Art Tao Okamoto wins Best Actress at Cannes

Tao Okamoto became the first Japanese actor to win the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival on 23 May for her leading role in "All of a Sudden". The film was directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 47, who previously won international acclaim for "Drive My Car", which received the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.


Okamoto, 41, shared the award with French-language actress Virginie Efira, her co-star in the film. The two appeared on stage together at the ceremony, holding hands as they accepted the prize. During her speech, Okamoto reportedly described herself as "a mediocre Japanese actress" and said she was standing there because of Hamaguchi's direction. She also credited him for his screenplay and for his continued support during production.

In the three-hour, 16-minute dialogue-driven drama, Okamoto portrays a stage director with terminal cancer who forms a deep bond with the head of a care facility, played by Efira, 49. Through interactions with the people at the facility, Okamoto portrayed a woman who, despite her declining health, does not give up hope of living on. The film, which mixes French and Japanese, is based on the correspondence between the late philosopher Makiko Miyano who had cancer and medical anthropologist Maho Isono.

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