January 22, 2019

GKIDS Earns Historic 11th Academy Award® Nomination with Mamoru Hosada’s “Mirai”

GKIDS EARNS HISTORIC 11th ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINATION FOR

“BEST ANIMATED FEATURE” WITH MAMORU HOSODA’S “MIRAI”

 

Mirai, US Poster

 

Critically-Acclaimed Film is Also Nominee of 2 Annie Awards

Including “Best Animated Feature – Independent”

 

LOS ANGELES (January 22, 2019) – GKIDS’ MIRAI, directed and written by Mamoru Hosoda, was nominated this morning for an Academy Award for “Best Animated Feature” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It marks a historic 11th Oscar® nod for the studio since earning its first in 2010, the most nominations for an independent company in this category. The critically-acclaimed MIRAI world premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival in Directors’ Fortnight, a rare honor for a Japanese animated film. MIRAI marks the first Japanese animated feature outside of the famed Studio Ghibli to receive an Oscar® nomination. The director Mamoru Hosoda’s previous four features have all been awarded the Japan Academy Prize for “Animation of the Year,” of which MIRAI is currently a nominee. To date, it has garnered two Annie Award® nominations including “Best Animated Feature – Independent,” and previously earned Critics Choice and Golden Globe® Award nominations. MIRAI is currently playing in select theaters nationwide.

Over the past nine years, GKIDS has scored an astounding 11 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations with The Secret of Kells in 2010, A Cat in Paris and Chico & Rita in 2012, Ernest & Celestine in 2014, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya and Song of the Sea in 2015, Boy and the World and When Marnie Was There in 2016, My Life as a Zucchini in 2017, The Breadwinner in 2018, and now MIRAI in 2019.

“I have just received word that Mirai has been nominated for the 91st Academy Awards. I am really surprised and also deeply honored. This film is about the everyday life and growth of a young child, depicted in a matter-of-fact way. The fact that it has been chosen with the other films about heroes is very meaningful and significant to me. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for selecting this film.” said writer/director Hosoda.

“I am so happy for Mamoru Hosoda, Yuichiro Saito, the entire team at Studio Chizu, and everyone at GKIDS for taking us to the Oscars six years in a row. Go see Mirai!” said Eric Beckman, GKIDS Founder and CEO.

About “MIRAI”

From acclaimed director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) and Japan’s Studio Chizu comes Mirai, a daringly original story of love passed down through generations. When four-year-old Kun meets his new baby sister, his world is turned upside down. Named Mirai (meaning “future”), the baby quickly wins the hearts of Kun’s entire family. As his mother returns to work, and his father struggles to run the household, Kun becomes increasingly jealous of baby Mirai… until one day he storms off into the garden, where he encounters strange guests from the past and future – including his sister Mirai, as a teenager. Together, Kun and teenage Mirai go on a journey through time and space, uncovering their family’s incredible story. But why did Mirai come from the future?

An official selection at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and the epic capstone of director Mamoru Hosoda’s career, Mirai is a sumptuous, magical, and emotionally soaring adventure about the ties that bring families together and make us who we are.

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