SUBMITTED BY uruseiranma

March 24, 2003 — Last night, the Best Animated Feature award was the frist to be presented. But on many people's minds was that it was going to be a close race between Dreamworks' overly-hyped Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Disney's summer hit Lilo & Stitch. However, many people were surprised when the critcally-acclaimed and wonderfullly imaginative Spirited Away managed to wrest the the award from the 4 American-made nominees.

But even with this accolade, Writer/Director Hayao Miyazaki and his friend Producer Toshio Suzuki were not present to receive the award.

According to the latest issue of Japan Today, Miyazaki and Suzuki opted to stay in Japan due to the state of the world, citing it would be hard to celebrate with what is going on in the world today.

In a statement prepared by Miyazaki, he states that "It is regrettable that I cannot rejoice from my heart over the prize because of the deeply sad events taking place in the world. However, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to all my friends who have lent their effort in releasing 'Spirited Away' in the United States and to all those who have shown their appreciation of the movie."

After the news, Producer Toshio Suzuki appeared at a press conference, and said "In the normal course of events, Miyazaki should be making a speech. But he has said that he cannot be truly joyful because of the times we are in now. He has said that he cannot bear to have media broadcasting his happy face."

Suzuki said that it was "most moving" to think that "Spirited Away" was initially rejected by a major U.S. movie distributor as unsuitable for the U.S. market, but that it has gone on to win such a prestigious prize.