As requested, the translation of an earlier news about Shida Mirai at an foreign film festival.

Last month, the Japanese movie "Nobody to Watch Over Me" with Shida Mirai (15) in the starring role was screened at the 24th Santa-Barbara International Film Festival. For that reason Shida herself attended the film festival as well, the first ever in her career. Right before going on stage she was so nervous that she even began to try, but she still was able to hold an impressive speech with a few English sentences later on. She also received a lot of praises from the organizers of the film festival who said that she's a likely candidate for an Academy Award in the future.

Santa Barbara is located at the coastline of California in America. Shida Mirai and director Kimizuka came to the "Metro 4 Theater" for the greeting event on January 30. Dressed in a kimono Shida introduced herself and the character and said, "Thank you for coming and enjoy the film", in quite a fluent way.

A few days ago she already attended another even for the first screening of the movie, but right before her speech she was so nervous that she started to cry. During the actual performance she was at a loss of words again and shed tears afterwards when leaving the theater. However, on the 30th she did just fine. "I was 100times more nervous than during the actual filming. I'm not really good at English and I had huge blockade during my first speech. Now I'm relieved and hungry."

Shida plays a young girl whose older brother gets suspected of murder and through her eyes, we get a glimpse into the vulnerability, the isolation and even the resilience of the individual when up against a volatile and often intolerant world. After the screening the audience asked her for handshakes and autographes. "It's not like in Japan. Americans aren't as formal." She also brought along 5 packages of Japanese-style meat and her beloved tuna from Japan. "The tuna sandwich you can get here is really delicious. I've already went to buy souvenirs for 11 of my friends, but I still have to buy more." Recently Shida passed her high-school exam and is currently relaxing to her fullest.

The movie was introduced in the "EASTxWEST" category and Shida received a great deal of praise from the director of the film festival. "She is able to express feelings and emotions beyond the level of a 15-years-old." Los Angeles is only 2hours away from Santa Barbara by car. It's the place of the Academy Awards in February and at the festival they can already see her holding an Oscar in her own hands someday. "Mirai is the future, she's having enough talent to get nominated."

Shida herself doesn't really aim for an Oscar and rather wants to put her energy into the work that's right in front of her eyes. "I'm not really that familiar with the Academy Awards. I just want to do my best in Japan."

Written by: jyoyu.blogspot.com / Source: Sports Hochi
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