1939Nominee
Best Director
Fighting Soldiers
Fumio Kamei
Director
Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
April 1, 1908
Biography
Fumio Kamei (1908–1987) was a Japanese documentary and fiction film director known for his politically charged works. Influenced by Soviet montage theory, he began his career at Photo Chemical Laboratories (PCL), making propaganda films about Japan’s war in China. His 1939 film Fighting Soldiers was banned for its unflinching portrayal of exhausted troops, and he later became the first director to lose his license under the 1939 Film Law and the only filmmaker arrested under the Peace Preservation Law. After World War II, Kamei helped reorganize Nippon Eiga-sha and directed The Japanese Tragedy (1946), a documentary critical of Japan’s imperialist past, which was ultimately censored. He continued making politically engaged documentaries and fiction films, tackling issues such as U.S. military bases in Japan, nuclear weapons, social discrimination, and environmental destruction.
Photo
Representative Works
Awards and Honors
Critical Favorites
1949Winner
Best Director
A Woman's Life
1957Nominee
Career Highlight
Record of Bloodshed: Sunagawa
Career Highlights
1947Highlight
Best Director
War and Peace
1953Highlight
Best Director
A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land
Video
Record of Bloodshed: Sunagawa