Deadline reports that Academy Award-nominated Japanese road film Drive My Car will be premiering on HBO Max on March 2, 2022, after being acquired by WarnerMedia OneFifty. The international film that has won the hearts of audiences and critics premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021, before arriving in American theaters in late November, and will now be widely available just before this year's Oscars ceremony.
The film has seen critical acclaim, winning three awards at Cannes, including Best Screenplay, as well as being named the Best Picture of 2021 by the National Society of Film Critics. Most recently, Drive My Car received four Academy Award nominations: Best Directing, Best International Feature Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. This last one is very significant, as Drive My Car is the first Japanese film to ever be nominated for Best Picture, and the recent nominations have led to renewed interest in the film, which recently passed the $1 million mark at the box office.
“As WarnerMedia’s ‘artist studio where innovation happens,’ OneFifty has built a track record of identifying incredible artists whose vision we believe in, and acquiring their extraordinary, groundbreaking content. Drive My Car is no exception," said Axel Caballero, Head of WarnerMedia OneFifty. "It is a beautiful masterpiece – a subtle but haunting work of artistic vision and innovation by a talented filmmaker and creative team."
Drive My Car comes from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who also acted as co-writer alongside Takamasa Oe. An adaptation of Haruki Murakami's 2014 short story by the same name, it tells the story of Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a widowed and aging theater actor and director who has seen his career damaged following his wife's death. Two years after her death, he is set to direct a production of Uncle Vanya, but the theater company requires him to have a chauffeur who will be driving him around — a young and reserved woman named Misaki Watari (Tōko Miura). Over the course of the film, the pair develop a bond, telling a unique story of "traveling a path of love, loss, acceptance, and peace." Along with Nishijima and Miura, the film also stars Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, Park Yoo-rim, Satoko Abe, Jin Dae-yeon, and Sonia Yuan.
Drive My Car arrives on HBO Max starting on March 2.