ABDUCTION Wins Austin Film Festival!!

ABDUCTION WINS SIXTH AWARD IN THE US
Directors prepare for Washington theatrical premiere


For Immediate Release
10/23/06


Washington, DC An award-winning film that’s captured the attention of audiences around the world has won its sixth award. “ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story” won the award for Best Documentary Feature at the prestigious Austin Film Festival.
Directors Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim were at the awards ceremony on Saturday, October 21st in Austin to accept their prize. With some of Hollywood’s most recognized names in attendance, including Sydney Pollack (director, Out of Africa, Tootsie, Absence of Malice), Shane Black (writer, Lethal Weapon, Last Action Hero) and Ian McShane (actor, Deadwood), Kim and Sheridan accepted the award and paid tribute to the two people featured in the film: Megumi Yokota’s parents. “This film is an incredible story about how two parents turned their grief into something positive,” said Kim. “We’re inspired every day by their courage.”
The Austin Film Festival is considered one of the best and most competitive in the country. “ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story” beat out hundreds of films for the top prize.
The documentary feature tells the story of Megumi Yokota, a 13-year-old Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean spies. The film follows her parents’ incredibly emotional struggle to try to get her back. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “extraordinary” and Variety as “exceptional”, ABDUCTION also received accolades from the Austin Chronicle which praised the directors for doing a “wonderful job”.
Recently, “ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story” was featured on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, one of the cable station’s most popular shows.
The film will open theatrically in Washington, DC on November 24th at the E Street Cinema and across Japan on November 25th. There will also be a special red carpet screening hosted by the Japanese Embassy on November 20th in Washington, DC at the National Geographic Society.
“ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story” is produced in association with the BBC. The Executive Producer is Jane Campion, Academy-Award-winning director of “The Piano”.

For more info on the Austin Film Festival, visit www.austinfilmfestival.com
For more info on the film, visit www.abductionfilm.com
For media inquiries, please contact Yuko Kawabe at 1-703-350-3616

ANDERSON COOPER AGAIN!!

CNN's Anderson Cooper is really interested in the story of the Japanese abductions. For a second time he added the story of our film and Megumi's parents to the line-up. It aired again on October 17th.

(POSTPONED) DIRECTORS ON CNN'S "ANDERSON COOPER 360"

This has been postponed until Thursday 10/12/06 due to the plane crash in New York City.


FILM DIRECTORS ON CNN’s ANDERSON COOPER TONIGHT
Japanese abduction story will get its biggest audience yet



For Immediate Release
10/11/06


Washington, DC An award-winning film documenting the abduction of a Japanese girl by North Korean spies will get its biggest audience yet when CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” covers the story for the first time tonight. “ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story” will be part of a larger feature story on the Japanese abductions.
“We’re really hoping this will raise the profile of the abduction issue in America,” said Chris Sheridan, who produced and directed the film along with his wife Patty Kim. “Most Americans don’t know this story at all so this will be a great introduction to it.”
The “CNN Anderson Cooper 360” show’s producers heard about the story of the Japanese abductions when CNN’s Tokyo correspondent Atika Shubert first reported on the film back in January, 2006. They’ve been in discussions with the filmmakers ever since about doing a feature story on the Japanese abductions and the film.
“ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story” documents the bizarre kidnapping of 13-year-old Megumi Yokota from Niigata, Japan in 1977. The film follows her parents’ emotional 30-year battle to bring her home. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a work of “narrative mastery” and by Variety as “exceptional”, the film’s won several awards including the prestigious Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Slamdance Film Festival.
The directors recently returned from a week-long media tour in Japan to promote the film’s upcoming theatrical release there in November. It will also open in Washington, DC at Landmark’s E Street Cinema on November 24th.

CNN Anderson Cooper 360 airs at 10pm Eastern Time/8pm Pacific Time in the US.

For more info, visit http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/
For film info, go to www.abductionfilm.com
For media inquiries, contact Yuko Kawabe at 1-703-350-3616

INTEREST IN JAPAN HIGH!!

Hi all,

We're just back from our second trip to Japan this year and this time, it was much crazier. I barely got any sleep because I just couldn't get over the time difference (this is a consistent problem for me in Japan) but it didn't matter because we were well looked after. Our wonderful distributor, Gaga Communications Inc., brought us over to promote the film's upcoming theatrical release in November. The film will open in 20 cities across Japan I'm told. Originally, the release was supposed to be much smaller but apparently theater owners called Gaga asking for the film. This is a big coup for the story of the Japanese abductions since a lot of Japanese people still do not know the whole story. Anyway, our media tour turned out to be one of the most intense that the distributor has ever had to plan. Three days of non-stop interviews with every major newspaper, TV station and radio. 45 interviews in total. Whew! But it's all worth it since it will help get the story out. Patty and I had the kind of experience in Japan on this latest tour that every filmmaker should have at least once in their life...everything's well-planned, taken care of and the publicity is topknotch. We'll see whether it all pays off on November 25th when the film opens. In the meantime, I've added a photo (above) to show one of the best days of the tour...October 5th, Megumi's 42nd birthday. Megumi's parents can barely be seen to the right of the photo along with us. At the press conference, Megumi's Mom said to the media that this film is the best birthday present they could give Megumi. Patty and I were nearly in tears. We hope you'll spread the word to your friends in Japan but don't forget that the film's opening in Washington, DC on November 24th at the Landmark E Street Cinema as well. I'll blog more on that later.