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Austin Film Critics Nominate your name., Blade of the Immortal

The Austin Film Critics Association announced its nominees on Sunday, revealing that Makoto Shinkai's your name. is nominated for the Best Animated Film category, while Takashi Miike's Blade of the Immortal is nominated for the Best Foreign Film category. The Austin Film Critics Association will announce the winners on January 8.

The film was also nominated for San Francisco Film Critics Circle's 2017 awards, but Pixar's Coco won the Best Animated Feature award.

your name. centers on Taki, a high school boy living in Tokyo who works part-time at a restaurant, and Mitsuha, a high school girl living in a town in rural Japan who wants to live in the city. One day, they begin switching bodies every time they sleep, and have to find a way to communicate with each other to manage each other's lives. Later, when they try to meet up physically for the first time, Taki discovers a secret that will lead to a race against time to try and save each other.

The film opened in Japan in August 2016, and has become the fourth highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, the second highest-grossing Japanese film, and the second highest-grossing anime film.

The film opened in 92 countries and territories, and earned box-office achievements in South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Taiwan, in addition to Japan. Funimation Films screened the film in North America, and it has earned an estimated US$5,017,246 in the United States and Canada as of July 2017. Box Office Mojo estimates the film's worldwide total at US$355,298,270 as of July 2017.

A live-action Hollywood adaptation of the film by Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions is in the works. Eric Heisserer (Arrival, Final Destination 5) is penning the script.

Blade of the Immortal debuted in Japan last April, and hosted its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last May. The film ranked at #6 in Japan in its opening weekend, selling 145,000 tickets and earning 189 million yen (about US$1.68 million). It premiered in North America at Fantastic Fest, which was held in Austin, Texas last September. The film then had a wider theatrical release last November.

Magnet Releasing released the film digitally and on demand with English subtitles last November.

Samura's original Blade of the Immortal manga follows Manji's journey of revenge as the yōjinbō (bodyguard) of Rin, a young woman who swears vengeance against a group of sword fighters who murdered her parents.

The film's lead actors include Takuya Kimura and Hana Sugisaki. Kimura (Howl's Moving Castle, Redline, live-action Space Battleship Yamato) played the lead character Manji, a rōnin warrior cursed with an immortal body. Sugisaki (When Marnie Was There, live-action Humanoid Monster Bem, Tsukuroi Tatsu Hito) played both the heroine Rin Asano and Manji's sister Machi. Miike (Ichi the Killer, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Yatterman, As the Gods Will, Crows) directed the film.

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.