A visually entrancing meditation on life, death and loss, The Boy and the Heron follows a grieving boy's haunting journey into another world during WWII-era Japan. An original story written by Miyazaki Hayao, the film shares the same Japanese title as Yoshino Genzaburo's classic 1937 coming-of-age novel How Do You Live? which Miyazaki read as a boy. The Boy and the Heron won Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards, marking the legendary animation director's second Oscar win following Spirited Away in 2002.

在二次大戰中喪母的少年牧真人與一隻會說話的蒼鷺相遇後，在蒼鷺的引導下進入了生死交界的神秘世界展開不可思議的冒險旅程。男主角由18歲新生代男星山時聰真聲演，蒼鷺則由菅田將暉配音，木村拓哉特別演出真人父親一角。其他配音卡司包括柴咲幸、愛繆、木村佳乃和小林薫等堅強陣容。音樂由宮崎駿御用的久石讓操刀，主題曲「地球儀」則由米津玄師創作和演唱。