Yoshimi JOYA

Almost Goodbye is the story of a man who has slipped through the cracks of society, holding on to the world by pretending to be a "decent adult" at a convenience store every night. In a time when it's hard to live as we truly are, who gets to decide what "normal" means? This film began with a quiet wish: to live in a society that can accept each other's imperfections. It doesn't treat withdrawal as a social issue to be solved — it sits beside a pain that lives in all of us, the ache of swaying between the self we perform and the self we truly are. It asks how small a world shame can trap us in, and whether real connection is even possible. Loneliness closes people off. But loneliness is drawn to loneliness. That hope — like gravity — is what I want to show, on a stage everyone knows: the convenience store.

Based in Japan, Yoshimi Joya is a director working across commercials, television series, and films. After gaining experience as a production manager at a commercial production company, she moved to Canada, where she gained experience in international production. Since returning to Japan in 2020, she has continued working as a director.

After making a number of short films, her participation in ATMOVIE GLOBAL TRACK inspired her to pursue feature filmmaking. She is currently developing her first feature project and screenplay, with international co-production in mind, and aims to make her feature directorial debut.

Her directing credits include the short films Be Happy Anyway (2021), officially selected for the Ladies of Cinema section at SSFF & ASIA; Doughnuts Mori (2022); Colors Under the Streetlights (2024), officially selected for the Short Film Competition at the Vancouver International Film Festival; and SOMEDAY (2026).