Seto Wins Award for Best Actress at Moscow Film Festival

AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Japanese film directer Yutaka Tsunemachi poses on a red carpet at the closing ceremony of the 45th Moscow International Film Festival in Moscow, Russia, April 27, 2023.

MOSCOW (Jiji Press) — Actress Kaho Seto won the Best Actress award at the 45th Moscow International Film Festival on Thursday.

The 29-year-old received the award for her role in “Drifting Flowers, Flowing Days,” directed by director Yutaka Tsunemachi, 25.

According to Tsunemachi, who participated in the award ceremony, Seto said it was good that she did acting.

Tsunemachi became the youngest Japanese director of a film for which an award was given in the competition section of the Moscow event, one of the four major international film festivals.

Tsunemachi and actor Hiroki Sato, 28, who played the main role in the film, walked on the red carpet of the festival.

According to Sato, when Seto was told in Japan that she had won the award, she cried for joy, saying, “Are you kidding me?”

“I’m happy as a director to see the actors receive recognition,” Tsunemachi told reporters.

“We made the film as a team, including Seto,” he said, adding that he wants to celebrate her award together with the cast and crew in Japan.

“I want to tell [the news of Seto’s winning the award] to my parents who allowed me to live freely,” he also said with a smile.

Drifting Flowers, Flowing Days is Tsunemachi’s first feature-length film. He started shooting the film when he was 21.

The film, released in Japan in February last year, features family values amid the change of the Japanese Imperial era, from Heisei to Reiwa, upon the Emperor’s enthronement in 2019, through Hiroto, a male construction worker played by Sato, and Futaba, who dreams of opening a flower shop, played by Seto.