Cult Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn and acclaimed game designer Hideo Kojima take center stage in #Studio, the section exploring the connections between cinema and the visual arts.
On Friday, 26 September, in conversation with journalist Matteo Bordone and Katya Inozemtseva, Head of Curatorial Department at Fondazione Prada, the two auteurs shared their respective visions of cinema and the themes behind the exhibition “Satellites,” hosted at Prada Aoyama in Tokyo from 18 April to 25 August 2025.
BIOGRAPHY
Nicolas Winding Refn is one of the most daring and visionary voices in contemporary cinema. Born in Copenhagen and raised in New York, he made his debut at just 24 with Pusher (1996), which became an instant cult hit. Among his most acclaimed titles are Bronson (2008), Valhalla Rising (2009), and Drive, which earned him the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. Following Only God Forgives (2013) and The Neon Demon (2016), he extended his radical aesthetic to television with Too Old to Die Young (2019) and Copenhagen Cowboy, presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2022, as well as to the world of advertising with the short film Touch of Crude (2023), commissioned by Prada for the SS23 women’s collection, and Beauty Is Not a Sin (2024) for the luxury motorcycle brand MV Agusta.
A living legend of gaming, Hideo Kojima is one of the most influential creators in contemporary entertainment. Regarded as the father of the stealth genre, he revolutionized storytelling in video games by blending cinema and interactivity. In 2015, he founded Kojima Productions, with which he created Death Stranding (2019), starring Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, and Léa Seydoux, followed by Death Stranding Director’s Cut (2021) and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (2025). Among his upcoming projects are the horror video game OD, in collaboration with Xbox Game Studios, and the film adaptation of Death Stranding, produced by A24. He has received numerous international lifetime achievement awards, including the BAFTA Fellowship (2020), the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards (2009), and the Hall of Fame Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (D.I.C.E. Awards) (2016).