Randall Okita is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, and visual artist from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, known for creating work that involves rich visual language and experimental approaches to storytelling.

Career

His 2014

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

short film '' The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer'' won the Best Canadian Short Film award at the

2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin (director), David Dobkin's film ''The Judge (2014 film), The Judg ...

, and was named to the festival's year-end

Canada's Top Ten Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films."Canada's Top Ten awards will honour excellence in Canadian cinema". ''Welland Tribune'', November 23, ...

list of the year's ten best Canadian shorts. It also won awards for Best Short Film at the

Festival du nouveau cinéma The Festival du nouveau cinéma or FNC (English: ''Festival of New Cinema'') is an annual independent film festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, featuring independent films from around the world. Over 160,000 people attend each year. One of ...

in Montreal, Best Experimental Short Film at both the New York Short Film Festival and

LA Shorts Fest The LA Shorts International Film Festival (LA Shorts) founded by Robert Arentz in 1997 is one of the largest international short film festivals in the world with more than 300 films screening annually. In order to qualify for a short film award at ...

, and Best Cinematography at the Berlin International Short Film Festival. In 2015, he was selected by Piers Handling as the recipient of a pay-it-forward grant from the

Toronto Film Critics Association The Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) is an organization of film critics from Toronto-based publications. As of 1999, the TFCA is a member of the FIPRESCI. History The Toronto Film Critics Association is the official organization of Toro ...

toward the production of a future film, following Handling's win of the organization's

Clyde Gilmour Award The Company 3 TFCA Luminary Award, formerly the Clyde Gilmour Award, is an annual award, presented at the discretion the Toronto Film Critics Association as a lifetime achievement award for distinguished contributions to the Canadian film industry. ...

. His feature directorial debut, '' The Lockpicker'', was released in 2016, and received the John Dunning Discovery Award at the

5th Canadian Screen Awards The 5th annual Canadian Screen Awards were held on March 12, 2017, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2016. Nominations were announced on January 17, 2017. Awards in many of the technical categor ...

in 2017. The film won the Grand Jury Award at the

San Diego Asian Film Festival The San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF) is an annual film festival in San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, ...

2016, Best First Feature at the 2016 Reel Asian Film Festival, and Best Narrative Feature at the 2016 West Virginia International Film Festival. In 2016, ''Be Here Now'', an interactive multimedia installation made from feathers, wood, wire, and interactive sound and light, was part of an exhibition of artworks at the Robert Kananaj Gallery, and a part of a group exhibition at the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

. '' The Book of Distance'' is a room-scale virtual reality experience written and directed by Okita,Eric Volmers
"Virtual-reality project fills in the gaps of a grandfather's harrowing internment story"
''

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

'', November 6, 2020. which premiered at the

2020 Sundance Film Festival The 2020 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 23 to February 2, 2020. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 4, 2019. The opening night film was '' Miss Americana'' directed by Lana Wilson and produced by Morg ...

. Its subsequent screenings included the

2020 Vancouver International Film Festival The 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 39th event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from September 24 to October 7, 2020. On September 3, organizers announced a lineup of 180 films; due to the COVID- ...

, where it won the award for Best Animation in the Immersed program, and the 2020 Festival du nouveau cinéma, where it won the Horizons award. It won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Immersive Experience at the

9th Canadian Screen Awards The 9th Canadian Screen Awards were presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 17–20 May 2021 to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2020. The presentations were held as a seri ...

in 2021. His film '' See for Me'' premiered at the 2021

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

. Okita directed the upcoming film '' Menace''.Brent Lang
"Cannes: IFC Films, Shudder Buy Isabel May Film ‘Menace'"
''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', May 21, 2024.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okita, Randall Canadian male screenwriters Canadian people of Japanese descent Canadian writers of Asian descent Canadian Screen Award winning directors Living people Canadian Film Centre alumni Asian-Canadian filmmakers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male artists Canadian video artists Canadian multimedia artists Film directors from Toronto Screenwriters from Toronto