Hayao Miyazaki’s anime film The Boy and the Heron, which clinched the best animated feature award at the 96th Oscars, is set to release theatrically in India this year, Warner Bros. India announced on Monday.

“India, the wait is over! The Academy Award Winner 'The Boy And The Heron' directed by Hayao Miyazaki, is coming soon to cinemas in INDIA,” Warner Bros. wrote on Instagram alongside a poster of the film.

The highly-anticipated film, touted as Miyazaki’s final Studio Ghibli project, will release in two versions — Japanese with English subtitles and English dubbed.

The Boy and the Heron follows a 12-year-old boy, Mahito Maki, who finds it difficult to adjust to a new town following his mother's death. But an encounter with a talking grey heron changes his life forever when the creature informs Mahito that his mother is alive. The young boy then ventures into an old tower in pursuit of his mother which leads him into a different world.

Taking its title from the 1937 novel of the same name by Genzaburo Yoshino, The Boy and the Heron deals with loss and grief, discovery and adventure, and the power of hope and belief in the face of adversity.

The English trailer dropped by the makers a few months back shows Mahito grappling with the loss of his mother at a young age and the emotional turmoil that follows. After coming across a talking grey heron, he steps into a fantastical “world filled with the dead”, as described by an inhabitant. With the heron as his sole guide, Mahito befriends people on his adventure to reunite with his mother and bring her back to their home.

The English voice cast of the film, which debuted at the Toronto film festival on September 7 last year, includes Christian Bale, Willem Defoe, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Karen Fukuhara and Mark Hamill.

Netflix recently announced that the film will start streaming on the platform later this year. However, no release date has been announced.

Miyazaki won the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2002 for his film Spirited Away, which garnered an overwhelming global response. In 2014, he was granted an honorary Oscar for his remarkable contributions to the film industry.