‘The Boy and the Heron’ Wins the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature

Hayao Miayzaki’s much-loved feature, The Boy and the Heron,  was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature on Sunday night (Jan. 7). The Studio Ghibli movie, which was released by GKIDS in the U.S.,  beat the other five nominated movies in the category — The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal/Illumination)  Elemental (Disney/Pixar), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation), Suzume (Crunchyroll) and Wish (Disney).

The film’s producer and Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki posted the following statement on GKIDS’ X account:

This marks the first Golden Globe win for master Miyazaki, who turned 83 on January 5. It’s also the first for Studio Ghibli, the first for U.S. distributor GKIDS, and the first for an animated feature that wasn’t made in the English language. The Boy and the Heron is the latest movie from the much-heralded Japanese icon, who previously won the best animated feature Oscar for his 2001 film Spirited Away and received an Academy Honorary Award in 2014. Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises was nominated for a Golden Globe for a film made in a foreign language in 2013. The movie has been a global box-office hit as well: To date, the film has made over $39.607 million in the U.S. and over $97.521 million worldwide.

Analysis: The Golden Globes have a strong correlation record for best animated feature with the Academy Awards, only misaligning their top choices four times since both races have been part of the awards season animation circuit.

Best Animated Feature: Oscars vs. Golden Globes

The next big date on the award season calendar is this Thursday (Jan. 11) when the nominations for the 51^st Annie Awards will be announced. The nominations for this year’s Academy Awards will be revealed on January 23.