Ema Ryan Yamazaki (she/her) is the director of Instruments of a Beating Heart (2024) and editor of Black Box Diaries (2024), which were both nominated for the Academy Awards in 2025. With a unique perspective as an insider and outsider in Japan, Ema strives to tell stories that empathetically show human struggle and triumph. She has directed three acclaimed feature documentaries: The Making of a Japanese (2023); Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams (2020); and Money Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators (2017).