Hayao Miyazaki, Japan's Legendary Animation Creator Wins His 2nd Oscar Awards for Animation

 

Japan just proved this year that when it comes to filmmaking, they are ahead among all the nations in Asia. In the recently concluded 17th Asian Film Awards, they won big, winning six, including three major awards - Best Film (Evil Does Not Exist), Best Director for Hirokazu Kore-eda (Monster), and Best Actor for Koji Yakusho (Perfect Days)

At the 2024 Oscar Awards, which was held on the same night Hong Kong hosted the 17th Asian Film Awards (March 10, 2024), Japan won two. Best Animated Film: The Boy and The Heron created and directed by Hayao Miyazaki with Toshio Suzuki, and produced by the popular anime studio, Ghibli, and Best Visual Effects for Godzilla Minus One, the same award won by Godzilla Minus One at the 17th Asian Film Awards.  

The Japanese film, Perfect Days, was the only Asian film nominated in the Best International Film category. Japan is also the only Asian country with the most nominated films at the Oscar Awards' Best International Film category.

The Boy and The Heron is Hayao Miyazaki's second Oscar Award for Best Animated Film after Spirited Away in 2003. It was also the second time that he did not attend the Oscar Awarding Ceremony to personally accept his award.

It is believed that his advanced age - 83 - could be the reason for his absence this year, as traveling to Los Angeles from Tokyo already felt already draining to him. But in 2003, it was a different reason. He explained later that he was protesting the United States' move to invade Iraq. 

Hayao Miyazaki accepts his Academy Honorary Award in 2014

He did attend the Oscar Awards in 2014 to receive his Academy Honorary Award, the same year his animated film, The Wind Rises was nominated as Best Animated Film but did not win. He has another film that earned an Oscar nomination in the same category; Howl's Moving Castle in 2006. 

Hayao Miyazaki

Born during World War II in Japan, Hayao Miyazaki is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation studio.

He is considered a legend in Japanese animation due to his many blockbusters and multi-awarded animated films. He attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation. His theme always tackles nature and the environment.

Hayao Miyazaki

All his animated films achieved critical and commercial success in Japan. These include Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), and Porco Rosso (1992). 

His animated film Princess Mononoke released in 1997, was the first animated film to win the Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year, and briefly became the highest-grossing film in Japan following its release in 1997.  

Spirited Away, released in 2001, became the highest-grossing film in Japanese history, winning the Oscar Award for Best Animated Feature. It is often ranked among the greatest films of the 21st century.