"Watashi no Otoko" wins double awards at the 36th Moscow International Film Festival

The movie "Watashi no Otoko" which is currently being shown in Japan, won two awards i.e. best movie and best leading actor (Asano Tadanobu) during the 36th Moscow International Film Festival as announced on 28 June. This is the first win in 15 years for a Japanese film in the best movie category since 1999's "Ikitai" and the first best leading actor win in 31 years since Kato Yoshi got it in 1983 for his movie "Furusato". This is also Asano's first acting award in an international film festival.

As Asano was in Nagoya for a live performance at the time when the award was announced, he could not be in Moscow for the ceremony but expressed his joy at being given the award. The director of the movie Kumakiri Kazuyoshi commented that the filming was tough as they had to do things like wait for the drift-ice to appear before shooting some scenes and overcome various problems. However, he was glad that the effort paid off in the end. Female lead Nikaido Fumi also congratulated her co-star Asano and the director for their wins and expressed her pride at having been involved in this film.

Asano and Nikaido are expected to attend a press conference in Tokyo on 30 June where they will make the official announcement about the awards to the media.

Source: Sanspo