Japanese animation master Miyazaki Hayao's latest work, "The Boy and the Heron," has been named best animated film at this year's Golden Globe Awards.

The winners were announced at a ceremony in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday. The awards are given by a group of international journalists covering the film industry in Hollywood.

"The Boy and the Heron" is the first Japanese film to win the category. The other nominees include "Suzume" by Japanese director Shinkai Makoto.

Miyazaki, who was not at the ceremony, came out of retirement and spent seven years producing the film. He wrote the original story and screenplay about a boy who loses his mother during World War Two and enters a fantasy world.

Composer Hisaishi Joe was nominated for Best Original Score for the film, but did not win.

The Golden Globes are considered a precursor to the Academy Awards -- the biggest event for the US film industry.

In other categories, "Oppenheimer" won five awards including Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director and Best Original Score.

The film is a biopic about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the development of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.