Weathering With You Selected as Japan's Pick for Oscars' Best International Feature Film

Makoto Shinkai's Your Name may have been snubbed for an Oscar several years ago, but Japan is hoping history will not repeat itself again. After the director's beloved movie was denied a nomination for Best Animated Feature, new reports confirm Japan's decision to pick Shinkai's latest film Weathering With You as its International Feature Film pick.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Shinkai's film has been set as the Japanese pick for Best International Feature Film at the 2020 Academy Awards. The film will be pitted against a slew of others title like Our Mothers from Belgium, Homeward from the Ukraine, and more.

As for the category itself, the addition of Weathering With You marks a milestone. The film is the first anime feature to be picked for consideration in more than 20 years. Back in 1998, Japan selected Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke as its Best International Feature Film entry.

Currently, Weathering With You is enjoying big success in Japan as screenings air around the country. The has passed the $100 million goal at the box office which makes Weathering With You the first movie to do so since Your Name debuted in 2016. The latter film went on to earn nearly $360 million worldwide which broke the global box office record of Spirited Away. Now, Your Name is the highest-grossing anime feature of all-time, and fans are curious how Weathering With You will live up. A win at the Academy Awards would certainly boost its notoriety internationally, and the nomination itself means a lot to netizens who were on the fence about seeing it.

So, are you excited to see Weathering With You enter the Oscars race? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

Tenki no Ko: Weathering With You was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. Masayoshi Tanaka returns from Your Name to design the characters, Atsushi Tamura will serve as animation director, and Hiroshi Takiguchi will serve as art director. The film stars Kotaro Daigo as Hodaka Morishima and Nana Mori as Hina Amano along with Tsubasa Honda, Shun Oguri, Sakura Kiryuu, Sei Hiraizumi, Yuki Kaji, and Chieko Baisho in currently unconfirmed roles. GKIDS has confirmed they have licensed the film for an English language release with the current release window of 2020.