Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Drive My Car’ Rides Off With International Feature Oscar, Japan’s Second-Ever Competitive Win In Category

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car scooped the International Feature Film Oscar on Sunday, becoming the second movie from Japan to take a competitive prize in the category formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film (it’s the fifth for Japan if we count honorary awards given out in the 1950s).

From the Dolby stage, and speaking in English rather than through a translator as he has for much of awards season, Hamaguchi thanked “all the members of the Academy for having us here” as well as his U.S. distributors Janus Films and Sideshow “for bringing Drive My Car to the United States.” He was nearly played off before interrupting the music himself and saying, “Just a moment,” adding thanks to all of his actors present and those who couldn’t make it to L.A., “especially Toko Miura, who drove the Saab 900 beautifully in the film.”

Hamaguchi looked like he had more to say, but the skedaddle music swelled and off he went.

Hamaguchi co-wrote and directed Drive My Car, based on a short story by Haruki Murakami. The drama made history on Oscar nominations day, becoming the first Japanese film ever to score an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. What’s more, Hamaguchi is only the third Japanese filmmaker to be nominated in the Best Director category and had a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay tonight. Drive My Car’s four total Oscar nominations tie Akira Kurosawa’s Ran as the most-nominated film ever from Japan (though the latter was a French co-production).

Drive My Car began its career in Cannes where it took the Best Screenplay prize and has been on a wild ride ever since, winning top overall film honors from both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle, along with myriad prizes from other groups. It also recently won the BAFTA for Film not in the English Language.

One of the most highly praised titles out of Cannes, the story centers on Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife. Two years after the latter abruptly disappears, Kafuku is asked to direct a production of Uncle Vanya and, despite his protests, must be chauffeured for the duration by Misaki (Miura).

Check out his speech above and backstage comments below.