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Miyazaki's The Wind Rises Wins San Diego Film Critics Society Award

The San Diego Film Critics Society announced on Wednesday that The Wind Rises, the 11th and final feature film from Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, won the honor of Best Animated Feature for 2013. The film beat out Despicable Me 2, Frozen, Get A Horse, and The Croods

The film has already won awards for the best animated feature from The National Board of Review, The New York Film Critics Circle, and The Boston Society of Film Critics. The New York Film Critics Circle gave Miyazaki's Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle the Best Animated Film Awards in 2002 and 2005. The film was also the runner-up in The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards' Best Animation category for 2013 last weekend.

The Wind Rises centers on Jirō Horikoshi (played by Evangelion director Hideaki Anno), the designer of Japan's famed Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane of World War II. Miyazaki incorporated story elements inspired by Tatsuo Hori, the author of an earlier novel titled Kaze Tachinu.

Disney will release the film in North America, and Studio Ghibli International produced the English-language dub with producer Frank Marshall (From Up On Poppy Hill, The Secret World of Arrietty, Ponyo). The film played in New York and Los Angeles last month, and it will open across the United States in February.

The film was submitted for the Animated Feature Film category for the 86th Academy Awards, has made the shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 71st Golden Globe Awards, and is nominated for the 18th Annual Satellite Awards and 41st Annual Annie Awards.