Why Directors Teodora Ana Mihai and Sode Yukiko Kept Motherhood Secret From Colleagues: ‘I Needed to Prove Myself Three Times More’

Nov 2, 2026 12:16am PT Why Directors Teodora Ana Mihai and Sode Yukiko Kept Motherhood Secret From Colleagues: ‘I Needed to Prove Myself Three Times More’

By Naman Ramachandran

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Naman Ramachandran

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Two directors with films at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival said they once kept impending or new motherhood hidden from the people they worked with, at a festival talk on raising children while making films.

Belgium-based Teodora Ana Mihai, whose “Heysel 85” plays in competition, shared the stage with Japanese director Sode Yukiko, whose “All the Lovers in the Night” debuted at Cannes and screens in Tokyo’s Gala Selection. The Tokyo Talks session in the festival’s TIFF Lounge was moderated by Kondo Kanako of the festival’s programming team and came with childcare for attendees, with babysitters minding a roomful of infants at the back of the venue. The tots periodically made their presence felt, vocally.

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