May Calamawy, best known as Layla El-Faouly in Marvel’s Moon Knight, will front the opening film of Tokyo’s brand-new horror festival. Night Feeds, a psychological horror short from Rana Roy starring Calamawy, will open the first edition of the Yami International Film Festival, a new showcase for horror and darker genre fare.
May Calamawy (Credits: Variety)
The festival runs November 20–26 at Human Trust Cinema Shibuya in Tokyo, giving Japanese audiences a dedicated new home for horror cinema. Closing the festival will be Breeder, from Alex Goyette, bookending a programme that spans both features and shorts.
Night Feeds opens Yami International Film Festival in Tokyo
Opening a festival is a statement of intent, and choosing a psychological horror short led by a familiar face like Calamawy signals exactly what Yami wants to be: a festival that takes horror seriously as filmmaking, not just as shock value. Psychological horror, in particular, relies on atmosphere, performance and unease rather than jump scares alone — and a short format forces a filmmaker to build that tension quickly and efficiently.
For Calamawy, the role continues a run of genre work that has made her a recognisable face to horror and fantasy audiences alike. Moon Knight introduced her to a global Marvel audience, and Night Feeds places her at the centre of a very different kind of story: an intimate, unsettling short opening a festival built around darker cinema.
Yami festival: 182 entries from 40 countries, 14 films selected
The event is run by Yami Inc., a Japanese company known for horror exhibitions and other genre-themed attractions. Its stated goal is to introduce Japanese audiences to new horror filmmakers from home and abroad — a mission reflected in the scale of its open call.
That open call ran from late May to the end of August and brought in 182 entries from 40 countries and territories. From that field, six features were picked for the feature competition and eight shorts for the short competition — a tight selection that suggests the festival is aiming for quality over quantity in its first year.
For a first edition, those numbers are encouraging. A festival that can attract nearly 200 submissions from 40 countries before it has even opened its doors has clearly tapped into a real appetite among horror filmmakers for a Tokyo showcase. If the first edition lands well with audiences at Human Trust Cinema Shibuya, Yami could quickly become a fixture on the genre festival calendar.
Night Feeds opens the festival on November 20, with Breeder closing it on November 26. For horror fans in Tokyo — and for filmmakers watching from abroad — Yami’s debut is one to keep an eye on.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
