Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary Japanese animator and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, won his second Oscar on March 11 for his semi-autobiographical Japanese animated feature film The Boy and the Heron, a fantasy tale about a boy grieving his dead mother. The Japanese anime film emerged as a major awards contender after winning a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. The Boy and the Heron was No. 1 at the North American box office when it premiered in 2023, earning US$13 million (S$17.3 million).
The film follows 12-year-old Mahito Maki, whose mother dies in a fire at a Tokyo hospital during World War Two. Maki starts a new life after his father, a warplane factory owner, marries his mother’s sister and they join her at her rural estate. There the young boy encounters a supernatural grey heron that leads him to a sealed tower where he discovers a host of fantastical beings that help him process the weight of loss in numerous way