The nine categories of the 92nd Academy Awards were announced on Monday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Sadly, Makoto Shinkai’s latest animated feature film hit Weathering With You did not make it to the shortlist for the Best International Feature Film Category (which is also knowns as the Best International Feature Film category until this year).
Although this seems to be a bit of bad news, there is still hope as the movie is still eligible for Best Animated Feature. Last December 5, the film had its Oscar-qualifying run in Santa Monica, and the movie was screened for one week in the Monica Film Center.
This isn’t the first time that an anime film was nominated in the Oscars. In fact, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movie masterpiece Princess Mononoke was nominated for the Oscars and was part of the same shortlist category back in 1998.
Aside from Weathering with You, the live-action Hollywood film adaptation of Alita: Battle Angel was nominated and made it to the shortlist for the Visual Effects category.
Weathering with You premiered in Japan on July 19 and immediately conquered box office charts in its first three days, earning US$15.22 million. It had a special North American premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival as part of its Special Presentations Category with screenings on September 8, 10, 14. Weathering With You was submitted for consideration for the Best International Feature Film category for the 92nd Academy Awards. It was announced that the film would have its official North America opening on January 17. The film was also screened in Anime NYC last November.
The film recently won the Best Animated Feature Film award during the 13th Asia Pacific Awards, which was held in Brisbane, Australia. The other nominees in the said category were the following: Penguin Highway by Hiroyasu Ishida, Mosley by Kirby Atkins, Underdog by Oh Sung Yoon, and The Unseen by Behzad Nalbhadi.
Here is a synopsis about the film as described by GKIDS:
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strongwilled girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky…
Weathering With You has not only topped the box office worldwide but has also made it as one of the most top sell-selling light novels in Japan by volume this year. According to the Oricon’s overall bunko ranking chart, the Weathering With You novel sold around 511, 159 copies in Japan alone. This is the second time that Shinkai has topped the charts in this category, with his first one being the your name. novel that was released three years ago.
Aside from the light novel version, the children’s book version of Weathering With You has also ranked in #1 in the children’s book category last Summer.
On the talk of Alita: Battle Angel, it is an American cyberpunk action film that premiered officially in the United States on Feb 2019. It based on the 1990s Japanese manga series Gunnm created by Yukito Kishiro. The film was directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by James Cameron. Cameron was notable for also being the producer of the 2009 film Avatar and the 1997 film classic Titanic.
Alita: Battle Angel is about a cyborg girl named Alita who is trying to find out her past and later awakened with a new body. The movie mostly centered on Alita’s search for remnants of her past and slowly finding out the truth as the movie goes forward.
The movie grossed USD$ 404 million worldwide, which passed its film budget of USD$170 million. It stars Rosa Salazar as Alita, Christoph Waltz as Dr. Dyson Ido, Keean Johnson as Hugo, Mahershala Ali as Vector, and Jennifer Conelly as Dr. Chiren.
Although Weathering With You didn’t make it on one category, at least it is still eligible for one more category. Good luck to both of these films and let’s hope these get the recognition they deserve.
Source: Anime News Network, The Hollywood Reporter