In this Nov. 8, 2014, file photo, Hayao Miyazaki arrives at the 6th Annual Governors Awards in Los Angeles. Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and Heron’ is nominated for best animated film.
8:51 JST, March 11, 2024
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary Japanese filmmaker whose anime classics have enchanted fans around the world for decades, has won his second career Oscar.
At 83, Miyazaki won for directing best animated film, “The Boy and the Heron,” the long-awaited fantasy from the director of “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
He is the oldest director ever nominated for the category and the oldest winner by more than twenty years – adding to a big year in Hollywood for older filmmakers. He was not present at the ceremony.
Hailed as one of the best films of 2023, ‘The Boy and The Heron’ defeated its top rival in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’, as well as ‘Elemental’, ‘Nimona’ and ‘Robot Dreams. ”
Sunday’s win for Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki caps off a solid awards season for the film, which won top honors for an animated film at the Golden Globes and the BAFTA Film Awards.
It was Miyazaki’s fourth Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, tying Pixar’s Pete Docter for the most nods in that category. Miyazaki won his first Oscar in 2003 for ‘Spirited Away’.
Miyazaki began working on “The Boy and the Heron” not long after announcing his intention to retire from film again in 2013.
In diary entries from the time, published in the film’s press releases, Miyazaki writes: “There is nothing more pathetic than telling the world that you are retiring because of your age, and then making a comeback.
“Doesn’t an older person who deludes himself that he is still capable, despite his geriatric forgetfulness, prove that he has done the best he can?” he adds. “You bet it is.”
Miyazaki addressed those concerns and the resulting film not only gave him his second Oscar win on Sunday night, but also his first No. 1 film at the North American box office.
“The Boy and the Heron” follows a boy named Mahito Maki who moves to the countryside after the death of his mother. There he is lured by a mysterious heron to a remote tower, a portal that takes him to a fantastic realm amid his grief.
The film was ten years in the making. In the age of CGI and artificial intelligence, Miyazaki has stuck to the lengthy process of hand-drawing his animations.
When he received an honorary Oscar in 2014 in honor of his artistry and storytelling, he expressed his gratitude for the art of drawing.
“My wife tells me I am a very happy man,” Miyazaki said through an interpreter in his acceptance speech. “And I think I was lucky because I was able to participate in the last era of making movies with paper, pencil and film.”
