“Drive My Car” receives 4 Oscar nominations

Jiji Press

10:41 JST, February 9, 2022

LOS ANGELES (Jiji Press) — Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” received 2022 Academy Awards nominations for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best international feature on Tuesday.

This marked the first best picture nomination for a Japanese film. The award ceremony will take place on March 27.

Drive My Car, based on the namesake short story of Japanese author Haruki Murakami, features a man reeling from the sudden death of his wife. It depicts the man looking back at himself after meeting a reticent woman hired to become his driver.

At last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Hamaguchi and screenwriter Takamasa Oe won the Best Screenplay Award for the movie.

This year, Drive My Car won four awards from the U.S. National Society of Film Critics. It became the first Japanese film in 62 years to receive the Golden Globe award for best film in the non-English language category.