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Hayao Miyazaki Wins Best International Filmmaker at Astra Awards
posted on by Anita Tai
Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron (Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, or literally How Do You Live?) film won the Best Motion Picture - Animated category at the 81st Golden Globes Awards on Sunday. The Boy and the Heron and its composer Joe Hisaishi also received a nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture, but did not win the award.
The film won the Best Animated Film award at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists on December 31.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has shortlisted Hisaishi for the Music (Original Score) category at the 2024 Oscars for the film. The film is also nominated for the London Critics' Circle's 2024 awards show. The Florida Film Critics Circle awarded the film with the Best Picture award on December 21, the first time an animated feature film has won the award. The film also won Best Animated Film and Best Score.
The film additionally won the Best Animation award for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. The film also won the Animated Feature award from the Boston Society of Film Critics.
The film opened in Japan on July 14, and sold 1.003 million tickets and earned about US$13.2 million in its first three days in Japan. The film sold 1.353 million tickets and earned 2.149 billion yen (about US$15.53 million) in its Friday-Monday long weekend (July 17 was the Marine Day holiday in Japan). It is the #71 highest-grossing film ever in Japan, and the third highest-grossing domestic film in Japan in 2023 with an 8.66 billion yen (about US$61.4 million) gross.
The film ranked at #1 in its opening weekend in the U.S. box office, with an earning of US$12,836,313 in its first three days. Variety reported that the film is the "first original anime production" to top the U.S. box office.
The film is the first Studio Ghibli film to get a simultaneous IMAX release. The film is also screening in Dolby Atmos, Dolby Cinema, and DTS:X.
Miyazaki is credited with the original work, in addition to directing the film and writing the script. Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro) composed the music. Kenshi Yonezu (Chainsaw Man, My Hero Academia, March comes in like a lion) performs the theme song "Chikyūgi" (Globe).
Sources: GKIDS' Instagram account, CoMix Wave Films' Twitter account
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