Yukiko Sode's All the Lovers in the Night has secured distribution deals across North America and nine additional territories, with Several Futures taking U.S. rights and Ritual Films acquiring Canada, according to Variety.

Bitters End, the Japanese sales and distribution company that picked up international rights to the film in January, orchestrated the cascade of deals. Thailand goes to Movies Matter, France to Art House Films. Spain (Atalante), Bulgaria (NeterraTV+), Brazil (Belas Artes Grupo), South Korea (Pancinema), Taiwan (Andrews Film), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Singapore (Anticipate Pictures) and Indonesia (PT Falcon) round out the list.

The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes — a sidebar reserved for distinctive, formally daring work from around the world. It is adapted from Mieko Kawakami's novel of the same name, which holds a notable distinction: the first work of Japanese fiction to make the shortlist for the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award.

The story follows Fuyuko, a freelance proofreader whose quiet life shifts after she meets Mitsutsuka, a high school physics teacher, at a local culture centre. Yukino Kishii plays Fuyuko; Tadanobu Asano plays Mitsutsuka. Kishii won the best actress prize at the Japan Academy Film Prize for her performance in Sho Miyake's Small, Slow But Steady. Asano is fresh off a Golden Globe win and a historic Primetime Emmy nomination — the first for a Japanese actor in that category — both for his role as Lord Kashigi Yabushige in FX's Shōgun.

Sode both wrote and directed the film. Her previous feature, Aristocrats, bowed at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. She also created the Disney+ series Because We Forget Everything, which streamed in 2025.

The home-market release comes first: All the Lovers in the Night opens in Japan on 13 November. No North American or European release dates have been announced yet.

For audiences, the breadth of these deals means a Japanese literary adaptation with a modest profile at Cannes will reach cinemas from Paris to São Paulo to Seoul — a reminder that the festival marketplace, where sales agents and buyers negotiate in the corridors between screenings, is often what determines whether a film travels at all.