Kobayashi became the first Japanese filmmaker to win the Grand Prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. In its wake, he founded Monkey Town Productions and made three films back to back which won prizes in three consecutive years at Cannes: "Kaizokuban Bootleg Film" (1999) and "Man Walking on Snow" (2001) in Un Certain Regard and "Koroshi" (2000) in the Directors' Fortnight. "Bashing" was screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.