| Atsuko Hirayanagi | |
| Birth Place: | Nagano, Japan |
| Nationality: | Japanese |
| Alma Mater: | NYU, Tisch School of the Arts |
| Occupation: | Writer, Director |
is a Japanese-American filmmaker.
Born in Nagano to schoolteachers and raised in Chiba, Japan, Hirayanagi moved to the Los Angeles area in the early 1990s as a high school exchange student.[1]
She graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in theater arts. She went on to attend NYU Tisch School of the Arts and graduated with a MFA in film production.
While in graduate school, her second year project, Mo Ikkai, won the Grand Prix at the 2012 Short Shorts Film Festival in Asia.[2]
Her thesis short film, Oh Lucy!, received a Tisch's First Prize Wasserman Award at the 2014 First Run Festival,[3] and also won more than 25 awards[4] around the globe, including prizes at Cannes Film Festival (2014),[5] Sundance Film Festival (2015),[6] and the Toronto International Film Festival (2014).[7]
Her feature-length version of Oh Lucy! was a recipient of the 2016 Sundance/NHK Award.[8] On June 14, 2017, she was named one of the ″20 Rising Women Directors You Need to Know″ by IndieWire.,[9] and was nominated at the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Feature.[10] The project was funded by Cathay Organisation CEO Meileen Cho.
Hirayanagi was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2018.[11]
On April 29, 2021, Hirayanagi was set to direct the film adaptation of A. Lee Martinez’s novel The Last Adventure of Constance Verity for Legendary Entertainment with Awkwafina set to star.[12]
In March 2022, it was announced that Hirayanagi would serve as showrunner of the Amazon Prime Video original series Modern Love Tokyo.[13]
Hirayanagi is a black belt in Kyokushin Karate, and came in 3rd place in the Los Angeles Cup Women's Category.[14]
Atsuko currently resides in Noe Valley, San Francisco, CA.