The Boy and The Heron Wins A Golden Globe
The first major event in the awards calendar took place this past weekend with the annual Golden Globe Awards. The ceremony doesn't have the same prestige or stature as The Oscars, but it's a honour to win one all the same.
The Best Picture- Animated category nominees were historic, featuring two anime films for the first time. Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy And The Heron and Makoto Shinkai's Suzume were nominated alongside Pixar's Elemental, Disney's Wish, Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Sony's Sper-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.
This year's awards season has been very much a two horse race. The best animated film awards have been split between Across The Spider-Verse and The Boy and The Heron. In a number of cases, the two films have been very much in the conversation for Best Picture too. The Boy And The Heron has so far won 16 awards from 43 nominations. Spider-Verse is in the lead with 44 wins out of 106 nominations.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who vote for the Golden Globes are not exactly known for making bold decisions when it comes to animation, but they don't always match the Oscars. We don't even know this year's Oscar nominees, so it's too early to say if that will be the case for this year.
The Best Picture-Animated Golden Globe was awarded to Studio Ghibli's The Boy And The Heron. This is the first time a Golden Globe has been awarded to a Japanese animated film, and is the first award for Miyazaki and Ghibli. It's also the first time a non-American film has won in the category.
The Boy And The Heron, Across The Spiderverse and The Super Mario Bros Movie were also nominated in other categories but sadly lost out. The Boy and The Heron and Spider-Verse were both nominated for Best Original Score. Spider-Verse and The Super Mario Bros Movie were nominated for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, and Mario was additionally nominated for Best Original Song for Peaches.
Ghibli Proucer Toshio Suzuki released a statement on the film's win.
A message from Toshio Suzuki. pic.twitter.com/ANSylS6YMR
— GKIDS Films (@GKIDSfilms) January 8, 2024