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Mirai Anime Film Receives Golden Globes Nomination
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced its nominees for the 76th Annual Golden Globes on Thursday, and Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai anime film is nominated in the Best Motion Picture – Animated category. The other films nominated in the category are Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The film is also nominated in the Best Animated Independent Feature and Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production categories for next year's 46th Annual Annie Awards.
GKIDS and Fathom Events screened the film in 700 U.S. theaters on November 29 and December 5, and the final screening will be held on December 8. Screenings on Thursday, November 29 at 8:00 p.m. and Wednesday, December 5 at 7:00 p.m. were English-subtitled, while screenings on Saturday, December 8 at 12:55 p.m. will be English-dubbed. GKIDS also held its own theatrical release in the United States on November 30.
The 100-minute film opened at #2 at the box office in Japan on July 20. The film had its world premiere in May at this year's Directors' Fortnight, an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. The film also screened in competition at Annecy in June.
The film's story centers around a family living in a small house in an obscure corner of a certain city — in particular, the family's spoiled four-year-old boy KUN-chan. When KUN-chan gets a little sister named Mirai, he feels that his new sister stole his parents' love from him, and is overwhelmed by many experiences he undergoes for the first time in his life. In the midst of it all, he meets an older version of Mirai, who has come from the future.
Hosoda directed the film at his Studio Chizu, and is also credited as scriptwriter and for the original story. Hiroyuki Aoyama (animation director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and The Boy and The Beast) and Ayako Hata (key animator on the same films) returned for this new film as animation directors. Yohei Takamatsu and Takashi Omori, who Hosoda had previously worked with on The Boy and The Beast, returned as art directors. Producer Yuichiro Saito returned from Hosoda's earlier films.
The awards ceremony for the 76th Annual Golden Globes will be held on January 6.
The Golden Globes changed its rules in 2014 to stipulate that foreign animated films must compete in the Best Animated Feature category, and are no longer eligible for the Best Foreign Language Film category. The most recent anime to receive a nomination was Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Annual Golden Globes in 2013.
