Discover why ‘Spirited Away’ is so important to Oscar history
Did you know that “Spirited Away” was released 22 years ago? The film produced by Studio Ghibli had its official debut in Japan in 2001, where Hayao Miyazaki was able to show for the first time the story of the plot’s title character, a 10-year-old girl who, after seeing her parents being turned into pigs, discovers a secret world full of spirits and sorcery, where she needs to face several challenges to save her loved ones.
The feature film, which, among several subjects, follows Chihiro’s journey of self-knowledge and maturation, has won a legion of fans and awards over the last two decades, even achieving a historic feat at the Oscars.
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The truth is that the production gathered a huge audience in its country of origin, as it not only surpassed the numbers of “Titanc” (1997), which grossed US$251 million in Japanese cinemas, but also became the biggest film box office in the “Land of the Rising Sun” by surpassing the mark of US$ 300 million accumulated through ticket sales.
Still, the impact of animation goes beyond Japan and expands across the globe, being listed as the second best film of the 21st century by The New York Times in 2017, in addition to holding 6th place on the list of the 50 best films of the 21st century by the Hollywood Reporter in April this year.
Also pleasing film industry professionals in the film academy,“Spirited Away” achieved the impressive feat of becoming the first — and so far, the only — animated production in a non-English language to win the Oscar ceremony in the Best Animated Feature category.
As much as the Oscar win, combined with the co-victory of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival in 2002, as well as the various awards that Miyazaki received for the animation, helped Japanese cinema to have more visibility outside its country of origin and boosted the filmmaker’s career, the creator of the world full of magic seen in the animated production chose not to attend the biggest film awards that year.
The reason was explained by the TecMundo portal, which states that the decision to Miyazaki of not traveling to the location to receive the golden statuette was taken for ideological reasons, that is, the attitude emerged as a form of protest against the war between Iraq and the United States, which was taking place at the time.
However, about a decade later, more precisely in 2014, the filmmaker received an honorary award for the victory he achieved with “Spirited Away”.
Source: Recreio
