Searchlight Pictures’ "Rental Family" will close the festival
All program cards will be revealed tomorrow at noon, but today we’re proud to share the ace up our sleeve: at the close of the TAURON American Film Festival—following the Awards Gala on November 11—we will present Rental Family, directed by HIKARI and starring Academy Award® winner Brendan Fraser.
This tender comedy about intercultural (mis)understanding makes for the perfect, family-friendly counterpart to Jarmusch’s FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER, which opens the festival.
We invite you to the 16th TAURON American Film Festival, taking place November 6–11, 2025, traditionally, at the New Horizons Cinema in Wrocław. The full festival program will be announced tomorrow, October 21, and ticket sales for screenings and online access will open on October 23 at noon.
AFF audiences will have the opportunity to see Rental Family on the big screen for the first time in Poland. The film will enter nationwide distribution on January 16, 2026.
Rental Family: the art of good relationships
Set in modern-day Tokyo, Rental Family follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.
Searchlight Pictures presents RENTAL FAMILY, directed, co-written, and produced by HIKARI (Beef, Tokyo Vice, 37 Seconds). The film stars Academy Award® and Screen Actors Guild Award winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale, The Mummy, Encino Man) with a supporting cast that includes Emmy® nominee Takehiro Hira (Shōgun), Mari Yamamoto (Pachinko, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters), newcomer Shannon Mahina Gorman and iconic actor Akira Emoto (Lovers Lost, Shin Godzilla, Dr. Akagi). With a screenplay by HIKARI and Stephen Blahut (37 Seconds), the film is produced by Sight Unseen Pictures’ Eddie Vaisman (Wildlife, A Thousand and One, Bad Education) and Julia Lebedev (Dear White People, Bad Education), as well as Knockonwood’s Shin Yamaguchi (37 Seconds, Spirit World). Jennifer Semler (A Real Pain, Theater Camp), Tomo Koizumi, Blahut, Leonid Lebedev (Bad Education), Fraser, and Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Love & Mercy) serve as executive producers. Joining filmmaker HIKARI behind the camera are director of photography Takurō Ishizaka (Lear Rex, Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy); production designers Norihiro Isoda (The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) and Masako Takayama (Tokyo Vice); editors Alan Baumgarten (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Venom, American Hustle) and Thomas A. Kruger (Shōgun, 37 Seconds); composers Jónsi and Alex Somers (Nickel Boys, Captain Fantastic); costume designer Meg Mochizuki (37 Seconds); makeup department head Hiromi Momose (Like Father, Like Son); and casting directors Kei Kawamura and Yumi Takada.
