The 2025 Academy Awards have come and gone, and the anime community once more finds itself disappointed with no nominations within the field. The Oscars have had a long history of overlooking anime, but to be snubbed for another year—especially when Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s Look Back was more than eligible for the running—had anime fans everywhere shaking their heads.
Previous anime productions have snagged an Oscar in the past, however. Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away became the first anime feature to win an Academy Award in 2001, followed by The Boy and The Heron in 2024. In recent years, other Studio Ghibli productions and anime films have also contended for the entertainment industry's most coveted award, with some close to winning.
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5 When Marnie Was There Is a Much Deeper Story Than Inside Out
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Story by Joan G. Robinson
When Marnie Was There is a beautiful 2015 film that tells the story of Anna, a 12-year-old girl with poor health who is sent to spend time with her aunt and uncle in the countryside to recover from her illness. There, she happens upon an old marsh house. This abandoned-looking manor is the residence of titular character Marnie, a mysterious and whimsical girl whose nature and identity perplex Anna the more they get to know each other.
What Anna eventually realizes is that Marnie is actually an apparition from the past, the childhood spirit of her beloved grandmother. What first began as a coming-of-age tale turned into a somber story about familial love, regret and grief. When Marnie Was There deeply resonated with those who have had the inevitable misfortune of experiencing loss or have a special person they don't wish to leave behind. It’s a heart-wrenching film that still strikes a chord among people to this day.
| Year of Nomination | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Lost to | Inside Out |
| # of Other Awards Won | 4 |
When Marnie Was There didn’t have as much success at the box office as previous Studio Ghibli nominees for the Oscars, but it grabbed enough attention for people to believe it deserved the award. It ended up losing to Disney’s Inside Out, though it was also nominated for 18 other awards and eventually won three: the Children’s Jury Award for Animated Feature Film, the Young People’s Jury Award for Best Feature Film, and the Films4Families Youth Jury Award, all within 2015.
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When Marnie Was There
PG
Animation DramaFamily
Mystery
- Release Date
- July 19, 2014
- Runtime
- 103 Minutes
Cast
-
Sara Takatsuki
Anna Sasaki
-
Kasumi Arimura
Marnie
-
Nanako Matsushima
Yoriko Sasaki
-
Susumu Terajima
Kiyomasa Oiwa
4 Mirai Gives a Glimpse was a Better Time Travel Story than Across the Spiderverse
Written and Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Mirai is the first full-length non-Studio Ghibli anime film to have been nominated for an Academy Award. Released in 2018, this Studio Chizu production details the story of a 4-year-old boy named Kun. Having been the center of his parents’ lives for so long, Kun’s world is slowly turned upside down with his new sister, Mirai. After throwing a tantrum one day, Kun accidentally discovers the magic of the little garden in the courtyard of his family’s home.
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The magic in this courtyard mysteriously gives Kun the ability to time travel, allowing him to interact with his relatives while they were still young. Eventually, he comes to meet future versions of his baby sister and himself. Mirai is a family-centric film that focuses on the dynamics and hardships of life through the eyes of a child. It's an insightful production about how a big part of life is learning and experiencing things with others.
| Year of Nomination | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Lost to | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse |
| # of Other Awards Won | 5 |
Mirai earned well over $28 million worldwide, but despite being the first anime production outside of Studio Ghibli to earn an Oscar nomination, it lost to Marvel's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It eventually won the 2019 Annie Award for Best Animated Independent Feature as well as 4 other awards for its outstanding writing, remaining one of the best of Mamoru Hosoda’s incredible works.
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Mirai
PG
Anime Adventure Drama- Release Date
- July 20, 2018
- Runtime
- 98 Minutes
Cast
-
Rebecca Hall
Mirai (voice)
-
Daniel Dae Kim
Kun (voice)
-
John Cho
Father (voice)
-
Kôji Yakusho
Mother (voice)
3 The Tale of Princess Kaguya is More Artistic & Poignant than Big Hero 6
Directed by Isao Takahata
As the last film directed by Studio Ghibli co-founder and director Isao Takahata (director of Grave of the Fireflies) before his passing in 2018, The Tale of Princess Kaguya is based on the tenth-century Japanese folktale of the same name. Told in an animation style highly reminiscent of traditional Japanese art, Takahata’s final contribution to Studio Ghibli tells the story of a princess who descended from the moon and lived life amongst the earthbound mortals.
