Many of the results from the 96th Academy Awards, such as the best picture win for ¡°Oppenheimer,¡± had been widely predicted for weeks in advance. Not so for best animated feature, which analysts pegged as a toss-up between Hayao Miyazaki¡¯s ¡°The Boy and the Heron¡± and ¡°Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.¡± So when the latest film from the 83-year-old Japanese auteur was announced as the winner, even its biggest boosters were a bit surprised.
¡°I thought ¡®Spider-Verse,¡¯ with its distinctly contemporary and American preoccupations would be easier to approach and appreciate, especially among U.S. Academy voters,¡± says Susan Napier, author of ¡°Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art.¡±
¡°¡®Spider-Verse¡¯ was huge in terms of box office, and is an incredible achievement in animation,¡± says David Jesteadt, president of GKids, which distributed ¡°The Boy and the Heron¡± in North America and helped shepherd it to an Oscar nomination. Jesteadt, who was in attendance at the awards with several executives from Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki¡¯s animation studio, calls the win ¡°a beautiful moment.¡±
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