Studio Ghibli and its celebration after winning its third Oscar: “We are very happy”

The acclaimed Japanese studio Studio Ghibli and its director, Hayao Miyazaki, celebrated this Monday the award for Best Animated Film at the Oscars for ‘The Boy and the Heron’, and said “they are happy from the bottom of their hearts.”

“I think it was just luck, but I’m really happy from the bottom of my heart.”said the film’s producer and Ghibli co-founder, Toshio Suzuki, in statements reported by the state broadcaster NHK after a press conference in Tokyo.

The producer also explained that he has asked the Academy for three statuettes to distribute among the team, after learning that the film had been awarded.

Suzuki said he had been able to speak with Miyazaki, who had watched the gala in his office, and they both congratulated each other. “Because I’m Japanese, I can’t show happiness on my face.”Miyazaki said to Suzuki.

Ghibli’s reaction comes after ‘The Boy and the Heron’ was chosen as Best Animated Film at the ceremony held in Los Angeles, becoming the third award for the studio, after ‘Spirited Away’, in 2003, and an honorary award to Miyazaki in 2014, for his entire career.

“Miyazaki is more than 80 years old and he continues to produce and think about why it is necessary to create works at every opportune moment and this time he did it perfectly,” added Suzuki, who said that the filmmaker “does not age.”

Regarding the future of the 83-year-old director, Suzuki was honest and said that “It is not easy for me to make a long film again,” so I would be encouraging him to make a shorter one, after he returned to work shortly after completing his last film and after years talking about a possible retirement.

“It is an Oscar that rewards Hayao Miyazaki’s career, and also compensates in some way for the many years he was ignored by the Western circuit until the statuette for ‘Spirited Away’ in 2003.”Álvaro López, author of several books about Ghibli and creator of one of the main dissemination portals in Spanish about the study, Generación GHIBLI, explained to EFE.

For López, it is worthwhile that Miyazaki was able to beat the American film ‘Spider-Man: Crossing the Multiverse’, also highly acclaimed, in his own territory. “I think it has weighed more, apart from the tribute to the director, being a classic style film made with traditional animation, which has become almost novel in an industry dominated by 3D CGI”he added.

In July ‘The Boy and the Heron’ became the film with the best opening at the Japanese box office by Studio Ghibli, even surpassing the Oscar-winning ‘Spirited Away’ in its first week, in a country where it has achieved a box office of 8,970 million yen (about 55 million euros).

The film has already reached some 50 countries and a total of 2,205 theaters in the US alone, where it has achieved a box office of 45 million dollars (41 million euros) until February 29, according to the distributor, Toho. , to EFE.

“We are happy that it has been valued internationally and, at the same time, I hope that the awards received serve as a great opportunity to bring more attention not only to Japanese films, but also to Japanese culture,” government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said today at a press conference.

In addition to the award for Ghibli, the also Japanese ‘Godzilla Minus One’ took the statuette for Best Visual Effects, on a night in which ‘Perfect Days’, directed by the German Wim Werders, but filmed in Japan and with an all-Japanese cast.

With information from EFE