Japan’s Smash Hit ‘Your Name’ Will Make An Oscar Run This an 

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Japan’s Smash Hit ‘Your Name’ Will Make An Oscar Run This Year

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The race for best animated feature just took an interesting turn with the news that

will become an entry in the best animated feature category of the Academy Awards. The smash-hit, directed by Makoto Shinkai, just claimed its ninth straight week at No. 1 at the Japanese box office.

The cross-genre sci-fi/fantasy/romance about a teen boy and girl who swap bodies in their dreams has grossed $158 million dollars to date in Japan, making it that country’s ninth-highest-grossing film release of all time. It should continue to climb much higher on the charts in the weeks to come.

American distributor Funimation is handling the film’s Oscar run in the United States, and will do a one-week Oscar-qualifying run at Los Angeles’ Laemmle Music Hall from December 2-8. A wider theatrical release is planned for early 2017.

) served as the film’s key animation supervisor. Comix Wave produced the film and Toho distributed in Japan.

Cartoon Brew has already published in-depth looks at the Oscar contenders for visual effects and animated shorts. Our look at feature film contenders will be published shortly.

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I think this movie would’ve had a better chance at a nom if it was released by GKIDS or another company; better get really good reviews or the academy might not even pay attention to it.

It would have to get Spirited Away level reviews for the Academy to pay attention.

Since Funimation is the distributor most critics may dismiss it as “otaku-only” stuff, like those DBZ movies and other spinoffs based on TV anime.

Wonder if Disney will be willing to accept an Oscar that will hinder its reputation in Japan.

Disney gladly accepted the Oscar for Frozen (beating The Wind Rises, the highest-grossing film of 2013 in Japan).

Good. At least it’ll be part of the conversation. It’s in my top 5 for 2016 so far. ^_^