The legendary Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki made a historic and golden return to the Academy Awards.

The Student Academy Awards may not be as glitzy or high profile as the Oscars, but in its 50 years it has proven to be a vital launching ground for emerging filmmakers.

“Soul” has won the heart of Oscar voters.

Ahead of Sunday’s 93rd Academy Awards, Associated Press Film Writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr share their predictions for a ceremony that may see historic wins in multiple categories.

SAN ANTONIO – A graduate of Alamo Heights High School, Mike Jones has come a long way from watching movies at the old Broadway Theatre. “It’s now a bank but I would always walk to Broadway Theatre and see movies every time I possibly could,” Jones said. His career started in journalism but he ended up at Pixar and is now a head writer. “The film is coming out now when I think people need to see it the most,” Jones said. His next movie is titled “Luca” and it is set to release next year.

This image released by Disney-Pixar shows the character 22, voiced by Tina Fey, left, and Joe Gardner, voiced by Jamie Foxx, in a scene from the animated film "Soul." But with more than half of U.S. theaters closed, two of the biggest movies of the year — “Soul” and “Wonder Woman 1984” — will be going straight to streaming. — Also arriving Christmas Day is “Wonder Woman 1984,” Patty Jenkins' sequel to her barrier-breaking 2017 film. With Gal Gadot returning, “Wonder Woman 1984” fast-forwards from 1918 to the “greed is good” decade. — AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy___Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/apf-entertainment.

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Frances McDormand in a scene from the film "Nomadland" by Chloe Zhao. Here are our picks for the best movies of 2020:JAKE COYLE1. “David Byrne’s American Utopia”: Spike Lee’s fiction films make more noise but he’s quietly one of the best documentary filmmakers we have. He may have made the best film of the year in his short film “New York, New York,” a tribute to an undefeatable pandemic-stricken city. It's also, with a glorious rendering of Harlem, one of the best New York movies in years.

NEW YORK – The Pixar film “Soul” will skip theaters and instead premiere on Disney+ on Christmas, the Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday, sending one of the fall's last big movies straight to streaming. The successive delays of the film industry's would-be blockbusters has only made the dire circumstances of movie theaters more acute. Without aid, the organization said, 69% of small and mid-sized movie theater companies will close or go bankrupt. “The stark reality is that many movie theaters will not be able to open again if they don’t receive government help,” says Esther Baruh, director of government relations for the association. It recently announced that it would lay off 28,000 workers, most of them at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is finally opening its doors in Los Angeles in April with an exhibit celebrating the works of the legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Envisioned as a journey through his six-decade career, it’s the first of its kind in North America and will have over 300 objects on display, organizers said Thursday. “Miyazaki’s genius is his power of remembering what he sees,” said Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki. Visitors will enter the temporary exhibit, which is organized thematically into seven sections, following Mei, the four-year-old heroine of “My Neighbor Totoro,” into the “Tree Tunnel” gallery. The museum will also organize film screenings in Japanese and English.

Cannes Festival director Thierry Fremaux, left, festival president Pierre Lescure, sit during the presentation of the festival lineup, in an empty cinema Wednesday, June 3, 2020 in Paris. The Cannes Film Festival was canceled due to the pandemic but it announced the films that would have played at the French Riviera festival. Those films, festival organizers say, will be able to promote themselves with the Cannes "stamp of approval." The French festival, originally slated for mid-May, initially considered postponing to July but ultimately gave up on a 2020 edition. The films will be able to brand themselves as part of the official 2020 Cannes Film Festival selection.