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Akiko Izumitani is a Japanese-born director and writer now living in Los Angeles. She serves as a supervising producer at Aniplex of America, overseeing titles such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Sword Art Online, The Elusive Samurai, and Mashle.
Akiko gained early acclaim with her feature-length documentary "Silent Shame" (2010), which earned numerous international awards including Best Feature at the Beijing Movie Festival and was screened at an Oscar-qualifying festival. The documentary has been sold in multiple territories, including China and Denmark.
Years later, she directed "Kung Fu Date," which received the Remi Award at the Houston Film Festival, and "Sukiyaki with Love," a semi-finalist in NBCUniversal Shortcuts. Her action short, "The Other Side," won Best Short Film at the Sacramento Asian Film Festival, received the ECA Award from ICG, and was screened at DGA under ICG sponsorship.
In 2020, Akiko was a finalist in the Women of Color Commercial Directing Program (top 10 of 100+), and previously a semi-finalist in NBC Female Forward (top 20 of 1000) in 2018, Sony Directors Program (top 25 of 250) in 2017 and 2019, and ABC Director's Program in 2014. Scott Free considered her for episodic directing on AMC's The Terror Season 2. In 2013, she was recognized as one of the top rising Asian American filmmakers.
While working as a project manager at 20th Century FOX, Akiko studied screenwriting under Monte Merrick (writer of Mr. Baseball and Memphis Belle) and Jonathan Tsuneishi (script analyst at 20th Century Fox). She actively participates in the Santa Monica Screenwriting Group, collaborating with writers including Nicole Perlman (Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy), Ben Kim (Queen Sugar), and James 'Doc' Mason (The Cage).
Akiko has also worked as a production assistant on major studio films and TV shows such as Bullet Train and Terminal List, gaining experience with union production workflows.
Most recently, she completed the action short film "Yae: The Blind Samurai Woman," which was a finalist in multiple screenwriting contests. The short won Best Short Film at the Town Los Angeles Film Festival and was officially selected at Oscar-qualifying festivals including Austin, HollyShorts, and Dances with Films. It has garnered over 580,000 organic views. Together with co-writer James 'Doc' Mason, Akiko developed a feature script titled "Rise of The Blind Samurai Woman" based on the short. Her writing process was featured in Creative Screenwriting.
