Ranking What Was Really The Best Film Of Every Year 1990-2021
21. 2001 - Spirited Away
Actually won: A Beautiful Mind.
Spirited Away, the crowning achievement of Studio Ghibli's astounding filmography, may have won Best Animated Feature, but in a just world it would've also taken the top prize.
Despite not being nominated, to say Spirited Away is a better film than Ron Howard's heavy-handed drama A Beautiful Mind would be a colossal understatement. The fact it even beat In the Bedroom and The Fellowship of the Ring is inexplicable.
Drawn with expressive wonder and carrying with it several important messages for young and old alike, Spirited Away's eloquent story and imaginative world-building is simply divine, ageing like fine wine since its release to confidently stand as one of the finest animated movies of all time.