Culture 4 min read By Morgan Griffin
Sho Miyake Gets First North American Retrospective at Metrograph
Japanese director Sho Miyake, whose «Two Seasons, Two Strangers» won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 2025, will be celebrated with his first North American retrospective at New York's Metrograph from Nov. 7 to 17, part of a 14-city Japan Foundation tour.
Japanese director Sho Miyake, fresh off winning the Golden Leopard at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival for «Two Seasons, Two Strangers», will receive his first North American retrospective at New York's Metrograph from Nov. 7 to 17. The program, titled «Unspoken Gestures: The Films of Sho Miyake», marks a significant stateside spotlight for a filmmaker whose quiet, observational style has earned growing international acclaim.
The Metrograph retrospective is one stop on a broader Japan Foundation tour that will bring Miyake's work to 14 cities across eight countries. The tour represents a coordinated effort to introduce the director's filmography to audiences outside Japan, building on the momentum of his Locarno triumph. Details of the full slate of films screening at Metrograph were not immediately available, but the retrospective is expected to span his feature work, including the Locarno-winning «Two Seasons, Two Strangers».
Miyake's Golden Leopard win in 2025 placed him among a select group of Japanese filmmakers to take the top prize at Locarno, a festival long known for championing auteur cinema. «Two Seasons, Two Strangers» drew praise on the festival circuit for its restrained storytelling and precise attention to everyday life, qualities that have become signatures of Miyake's approach. The North American retrospective offers New York audiences a rare chance to see his work on the big screen in a curated context.
The Japan Foundation tour underscores a wider push to expand the international footprint of Japanese contemporary cinema beyond genre exports. By pairing the Metrograph retrospective with screenings in multiple countries, the initiative aims to position Miyake as a key figure in the current wave of Japanese directors receiving sustained attention from Western arthouse audiences and critics.
Metrograph, located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, has built a reputation for repertory programming that mixes canonical filmmakers with under-screened international voices. Hosting Miyake's first North American retrospective fits that mission and gives the venue a high-profile event for its fall calendar. The Nov. 7–17 window places the series amid a busy season for New York film culture, when awards contenders and festival titles typically crowd local screens.
For Miyake, the retrospective arrives at a pivotal moment. A Golden Leopard win often translates into increased distribution interest and festival invitations, and the 14-city, eight-country tour suggests that institutions are moving quickly to capitalize on his heightened profile. Whether the tour leads to broader North American distribution for «Two Seasons, Two Strangers» and his earlier films remains to be seen, but the Metrograph run gives the director a prominent platform in one of the world's most competitive film markets.
The retrospective's title, «Unspoken Gestures», hints at the subtle, gesture-driven quality of Miyake's cinema, which favors atmosphere and human behavior over plot mechanics. That curatorial framing positions the series as both a primer for newcomers and a deeper dive for viewers already familiar with his Locarno-winning work. Tickets and the complete schedule are expected to be announced by Metrograph ahead of the November opening.
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