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The Boy and the Heron Wins Animated Film of the Year at London Critics' Circle Awards (Updated)
posted on by Andrew Osmond
Deadline reported on Sunday that Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron won the Animated Film of the Year award at London Critics' Circle Awards for 2024.
The film beat Makoto Shinkai's Suzume in the same category, as well as the films Robot Dreams, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
After the announcement, a brief video of Toshio Suzuki acknowledging the award was played. Suzuki commented, "London is my favourite city. I especially like Hyde Park." A video stream of the event is available on YouTube, with the Animated Film category shown at the 54 minute mark.
The Boy and the Heron was also nominated in the Foreign-Language Film of the Year category, where it lost to the film Past Lives.
Kōji Kasamatsu was also nominated for a Technical Achievement Award for his sound design on The First Slam Dunk. However, he lost to Micah Levie and Johnnie Burn for the music and sound in the film The Zone of Interest.
The ceremony announcing the winners took place in London on February 4.
The Boy and the Heron won the Best Motion Picture - Animated category at the 81st Golden Globes Awards in January. The Alliance of Women Film Journalists gave it the Best Animated Film award in its EDA Awards on December 31. The 78th Mainichi Film Awards announced ahead of its February 14 ceremony that the film will receive the Noburou Oofuji Award, which honors animated works that offer new forms of creative expression. The film also received nominations from the Annie Awards (for animated feature, directing, and writing) and the British Academy Film Awards (for animated film).
Source: Deadline
Update - Detail added about Toshio Suzuki's acceptance video.
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