LOS ANGELES – Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary Japanese animator and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, won his second Oscar on March 11 for his semi-autobiographical Japanese animated feature film The Boy And The Heron, a fantasy tale about a boy grieving his dead mother.

The Japanese anime film emerged as a major awards contender after winning a Golden Globe and a BAFTA.

The Boy And The Heron was No. 1 at the North American box office when it premiered in 2023, earning US$13 million (S$17.3 million).

The film follows 12-year-old Mahito Maki, whose mother dies in a fire at a Tokyo hospital during World War Two. Maki starts a new life after his father, a warplane factory owner, marries his mother’s sister and they join her at her rural estate.

There the young boy encounters a supernatural grey heron that leads him to a sealed tower where he discovers a host of fantastical beings that help him process the weight of loss in numerous ways.

Miyazaki, 83, is regarded as one of the most renowned animation directors in the world with countless films produced by Studio Ghibli, which he co-founded with Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki in 1985.

While Miyazaki came out of retirement to make The Boy And The Heron, Studio Ghibli was sold to Japanese television network Nippon TV in 2023 after he couldn’t find a successor for the studio.

Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2003. REUTERS