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The Tale of Princess Kaguya is one of the most expensive Japanese films of all time. Its budget inflated to almost 5.15 billion yen (almost 50 million USD) in order to maintain its unique hand-drawn art style fitting of the old folktale that served as inspiration. It truly was an homage to Japanese culture and storytelling, a work of the heart that gave a tearful but beautiful close to Takahata’s legacy.
| Year of Nomination | 2015 |
|---|---|
| Lost to | Big Hero 6 |
| # of Other Awards Won | 13 |
Unfortunately, the budget to produce The Tale of Princess Kaguya far exceeded its success at the box office, earning a little more than half the money it took to make it. However, numbers don’t mean a failure, as Takahata created a stunning film that fully encompassed a cultural fairytale in every way possible. Despite its loss to Pixar’s Big Hero 6, The Tale of Princess Kaguya won 12 other awards for best feature and best animated film and earned Takahata the 2015 Tokyo Anime Award for best director.
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The Tale of Princess Kaguya
PG
DramaFamily
- Release Date
- November 23, 2013
- Runtime
- 2 Hours 17 Minutes
Cast
-
Chloe Grace Moretz
-
James Caan
-
Mary Steenburgen
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2 The Wind Rises Couldn't Fight Off Frozen's Ice Storm
Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Once claimed to be the last film of Hayao Miyazaki’s career before his retirement, The Wind Rises is a historical drama that strays from the legendary anime director’s penchant for creating modern fairytales of myth and magic. The film depicts the story of Jiro Horikoshi, an aircraft designer fascinated with flight who is enlisted to build planes for the Japanese army during World War II.
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Hayao Miyazaki's (purported) anime swan song is a visually stunning, and emotionally devastating, examination of ambition and priorities.
The Wind Rises was inspired by real-world trauma and covered incredibly heavy, adult themes in a manner that made it controversial—but no less a work of genius that gives light to the complexities of political conflict and personal life. Jiro was given the privilege and resources to build the aircraft of his wildest dreams, only for the product of his passions to be used to reap violence and destruction. He also fell in love with a woman whom he cherished more than life, only to eventually lose her to the illness she had been suffering from.
| Year of Nomination | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Lost to | Frozen |
| # of Other Awards Won | 25 |
The Wind Rises made it into the top ten highest-grossing anime films to come out of Studio Ghibli, earning almost $118 million in box offices worldwide. Disney’s Frozen had earnings that reached well into the billions, so Studio Ghibli's loss was foreseen. Still, Miyazaki’s tragic wartime masterpiece earned 25 other notable awards, including the 2014 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing in an Animated Feature Production. It was also nominated for two other Annie Awards that same year.
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The Wind Rises
PG-13
War
Romance- Release Date
- July 20, 2013
- Runtime
- 126 minutes
Cast
-
Hideaki Anno
-
Hidetoshi Nishijima
-
Masahiko Nishimura
-
Keiko Takeshita
1 Howl’s Moving Castle is the Best Love Story in Anime Cinema
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Story by Dianne Wynne Jones
The anime romance classic known as Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle is the second Studio Ghibli film to have been nominated for an Academy Award. Based on Diana Wynne Jones’ novels, it follows a young woman named Sophie after she becomes cursed by the Witch of the Wastes. This curse turns Sophie into an old woman. Determined to break it, she sets out on her own to track down the witch and reverse what has been done to her — only she ends up stumbling upon the castle of Howl, a wizard rumored to devour the hearts of women.
Although Howl’s Moving Castle isn’t an entirely accurate adaptation of Jones’ work, it still serves as a successful film and a charming gateway into the novels. Sophie, although presented as a meek girl with a lack of confidence in her own beauty, became a character full of witty spirit who eventually conquered her insecurities through the love she developed for Howl and the residents of his castle. She and Howl became one of the most iconic Studio Ghibli couples.
| Year of Nomination | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Lost to | Wallace & Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit |
| # of Other Awards Won | 14 |
Howl’s Moving Castle grossed over $236 million worldwide in 2005. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature in 2006 but lost to DreamWorks’ Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. However, it later won 14 awards, including the 2005 Hollywood Film Award for Animation of the Year and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animated Film the same year.
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Howl's Moving Castle
8-12 years
AnimationAction
AdventureFamily
Fantasy Romance- Release Date
- November 20, 2004
- Runtime
- 119minutes
Cast
-
Chieko Baisho
-
Takuya Kimura
-
Akihiro Miwa
-
Tatsuya Gashûin
