Takashi Yamazaki is a Japanese filmmaker and visual effects supervisor. Known for his blockbusters with advanced visual effects, Yamazaki is considered a leading filmmaker in the Japanese film industry. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, eight Japanese Academy Awards, five Nikkan Sports Film Awards, two Hochi Film Awards, and an Asian Film Award. His films have collectively grossed over $523 million worldwide.

Yamazaki developed an interest in filmmaking and visual effects after watching “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (both 1977). Starting his career in the industry at Shirogumi in 1986, he later made his feature film debut with “Juvenile” (2000). After directing “Returner” (2002), Yamazaki gained recognition with his third film, “Always: Sunset on Third Street” (2005), which won twelve awards at the 29th Japanese Academy Awards. He then moved onto direct several film adaptations of popular anime, novels, and manga, including “Space Battleship Yamato” (2010), “Friends: Mononoke Shima no Naki” (2011), “The Eternal Zero” (2013), and “Stand by Me Doraemon” (2014) respectively; the latter two films earned a total of nine awards at the 38th Japanese Academy Awards. These were followed by “Parasyte” (2014), “Fueled: The Man They Called Pirate” (2016), “The Great War of Archimedes” (2019), “Dragon Quest: Your Story” (2019), “Lupin III: The First” (2019), and “Stand by Me Doraemon 2” (2020), “Yokaipedia” (2022). Yamazaki’s acclaimed film, “Godzilla Minus One”, was released in Japan in November 2023 and in the United States the next month. In 2024, he and his team became the first Japanese production crew ever to receive an Academy Award nomination for, and win, Best Visual Effects.