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'Drive My Car' wins Oscar for best International feature film, fans praise 'excellent storytelling'

'Drive My Car' traces the story of an an actor and director, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, grappling with his past and his wife's death

The Academy Awards this year began with jokes and laughs as Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes stepped in on Sunday, March 27. The trio made history as this is the very first time that three women hosted the ceremony. Introduced by DJ Khaled, the trio's monologue received mixed reactions from the audience at home, while some say they 'killed it' others said it was the 'worst ever'.

The 94th Academy Awards returned to Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27, with the red carpet teeming with Hollywood's best and finest. This year, Jane Campion’s 'The Power of the Dog' has as many as 12 nods under its belt, becoming the most nominated film. It is also the first film by a female director to have received nominations in so many categories. Moving onto other awaited categories, the Oscar for Live-Action Short was given to 'The Long Goodbye', while 'The Queen of Basketball' clinched the Oscar for Documentary Short and Animated Feature award was taken home by 'Encanto'.

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This year, the Japanese drama 'Drive My Car' won the Academy Award for Best International Feature film. Based on Haruki Murakami's short story of the same name from his 2014 collection 'Men Without Women', the three-hour film traces the story of an actor and director grappling with his past and his wife's death. Played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yūsuke Kafuku develops a friendship with his young chauffeur while he is directing a multi-lingual production of Russian playwright Anton Checkhov's 'Uncle Vanya' in Hiroshima. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi told Reuters in Cannes, where the film won a screenplay award, "What I found fascinating was how the intimacy is brought into the car through the long conversations between the characters." The other international film nominees this year were 'Flee' (Denmark), 'The Hand of God' (Italy), 'Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom' (Bhutan), and 'The Worst Person in the World' (Norway).

'Drive My Car' is the fifth film from Japan to win Best International Feature Film joining, 'Rashomon' (1951), 'Gate of Hell' (1954), 'Samurai, The Legend of Musashi' (1955), and 'Departures' (2008). Last year, Danish film 'Another Round', starring Mads Mikkelsen, won the award for the best international feature film at the 93rd Academy Awards. 

Three years ago, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided that “foreign” was not a word that should qualify any of their awards categories. Subsequently, The Best Foreign Language Feature was changed to the Best International Feature Film, which they say is more politically correct. “We have noted that the reference to ‘Foreign’ is outdated within the global filmmaking community,” Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, co-chairs of the Academy subcommittee that facilitates the category, has said in a statement. “We believe that International Feature Film better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience.”

Social media users believe 'Drive My Car' deserved the award. "Congratulations to Ryusuke Hamaguchi on his first Oscar—“Best International Feature Film” for “Drive My Car”! Wonderful to see excellent storytelling being recognized by ⁦@TheAcademy," one user wrote on Twitter. "DRIVE MY CAR deserves many, many Oscars. If you haven’t seen it yet, I cannot recommend it enough," another user wrote. 

"Drive My Car: one of this season's greatest success stories. It will age like fine wine down the years," one user wrote, while another commented, "Drive my car was our favorite movie this year, and seeing it get an Oscar is like seeing our son win an award! Thank you the Academy for doing the right thing! And I will always love this movie".