Akiko Izumitani

Akiko Izumitani is a female director/producer/writer born and raised in Japan. She is also an executive board member of AWD (Alliance of Women Directors) in Los Angeles. Akiko first earned recognition through her feature-length documentary, "Silent Shame" (2010), in-depth exploration into Japan's war crimes in WWII. It won numerous awards worldwide, including Best Feature in the Beijing Movie Festival. It has been sold to China and Denmark. Several years later, Akiko directed "Kung Fu Date," which won the Remi Award at the Houston Film Festival and "Sukiyaki with Love" (Semi-Finalist of NBCUniversal Shortcuts). Her action short film, "The Other Side" won The Best Short Film in Sacramento Asian Film Festival and ECA Award by ICG and had a screening sponsored by ICG at DGA. She was a semi-finalist of NBC Female Forward (Top 20 out of 1000) in 2018, Sony Director's Program (Top 25 out of 250) in 2017, and ABC Director's Program in 2014. She was also considered to be an episodic director of AMC's The Terror Season 2 by Scott Free. Akiko was selected as one of the top rising Asian American filmmakers in 2013.