The 96th Academy Awards have just happened, and among all the incredible winners, there’s one who decided not to show. Hayao Miyazaki wasn’t present for The Boy and the Heron’s big victory, spurring a lot of the same jokes on social media.
It should come as no surprise to hear that Hayao Miyazaki’s latest anime movie took home the Best Animated Feature statue, since he’s one of our greatest living filmmakers. His big return after retiring in 2014 (not for the first time), The Boy and the Heron is another gorgeous, whimsical film that epitomizes the charm of Studio Ghibli.
He had stiff competition, particularly from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, another awesome and perfectly acceptable choice, but he won out for his second Oscar, after Spirited Away in 2003. Alas, he wasn’t there to accept that prize either.
In fact, he’s never attended the Oscars any time he’s been nominated – and there have been a few times – leading fans to make the same observation over and over on X, formerly Twitter.
Studio Ghibli fans all made the same joke after Hayao Miyazaki didn’t attend the Oscars
Everyone essentially delivered memes about how Hayao sees Hollywood’s big ceremony. The most common meme involves Donald Duck being awoken in the night, looking sleepy and annoyed, before returning to slumber.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
miyazaki after finding out he won an oscar pic.twitter.com/2atosOCvYs
— maxx (@battleupsaber) March 10, 2024
This, to many onlookers, epitomizes Hayao’s perspective on American awards – a noisy distraction from his day-to-day life. Being nominated and winning is nice, but it’s a calamity he doesn’t seem to regard in much esteem whatsoever.
Other memes used Hayao quotes from documentaries, where his often dry delivery makes for some very relatable quotes about exhaustion and hassle. Although he hasn’t gone on record too extensively about the Academy Awards, he has stated that he refused to attend in 2003 because of America’s prolonged assault on Iraq at the time.
He wasn’t in attendance for nominations of Howl’s Moving Castle or The Wind Rises, either, but since they didn’t win, there was less attention placed on that. Perhaps he just doesn’t consider the Oscars a worthwhile ceremony to attend, since he’d have to fly internationally, taking time out of whatever other projects he has going on.
Whatever his reasons, I’m sure the second Oscar will sit just as prominently in his collection as the first. Have a look at our guides to Demon Slayer Season 4 and My Hero Academia Season 7 for what anime is coming up.