Shiori Ito is an Oscar and BAFTA-nominated documentary filmmaker, journalist, and writer, and the co-founder of Hanashi Films, focusing on gender-based human rights issues, and was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020.

 

She has directed numerous documentaries in Sierra Leone, Turkey, Peru, Japan, and many other parts of the world, exploring themes of justice, gender, and resilience through intimate storytelling. Her first feature documentary, Black Box Diaries, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and has since been released globally. The film won a Peabody Award, received Oscar and BAFTA nominations, and earned more than twenty international prizes. Screened in more than sixty countries.

 

Shiori is also the author of Black Box (2017), a work of non-fiction based on her own experience of sexual violence that exposed systemic sexism in Japan. The book received the Free Press Association of Japan’s Best Journalism Award in 2018 and has been translated into ten languages, including English. Her latest book, Swim Naked (2023), published in Japan and China, explores themes of resilience, vulnerability, and survival.

 

Her work has appeared in outlets such as Reuters, BBC, Al Jazeera, and The Economist. She was named One Young World’s Journalist of the Year in 2022. She also serves as an ambassador for NO MORE, a global organization committed to ending domestic and sexual violence

 

.Alongside her filmmaking and writing, Ito delivers talks and lectures at universities, high schools, and international forums, sharing her experiences to inform, inspire, and empower the next generation.