Director Ryoichi Kimizuka’s Nobody To Watch Over Me (Dare Mo Mamotte Kurenai) has been selected as Japan’s official entry for the best foreign-language film category of the Academy Awards.

Produced by Fuji TV and released by Toho on January 24 of this year, the film grossed $6.1m. Kimizuka, who also co-wrote the screenplay, was the writer on the hit Bayside Shakedown series, also produced by Fuji TV head of motion pictures Chihiro Kameyama.  

Nobody To Watch Over Me stars Koichi Sato as a police detective assigned to protect a teenage girl (Mirai Shida) from a media firestorm and vigilante-minded Netizens – people who are actively involved in online communities - after her brother is arrested for a shocking murder.

The film shared a best screenplay prize with Welcome to Farewell-Gutmann at the Montreal World Film Festival last year, alongside Grand Prix winner Departures, which went on to win the Oscar. The film also screened at festivals in Newport Beach and Santa Barbara.

Kameyama also had previous social-minded drama I Just Didn’t Do It submitted for the Oscar in 2007.

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