| Title | Director | Cast | Genre | Notes |
| All About Lily Chou-Chou | Shunji Iwai | Hayato Ichihara | Drama | |
| Apartment Wife: Moans from Next Door | Toshiki Satō | Mao Nakagawa
Tsukasa Saitō | Pink | Best Film, Pink Grand Prix |
| Avalon | Mamoru Oshii | | Science fiction | Screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival |
| Blue | Hiroshi Ando | | | Entered into the 24th Moscow International Film Festival |
| Crayon Shin-chan: The Adult Empire Strikes Back | | | | |
| Desert Moon | Shinji Aoyama | | | Entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival |
| Detective Conan: Countdown to Heaven | | | | |
| Distance | Hirokazu Koreeda | | | Entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival |
| Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within | Hironobu Sakaguchi | Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, James Woods | Science fiction | |
| Gaoranger: Fire Mountain Howls | | | Tokusatsu | Shown on a double bill with Kamen Rider Agito: Project G4 |
| Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai | | | Tokusatsu | V-Cinema |
| Go | | | | |
| Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack | Shusuke Kaneko | | Kaiju | |
| Goryokaku | | | Historical epic | Based on events in the Boshin War of the 1860s |
| H Story | Nobuhiro Suwa | | | Screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival |
| The Happiness of the Katakuris | Takashi Miike | | Comedy horror, Musical | |
| Ichi the Killer | Takashi Miike | | Crime, Horror | |
| Inuyasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time | | | Fantasy anime | |
| Kairo | Kiyoshi Kurosawa | | Horror | Screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival |
| Kamen Rider Agito: Project G4 | | | Tokusatsu | Shown on a double bill with Gaoranger: Fire Mountain Howls |
| Kinnikuman Nisei the Movie | | | | |
| Man Walking on Snow | Masahiro Kobayashi | | | Screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival |
| Metropolis | Rintaro | | Science fiction
Anime | |
| Millennium Actress | Satoshi Kon | | Drama, Anime | |
| Mourning Wife | Daisuke Gotō | Mayuko Sasaki
Koharu Yamasaki | Pink | Silver Prize, Best Actress, 2nd place and Best Cinematography, Pink Grand Prix |
| One Piece the Movie: Clockwork Island Adventure | | Mayumi Tanaka, Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Hirata | | |
| Onmyoji | Yojiro Takita | Mansai Nomura | Fantasy, Martial arts | |
| Pistol Opera | Seijun Suzuki | Makiko Esumi | Crime | |
| Poketto Monsutā Serebii: The Meeting that Traversed Time | Kunihiko Yuyama | | Fantasy Anime | |
| The Princess Blade | Shinsuke Sato | Yumiko Shaku, Hideaki Ito | Action, Science fiction | |
| Spirited Away | Hayao Miyazaki | | Fantasy Anime | Blue Ribbon Award winner
Japan Academy Prize for Best Film
Academy Award for Best Animated Feature winner |
| Timeranger vs. GoGoV | | | Tokusatsu | V-Cinema |
| Tomie: Re-birth | Takashi Shimizu | Miki Sakai | Horror | |
| Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact | | | Tokusatsu | |
| Warm Water Under a Red Bridge | Shōhei Imamura | Kōji Yakusho
Misa Shimizu
Mitsuko Baisho | | Imamura's last feature film, entered into Cannes |
| Waterboys | Shinobu Yaguchi | | Sports comedy | |
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