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Ghibli's Princess Kaguya Nominated for 4 More Critics' Awards
posted on by Egan Loo
Three more critics organizations nominated Isao Takahata and Studio Ghibli's film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya for best animated feature of the year, and one also nominated it for best foreign-language film. The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) nominated the film along with Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and The LEGO Movie. It also nominated Kaguya for "Best Film Not in the English Language" with Ida, The Missing Picture, Mommy, and Two Days, One Night.
The Chicago Film Critics Association nominated Kaguya for best animated feature in the exact same five-nominee field as OFCS did. Likewise, The San Francisco Film Critics Circle also has Kaguya competing against the same four other films for best animated feature.
Kaguya won the Best Animated Feature Film award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards on Thursday, and it also won the best animated film awards from The Los Angeles Film Critics Association and The Boston Society of Film Critics. It won the Animation Film Award at the 68th Mainichi Film Awards.
The film was screened at Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight but did not receive any awards there. It was submitted for Oscar consideration in the Animated Feature Film category. It received three Annie Award nominations for Best Animated Feature, for "Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production" (for Takahata), and for "Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production" (for film composer Joe Hisaishi). However, it did not garner a nomination from the Golden Globes.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) held the film's North American premiere on September 8. The Fantastic Fest in Texas then hosted the United States premiere, and it gave the movie the Audience Award on September 23. TIFF describes the story from Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko):
Okina (voiced by Takeo Chii) is a bamboo cutter in ancient rural Japan. One day in the forest, he finds a tiny baby in the folds of a bamboo shoot. He brings the creature home to his wife Ounaa (Nobuko Miyamoto) and they decide to keep her and raise her as a princess. She is clearly not of this world. Kaguya (Aki Asakura) grows at an unnatural rate, soon maturing into an uncommonly beautiful young woman. Since Okina has now also found a cache of gold and treasure in the forest, every suitor wants Kaguya. But this is not a fairytale of courtship and marriage. True to the Studio Ghibli that brought us Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya follows this strange young female as she creates her own identity.
Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, The 5th Wave) stars as the title character in the English dub. The cast also includes James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges, James Marsden, Oliver Platt and Dean Cain.
Source: Hitfix
