LONDON.- It has been ten years since the legendary director Akira Kurosawa (23 March, 1910 - 6 September, 1998) passed away. Kadokawa Pictures has begun the task of digitally restoring Kurosawa's Rashomon with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Considering Rashomon's arts and cultural values, Kadokawa Culture Promotion Foundation, The Academy Motion Pictures Arts and Science in the US, and The Film Foundation decided to support the restoration project. Rashomon is the first Japanese film to be restored by the Academy and the Film Foundation. Also for this project, the digital restoration will be done at 4K for the first trial in Japanese film history.

Released in Japan on August 26th, 1950 and exported soon thereafter, Rashomon was immediately recognized as signal achievement in cinema. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951 and received an honorary Academy Award (Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film) in the following year.

The project is supervised by Michael Pogorzelski, the director of the Academy Film Archive and a renowned film archivist. From Japan, the National Film Center joins the project to provide technical and academic advice.

The restored film will be shown on September 18th at the Samuel Goldwin Theater as a special event of KUROSAWA retrospective "Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist".