On the occasion of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival next May, animation studio Ghibli will be honored with an honorary Palme d’Or.
“Princess Mononoke”, “Spirited Away”, “My Neighbor Totoro”… the studio has nearly 40 years of experience and around twenty animated films to its credit.
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Cannes film festival
The legendary Japanese animation studio Ghibli, co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki, will receive an honorary Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival next May, the organizers announced this Wednesday April 17 in a press release.
Rather than only decorating Hayao Miyazaki, the studio’s best-known figure, whose public appearances are extremely rare, the Festival chose for the first time to award a collective Palm of Honor to the studio, including the other big name, Isao Takahata, died in 2018. His third figure, producer Toshio Suzuki, aged 75, said “truly honored and happy”upon the announcement of this distinction.
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“Works imbued with poetry and humanist and ecological commitments”
Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited away, My Neighbor Totoro… “In four decades and more than twenty feature films, Studio Ghibli has carried its audience through works imbued with poetry and humanist and ecological commitments. It delivers stories that are as personal as they are universal”writes the festival.
At 83, Hayao Miyazaki announced his artistic retirement on several occasions, before returning to the drawing board. His latest film, The Boy and the Heronwon the Oscar for best animated film, his second after that won by Spirited away in 2003.
“Like all the icons of cinema, these characters populate our imaginations with abundant and colorful universes and sensitive and committed stories. With Ghibli, Japanese animated cinema is experienced as one of the great adventures of cinephilia, between tradition and modernity”declared Iris Knobloch and Thierry Frémaux, heads of the Cannes Film Festival.
Another honorary Palme d’Or will be awarded during the Festival (May 14-25) to another figure of popular culture and legend of the 7th art, on the Hollywood side: George Lucas, the father of the Star Wars saga.
