Hayao Miyazaki Earns Oscar Nom for ‘The Boy and the Heron’
Animation icon Hayao Miyazaki, at age 83, earned an Academy Award nomination for his semi-autobiographical fantasy film The Boy and the Heron in the animated feature competition.
He previously won a competitive best animated feature Oscar in 2003 for his film Spirited Away, which to date is the only category winner that was not made in the English language. He received an Academy Honorary Award in 2014, and earned additional competitive Oscar nominations for his movies The Wind Rises and Howl’s Moving Castle. With this, his fourth nomination, he is tied for the most nominations in the best animated feature category with Pixar’s Pete Docter.
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The Boy and the Heron has been billed as the final movie from Miyazaki, who with this nomination is the oldest nominee in the history of the animated feature category, which was first presented in 2001.
It is producer Toshio Suzuki’s third Oscar nomination following The Red Turtle and The Wind Rises
This is the seventh category nomination for Japan’s Studio Ghibli, the animation studio Miyazaki co-founded. The nomination also marks the 13th for a GKIDS-distributed movie.
Said domestic distributor GKIDS founder and CEO Eric Beckman in a released statement: “Hayao Miyazaki is a living legend in filmmaking, a once in a century talent. Beyond the unparalleled visual artistry he has given us, his films resonate with the knowledge that this life we find ourselves in is urgent and necessary and tragic and beautiful. And that as humans we have the duty to carry ourselves with honor and humility during the short time we have together on this planet.”
Miyazaki’s credits also include Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo.
The Boy and the Heron is nominated for best animated feature alongside Elemental, Nimona, Robot Dreams and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
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