by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Academy Awards, announced the nominees for the 96th Academy Awards on the 23rd (local time). Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live?” has been nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. Expectations are high that this will be the second film to win the award, after Spirited Away” (directed by Hayao Miyazaki) won the Best Animated Feature Film Award at the 75th Animation Film Festival (held in 2003).
This is the first Hayao Miyazaki directorial film to be nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film Award since “The Wind Rises” at the 86th (held in 2014). Among Studio Ghibli’s works, the 87th (held in 2015) was “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” the 88th (held in 2016) was “When Marnie Was There,” and the 89th (held in 2017) was “The Red Turtle: An Island.” ‘The Story of the World’ (co-produced with France and Belgium) was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film.
“How Do You Live?” just achieved the remarkable feat of becoming the first Japanese film to win the Best Animated Film Award at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, announced on the 7th of this month (local time).
After being released in Japan on July 14th last year, it was submitted to overseas film festivals one after another before its release in countries around the world, and was selected as the “first Japanese film” at the “48th Toronto International Film Festival”, and the first animated film to be screened. It was chosen as the “world’s first” opening screening. It was screened at prestigious international film festivals such as the 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival” and the 61st New York Film Festival.”
The English-dubbed cast, including Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson, and Florence Pugh, has also become a hot topic. The movie will be aired in New York on November 22nd. Pre-screenings began at four theaters in Los Angeles, setting a record for the highest average box office gross for a Hayao Miyazaki film in the United States.
It was released in 2,205 theaters in the United States and Canada from December 8th, and the opening box office revenue (including advance screenings) for the first three days (December 8th to 10th) was approximately $12.97 million (approximately 1.89 billion yen). It became the first original Japanese film to rank number one in North American weekend box office revenue.
It won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animated Film on December 1st, the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animation, and the Boston Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animated Film on December 10th.
It has also attracted a lot of attention. Following the Golden Above Globe Award win, it became the first Japanese film to be nominated for Best Animated Film at the 77th British Academy Awards (BAFTA), announced on the 18th of this month. It was nominated in seven categories at the 51st Annie Awards, known as the Academy Awards of the animation world, including Best Feature.
The 96th Academy Awards Ceremony will be held on March 10th (local time) at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, USA.
