Inu-Oh Anime Film Receives Golden Globes Nomination

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced on Monday the nominees for the 80th Golden Globe Awards. INU-OH, Masaaki Yuasa's musical anime feature film of Hideo Furukawa's Heike Monogatari: INU-OH no Maki (Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh) novel, was nominated in the Best Motion Picture – Animated category.

Other nominees in the category include Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Turning Red.

The 80th Golden Globe Awards ceremony will air on NBC on January 10, 2023.

Two anime feature films have been nominated in previous Golden Globe Awards. Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises was nominated for the "Best Foreign Language Film" award at the 71st Golden Globes, and Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai was nominated for the "Best Motion Picture – Animated" award at the 76th Golden Globes. The Golden Globes changed its rules in 2014 to stipulate that foreign animated films must compete in the Best Animated Feature category, and are no longer eligible for the Best Foreign Language Film category.

GKIDS licensed the INU-OH film, and it describes the film's story:

Inu-Oh is born with unique physical characteristics, and the horrified adults cover every inch of his body with garments, including a mask on his face. One day, he meets a boy named Tomona, a blind biwa player, and as Tomona plays a delicate song of tangled fate, Inu-Oh discovers an incredible ability to dance.

Inu-Oh and Tomona become business partners and inseparable friends, using their creative gifts to survive on the margins of society, as song after song gain them notoriety and propel them to stardom. Through the songs, Inu-Oh mesmerizes his audiences on stage, and gradually begins to transform into someone of unequaled beauty. But why is Tomona blind? Why was Inu-Oh born with unique characteristics? It is a story about the friendship of Inu-Oh and Tomona, who dance and sing to get to the truth and break each other's curse.

GKIDS began screening the film in U.S. theaters on August 12, and the movie earned US$97,062 on its opening day. The film screened in approximately 350 theaters. The movie earned US$293,754 in the U.S. as of August 18. GKIDS will release the film digitally on December 20 and on Blu-ray Disc and DVD with distribution by Shout! Factory on January 24.

The film opened in Japan on May 28.

Sources: Golden Globe Awards, Variety (Brent Lang, Jordan Moreau)