#Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron Wins Oscar for Best Animated Feature at 96th Academy Awards

Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron has won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. This is Miyazaki’s second Oscar award after Spirited Away won in 2003. 

The Boy and the Heron also won the Best Animated Work award at the 47th Japan Academy Film Prize, as well as two Annie awards in Best Character Animation – Feature and Best Storyboarding – Feature, and a Golden Globe Award in the Best Animated Motion Picture category. 

This was the 13th #Oscars nomination for GKIDS and our first win ever!

2023 was a landmark year for animation, and we’re grateful to have shared the stage with so many brilliant nominees. We are all united in our belief that animation IS film, and look forward to the future. ❤️ https://t.co/wdoST7uLVb

— GKIDS Films (@GKIDSfilms) March 11, 2024

Takashi Yamazaki‘s Godzilla Minus One also won the Best Visual Effects award at the 96th Academy Awards. 

Other Studio Ghibli films that were previously nominated at the Academy Awards include The Wind Rises, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There, and The Red Turtle (which was a Japanese and French co-production). 

‘The Boy and the Heron’ secures the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film! Congratulations, Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/mwoxqfxuO2

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 10, 2024

The anime film premiered in Japan on July 14, 2023 under the title of Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru Ka? (How Do You Live?). It was then released in the U.S. on December 8, 2023 by GKIDS, who screened the film in North American theaters. 

GKIDS describes the film’s synopsis as:

After losing his mother during the war, young Mahito moves to his family’s estate in the countryside. There, a series of mysterious events lead him to a secluded and ancient tower, home to a mischievous gray heron. When Mahito’s new stepmother disappears, he follows the gray heron into the tower, and enters a fantastic world shared by the living and the dead. As he embarks on an epic journey with the heron as his guide, Mahito must uncover the secrets of this world, and the truth about himself.

Source: The Academy Official Twitter