NY Film Critics Name 'The Wind Rises' Best Animated Film

Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises is awarded the prize for Best Animated Film by the New York Film Critics Circle.

The New York Film Critics Circle is handing out its prizes today, with most people looking at them as a gauge of what’s likely to end up in the Oscar race this year. Intended or not, the annual onslaught of awards has evolved into Academy Award straw polls.

Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises collected Best Animated Film, beating out Disney’s Frozen, Pixar’s Monsters University, and DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods.

Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Ponyo), The Wind Rises is slated for limited release in North American theaters on Feb. 21, 2014, and expanded release on Feb. 28, 2014, under the Touchstone Pictures banner.

The full list of awards is shown below:

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary): Stories We Tell

Best First Film: Ryan Coogler – Fruitvale Station

Best Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel – Inside Llewyn Davis

Special Award: Frederick Wiseman

Best Screenplay: American Hustle

Best Animated Film: The Wind Rises

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club

Best Foreign Language Film: Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle

Best Director: Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine

Best Actor: Robert Redford – All Is Lost

Best Picture: American Hustle

Source: NYFCC

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.