Spirited Away Named Best Animated Film of 21st Century by NYT Poll
Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film "Spirited Away" (La città incantata) has been voted the best animated film of the 21st century in a New York Times poll of 500 Hollywood film professionals. The Studio Ghibli masterpiece, which won the Golden Bear at Berlin and the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature awarded to an anime, also ranked ninth overall among the 100 best films of the last 25 years. The hand-drawn film follows ten-year-old Chihiro as she enters a magical city of yōkai and must rescue her parents, transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba. The NYT recognition, arriving 24 years after the film's release, highlights its complex narrative, technical excellence, and literary references to Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."
Key facts
- Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed Spirited Away in 2001.
- The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
- It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the first anime to do so.
- A New York Times poll of 500 Hollywood professionals named it best animated film of the 21st century.
- It also ranked ninth overall among the 100 best films of the last 25 years.
- The film is entirely hand-drawn and produced by Studio Ghibli.
- The story follows Chihiro, a ten-year-old girl, in a magical city of yōkai.
- The witch Yubaba transforms Chihiro's parents into pigs.
Entities
Artists
- Hayao Miyazaki
Institutions
- Studio Ghibli
- New York Times