#The Boy and the Heron Wins Best Animated Motion Picture

The Boy and the Heron has become the first anime to win the Best Motion Picture – Animated prize at the Golden Globe Awards.

The Hayao Miyazaki-directed title received the award over Elemental, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Wish, and fellow anime film Suzume.

Joe Hisaishi‘s score for The Boy and the Heron missed out on Best Original Score – Motion Picture, with that award going to Ludwig Göransson for his work on Oppenheimer.

The Boy and the Heron is one of only three anime movies (the first being Mamoru Hosoda‘s Mirai) to have received a Best Motion Picture – Animated nomination. Miyazaki also has the distinction of having directed the only anime film — Spirited Away — that won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards (The Hollywood Reporter notes that it is also the only hand-drawn animated feature to have won the award). 

Released in Japan (as Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru Ka?/How Do You Live?) and the US in 2023, The Boy and the Heron follows the boy Mahito as he moves to the estate of his new stepmother, where a talking heron leads him into a fantastical adventure. The film is set in World War II and references various parts of Miyazaki’s life. 

Miyazaki was supposed to have retired after 2013’s The Wind Rises (similar statements were made following 1997’s Princess Mononoke and 2001’s Spirited Away). News that the legendary Studio Ghibli director was working on a new film emerged in 2017.