WEEK IN WOMEN: Hikari’s RENTAL FAMILY in Theaters via Searchlight – Brandy McDonnell reports
Award-winning director Hikari’s Rental Family, starring Oscar winner Brendan Fraser as an American actor in Tokyo who suffers a colossal case of impostor syndrome when he becomes a professional surrogate, opens theatrcally on November 21 via Searchlight Pictures. The film has already scored high ratings at festivals — incuding TIFF, where it premiered — and is garnering much awards buzz. With Rental Family, Hikari, who wrote, directed and produced the film, adds another highly acclaimed title to her steadily growing filmography.
Hikari (aka Mitsuyo Miyazaki) orgnally hails frm Osaka, Japan. Her debut short film Tsuyako (2011) played more than 100 film festivals worldwide, receiving 50 awards including Directors Guild of America (DGA) Student Award for the Best Female Filmmaker, Future Filmmakers Award and Audience Award at Palm Springs International Shortfest and Grand Jury Prizes at Oscar-qualified film festivals.
In 2013, she was chosen as one of the five directors to create a short film for the first annual Lexus Short Films, produced by The Weinstein Company. Hikari’s live-action/animated short film A Better Tomorrow (2013) premiered at Festival de Cannes in a special screening presented by TWC and Lexus International. Her dance short film Where We Begin (2015) premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and received eight awards at festivals around the United States.
Subsequently. Hikari was chosen to participate at Sundance Institute/NHK Screenwriting Workshop in Tokyo with her feature script Cantering, later renamed 37 Seconds. She also became a fellow for Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab as well as Project Involve for their directing track. The project was also a finalist for the 2017 Sundance Screenwriting Lab.
Her debut feature, 37 Seconds (2019), about a young Japanese woman with cerebral palsy who is determined to be come a manga artist, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. It also played at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, and it was released on Netflix on 2020. Continue reading on THE WEEK IN WOMEN
