palme d'Or, the festival's highest prize, in 2018.

What exactly is a "monster"? What do we see at the end of our search for the "monster"? The movie "Monster" made by top creators and featuring a stellar cast will open in Japan on Friday, June 2, 2023.

©️2023 Monster Film Committee