Winning awards isn’t everything for the student filmmaker, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. This summer, recent alumnae Mitsuyo Miyazaki ’11 continued the long tradition of award winners from SCA with her short film Tsuyako, which is currently in Oscar consideration after winning the Best International Short Film- Fiction at Guanajuato IFF.

“The film was always special to me because it was inspired/based on my grandmother who I loved so dearly,” said Miyazaki. “She had to sacrifice so much in her life for the family, and she always told me to follow my dreams, which lead me where I am now. In my film I wanted to give her the moment of freedom and the choice that she was never allowed to have, and in return, I found that dreams do come true if we work hard and always believe in ourselves.”

Tsuyako is the story of a mill factory worker, wife and loving mother in post-war World War II Japan who is visited by a female lover from before the war and has to choose between living the life she’s always wanted and her duties in traditional Japanese society.

"I am truly grateful to see Tsuyako inspire people worldwide as I believed in this beautiful and thought provoking story,” said Tsuyako producer and Peter Stark Producing Program graduate Tomoya Suzuki. “We believed in the story, and enjoyed every aspects of producing from the initial process of script development to casting to physical production with the joint American and Japanese team. This film project has been always special.”

To date, it has won five awards at the Guanajuato International Film Festival, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2011 in Tokyo, The Palm Springs International ShortFest and Outfest in Los Angeles.

“The people at Palm Springs expect me to return next year with another film,” said Miyazaki. “I've been

developing several feature scripts and I've been offered to direct a few projects. But whatever comes next, it will be a project that I am truly passionate about.”

"Mitsuyo e-mailed me and the rest of our team minutes before she was leaving for the awards ceremony at Guanajuato and I sent her a note back immediately," said producer Jacob Halajian. "I had a strong feeling we were going to win this time. And we did!"

For more information, please visit - http://www.tsuyakothefilm.com/

Tsuyako
Winner - Jury Award - Best International Short Film Fiction, Guanajuato IFF
Winner - Audience Award - Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2011, Tokyo Japan (World Premiere)

Winner - Future Filmmaker Award & Audience Award Runner-up - Palm Springs International ShortFest 2011(North America Premiere)
Winner - Audience Award - Outfest 2011, Los Angeles (LA Premiere)

Upcoming Screenings
Rhode Island International FF - Aug 9-14, 2011
Albequerque Film Festival - August 8-21, 2011
Thai Short Film and Video Festival - August 18-28
Hawaii International FF - Oct 13-23, 2011
Skip-city Cinema International FF - Oct 6-14, 2011
San Diego Asian FF - Oct 20-28, 2011
Santa Fe Independent Film Festival - Oct 19-23, 2011
Frameline 36 - San Francisco GLTB FF - June 2012