Akiko Ashizawa was born in Tokyo. She made a movie with 8mm film when she was a university student; an experience that led her to work in the world of visual images. Having gained a wealth of experience across different mediums including a television commercials, she went out on her own as a camera operator. In 1994 she came on board as cinematographer for the feature film Let’s Play With Good Kids (Yoiko to Asobo) directed by Hideyuki Hirayama. Since then, she has focused on feature film. Her more than 50 films include Unloved (2002), directed by Kunitoshi Manda, APSA nominated features Tokyo Sonata (2008) and Journey to the Shore (2015). She has won Best Cinematography Awards from Yokohama Film Festival, Mainichi Film Concours and FANCINE Festival. In 2020 she was nominated for an Asian Film Award for her work on To the End of the Earth (‘Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari’) (2019), directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
