The Boy and the Heron won the Oscar for best animated feature on Sunday (March 10), 21 years after Spirited Away took the award. Hayao Miyazaki won for both films, making the Japanese filmmaker the first person who was born outside the U.S. to win twice in this category.
Animated films have a rich history at the Academy Awards. Walt Disney received a special award in 1938 for the previous year’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was “recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon.”
Fifty years later, Richard Williams received a special achievement award for the animation direction of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film also won three competitive Oscars.
But it wasn’t until 1991’s Beauty and the Beast that an animated film was nominated for best picture. Throughout the ’90s, the Oscars resisted adding a category for animated features, though John Lasseter received a special achievement award in 1995 “for his inspired leadership of the Pixar Toy Story team, resulting in the first feature-length computer-animated film.” It wasn’t until 2001 that the Academy finally added a category for best animated feature. Shrek was the first winner.
This year, we had a close contest for best animated feature film between The Boy and the Heron, which won in this category at the BAFTA Awards in London on Feb. 18, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This year’s other nominees were Elemental, Nimona and Robot Dreams.
Here’s a year-by-year recap of all the Oscar winners for best animated feature film.
