Welcome to IQStar Week™ 2026Tonight · Opening Ceremony broadcasts globally at 18:00 UTCPremiere Screening · Paper Lanterns Over Hokkaido available in 90 territoriesForum · The Future of Cinema — open submissions for the audience roundPress Center · Daily kits available throughout the weekWelcome to IQStar Week™ 2026Tonight · Opening Ceremony broadcasts globally at 18:00 UTCPremiere Screening · Paper Lanterns Over Hokkaido available in 90 territoriesForum · The Future of Cinema — open submissions for the audience roundPress Center · Daily kits available throughout the week
Creator Spotlight™
Celebrating craftsmanship — never celebrity.
Each day of IQStar Week highlights creators whose work has shaped this year's conversation.
Amara Okeke
Lagos Lumen Pictures · Nigeria
Director and cartographer-by-training whose work charts the geography of memory.
Featured · The Cartographer of Silences
Ren Takagi
Yukiboshi Animation · Japan
Animation director whose lantern-soft palette has redefined Japanese hand-drawn cinema.
Featured · Paper Lanterns Over Hokkaido
Noor Al-Sayed
Karam Studios · United Arab Emirates
Writer-director exploring the ethics of intimate technologies.
Featured · The Algorithm That Loved Us
Maeve Lindqvist
Nordlys Atelier · Sweden
Fantasy filmmaker working at the latitude where myth and meteorology meet.
Featured · Salt & Constellation
Biography
Animation director whose lantern-soft palette has redefined Japanese hand-drawn cinema.
Creative Journey
A decade hand-painting backgrounds at a single Hokkaido studio before founding Yukiboshi with seven colleagues.
Exclusive Interview
Why hand-drawn in 2026?
Because the line still trembles. The trembling is the human.
Advice to young animators?
Hold the pencil long enough to lose track of time, then begin.
Filmography
- · Paper Lanterns Over Hokkaido (2026)
- · The Quiet Tide (2022)