Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation.
Why didn’t Miyazaki accept his Oscar?
Hayao Miyazaki didn’t come to the United States in 2003 to accept his Oscar for Spirited Away because of his opposition to the Iraq War, he recently told the LA Times: “The reason I wasn’t here for the Academy Award was that I didn’t want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq.
Hayao also said he did not accept oscar because he felt an intense rage,” Miyazaki recalled. Toshio Suzuki, the producer of Spirited Away, concealed Miyazaki’s true motivations (“I didn’t want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq”).
Suzuki felt the same way, and he didn’t attend the Oscars, either. But he wanted to keep the whole affair quiet.