Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away won the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival.
The award recognized Hayao Miyazaki’s fantasy film, which follows Chihiro after her parents are transformed and she enters a spirit world. Spirited Away shared the Golden Bear with Bloody Sunday, making it one of the rare animated films to receive Berlin’s top prize.
The festival award was an important international milestone for Japanese animation. Although Studio Ghibli had already built a strong reputation in Japan, the Berlin victory helped establish Spirited Away as a major work of world cinema rather than only a successful animated feature.
The film later received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, becoming the first Japanese animated feature to win that category. The Berlin prize and the Oscar are separate honors and are often mentioned together when discussing the film’s international impact.