Highlights
- Winning an award can be thrilling, unless it’s a participation award – just like the joy of collecting an Oscar.
- Hayao Miyazaki skipped Oscars due to opposition to America’s war in Iraq, showing his principles.
- Miyazaki’s absence at award ceremonies is a mix of personal reasons, age, and disinterest in recognition.
Winning awards are fun. Unless you are given one of the dreaded ‘Participation Awards,’ it is quite a thrill to have your name called as the winner of a prize and the joy of walking up on stage to collect is an experience that is unique to every individual. That is why when you see actors, writers, and producers winning the fabled Academy Award, the looks on their faces are almost universally that of pure joy. This is why it is strange when people don’t show up to claim the awards that they win.
Sometimes this is because of work. Sometimes there are personal issues. Finally, you have people like Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki, who never made a statement about why they didn’t show up to collect his award, yet said enough things in passing that it is not difficult to piece all that together. What were the reasons Miyazaki skipped out on the Oscars this year (as well as the Golden Globes and BAFTA)?
What is Best Animated Feature Oscar?
The Oscar for Best Animated Feature is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to honor outstanding achievement in animated filmmaking. It recognizes the best animated feature-length film released during the eligibility period. This category was introduced at the 74th Academy Awards ceremony held in 2002, with Shrek winning the inaugural award. Since then, numerous animated films have been honored with this prestigious accolade, including popular titles such as Finding Nemo, Toy Story 3, Frozen, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
However, there have only been several anime titles nominated for the prestigious award, and Hayao Miyazaki was the nominee for almost all of them (along with Isao Takahata and Mamoru Hosoda). This fact has led to several controversies about the award itself (most of which we don’t have time to get into here), but it can not be overstated what an honor it is to win the award.
How Many Times Has Miyazaki Won this Award
Hayao Miyazaki has won the award for Best Animated Feature Film twice. Once for Spirited Away and the second for The Boy and the Heron. He was also nominated for Best Animated Feature Film for Howl’s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises. Finally, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences bestowed upon him a special honorary Oscar celebrating his artistry and storytelling.
Why Didn’t He Pick Up His Oscar for Spirited Away?
Hayao Miyazaki did not personally attend the Academy Awards ceremony to pick up his Oscar for Spirited Away because he was reportedly busy working on his next project at Studio Ghibli in Japan. At least, that was the initial story that was given. Later, Miyazaki admitted that he didn’t attend the Oscars not because he was too busy, but because he was opposing America’s war in Iraq. According to him:
The reason I wasn’t here for the Academy Award was because I didn’t want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq. At the time, my producer shut me up and did not allow me to say that, but I don’t see him around today. By the way, my producer also shared in that feeling.
So, while this was the main reason he didn’t accept his Oscar for Spirited Away, there was an entirely different reason he didn’t accept the Oscar for The Boy and the Heron.
Spirited Away’s Conflicted Win with Disney
Despite what should have been a victory celebration for Spirited Away, Disney (the film’s distributor) seemed oddly aggravated that the film won. Before the Oscars, Disney Chairman Dick Cook seemed enthusiastic about giving the film a proper re-release upon the film winning the award and delaying the DVD release to better push the film out to ticket buyers.
However, Disney was a mere distributor of the Studio Ghibli catalog, and historically had not shown much enthusiasm for it. When the film triumphed over Disney’s homemade Lilo & Stitch at the Oscars, Dick Cook said that the DVD would come out as scheduled and there would be no delay – though the movie was given a brief theatrical push on 711 screens. As a result, the Oscar win didn’t help Spirited Away much (though it would be a different story for Miyazaki’s next win).
Why Didn’t Miyazaki Pick Up His Oscar for The Boy and the Heron?
It should be noted that Hayao Miyazaki did come to America to accept his honorary Oscar in 2014, but that was 9 years ago as of this writing. At that time, he would have been 77. That is a pretty old age to be traveling long distances, but he felt that if he was being honored by his peers he owed it to them to thank him in person. These days Miyazaki is 86 and has admitted to slowing down quite dramatically, and wasn’t in the best shape to travel (Anthony Hopkins also cited old age for not picking up his Oscar for Best Actor for The Father in 2021). In this case, while he was up for Best Animated Feature, there was no guarantee he was going to win. Not only was Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse giving the film serious competition, but his film was so personal that he didn’t care if other people responded to it. This wasn’t a movie that he made to win awards, and he tends to not care much for them anyway.
What’s more, Japan had just come off a tragedy in the form of the Wajima earthquake and – like the war in Irag – Miyazaki and his producer felt that it was an inappropriate time to be celebrating (though Toshio Suzuki later expressed that he hoped the movie winning the Golden Globe would bring some happiness to Japan). In the end, his refusal to come was a combination of old age, not wanting to be insensitive to what was happening in Japan, and his overall lack of interest in awards. Also, it should be noted, that despite prior claims, it appears Miyazaki is working on another film, so there is an unconfirmed report that he may have even been busy working on another final masterpiece.
Sources: Entertainment Weekly, Jim Hill Media, LA Times
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