Miyazaki vs Shinkai.
Summary:
- Anime, despite its great cultural significance, has not often received Oscar nominations.
- A film must have strong media representation to win.
- Hayao Miyazaki's movie is much more noticeable than the new project of Makoto Shinkai.
The Oscars are coming soon! This time the award race promises to be especially dramatic. Many exceptional films were released last year. The same applies to the Best Animated Feature category. There are no nominations yet, but we can safely guess who will be there.
The most likely contenders are Elemental (the new Pixar film), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and an adaptation of Super Mario Bros. Who will represent the interests of anime at the awards? There is no doubt that it is Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai.
Let's try to figure out what their chances are.
Honestly, not that high
Let's not forget that anime, despite its great cultural significance, has not often reached Oscar nominations. This may come as a surprise, but anime has only won the Oscar once. That was for Spirited Away in 2002. It is probably the most famous full-length anime in the West. It is no coincidence that this particular title won the prestigious Art Film Festival in Berlin.
In other cases, anime only made it to the list of nominees. Mirai, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, The Wind Rises — this is an incomplete list of titles that made it to the awards night. Yes, Paprika, Steamboy, Millennium Actress, Ghost in the Shell, Your Name were not nominated for an Oscar.
Media problem
This may seem unfair, but do not forget that the Oscar is not an objective award, where they give a prize to the truly best film. Rather, it is an award that mainly shows the attitude of American academics towards different movies. Not surprisingly, audiences and academics often disagree in their choice of the best.
More often, academics vote not for the film that deserves to win, but for the one they have seen. From this point of view, advertising has great importance. To win, a movie must have a strong media representation.
It is quite easy to estimate the media value of a particular title. Just look at the IMDB popularity list. Suzume is currently ranked 845th place, and The Boy and the Heron is 29.
Despite the fact that both films have the same number of votes (33 thousand each), in the public consciousness Hayao Miyazaki's film is much more noticeable than the new project of Makoto Shinkai.
There have never been two anime films in the nomination, and there is no sign that this situation will somehow change now. Most likely, Suzume will miss the nomination.
However, The Boy and the Heron has dubious chances of winning. Even though Miyazaki won the Golden Globe for the Best Animated Film this year, the voters at the Oscars are completely different.
While it seems fair to give the statuette to master Miyazaki for his undeniable contribution to cinema, the award will probably go to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which many viewers believe is a more breakthrough film than Miyazaki's old-fashioned anime.