Hayao Miyazaki, a renowned Japanese animator, clinched a US Academy Award for his latest release, "The Boy and the Heron".

The 124-minute fantasy masterpiece, which won the Academy's Best Animated Feature Film award, has been on a winning streak, securing top accolades in its genre at the Golden Globes in January and the British Academy Film Awards last month, following its release in Japan last year.

This marks the second time a Japanese anime has won the Academy award, following Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" in 2003.

The 96th Academy Awards ceremony was held on Sunday in Los Angeles. Miyazaki and his team were not present at the event.

Having announced his retirement in 2013 after his work on "The Wind Rises", Miyazaki surprised fans with his comeback, beginning the production of this full-length film in 2017.

Written and directed by the 83-year-old maestro himself, the film narrates the journey of a fictional Japanese boy named Mahito. After the loss of his mother in an air raid during World War II, Mahito relocates to a new town where he encounters a talking heron that transforms between human and bird form, leading him into an enchanting fantasy realm.