The 2024 Festival de Cannes is honoring a cinema legend, awarding its Honorary Palme d’Or for the first time to a group of filmmakers: Studio Ghibli. The acclaimed Japanese studio, co-founded by the celebrated directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata alongside producer Toshio Suzuki, “has unleashed a fresh wind on animated film over the past four decades,” the Festival stated in its announcement.
“I am truly honored and delighted that the studio is awarded the Honorary Palme d’or,” Suzuki commented. “I would like to thank the Festival de Cannes from the bottom of my heart. Forty years ago, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and I established Studio Ghibli with the desire to bring high-level, high-quality animation to children and adults of all ages. Today, our films are watched by people all over the world, and many visitors come to the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka and Ghibli Park to experience the world of our films for themselves. We have truly come a long way for Studio Ghibli to become such a big organization. Although Miyazaki and I have aged considerably, I am sure that Studio Ghibli will continue to take on new challenges, led by the staff who will carry on the spirit of the company. It would be my greatest pleasure if you look forward to what’s next.”
The success of Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 enabled him to establish Studio Ghibli with Takahata in 1985. The storytelling visions of the two filmmakers delivered artistic independent films which swiftly won over mass market audiences, while Suzuki managed the studio with formidable efficiency, balancing the projects of Miyazaki and Takahata; by turns producers and directors.
In 1988, with the simultaneous release of Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro, these creative powerhouses achieved a double success. In 1992, Studio Ghibli was able to begin financing its own feature films, starting with Porco Rosso. In the early years, only the two founders directed their films, but gradually young auteurs such as Goro Miyazaki (Hayao’s son) and Hiromasa Yonebayashi distinguished themselves and joined the Studio.
Through four decades and over 20 feature films, Studio Ghibli won over audiences with works imbued with poetry and with humanistic and environmental commitments. With Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbors the Yamadas, The Wind Rises and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, the studio delivered stories that are as personal as they are universal. They have won prestigious awards, including both Berlinale’s Golden Bear and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Spirited Away, and more recently another Oscar for The Boy and the Heron, as well as the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature.
In 2001, the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka opened on the outskirts of Tokyo to showcase the animators’ work and rich heritage, as well as to show short films created especially for the museum. In 2022, the Ghibli Park, a hybrid park facility expressing the world of Studio Ghibli, opened in Aichi Prefecture. Goro Miyazaki, the first Director of the Ghibli Museum, was appointed the Creative Development Director to oversee the park construction.
Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, noted, “For the first time in our history, it’s not a person but an institution that we have chosen to celebrate. “Like all the icons of the Seventh Art, these characters populate our imaginations with prolific, colorful universes and sensitive, engaging narrations. With Ghibli, Japanese animation stands as one of the great adventures of cinephilia, between tradition and modernity.”
Cannes was an early proponent of animated filmmaking. At past editions, Walt Disney Studios presented short films (1946) and the feature Dumbo (1947). In 1953, Walt Disney himself took Peter Pan to the Croisette, where René Laloux won a special Jury Prize in 1973 for his first feature, Fantastic Planet. After a long absence, animation returned to Cannes in force with Shrek (2001) and Shrek 2 (2004), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004), Persepolis (2007), Waltz with Bashir (2008), which all received awards in the Competition, and Pixar’s Up, which opened the Festival in 2009. Many other films, such as Kirikou and the Wild Beasts, Inside Out, The Summit of the Gods and, more recently, Elemental and Robot Dreams have also left their mark. Moreover, Un Certain Regard welcomed The Red Turtle (2016), Studios Ghibli’s first collaboration with a European production company.
The 77th Festival de Cannes will take place May 14-25. Visit festival-cannes.com for more information.
Fans of the studio in North America can revisit their favorite films on the big screen during the 2024 Studio Ghibli Fest, presented by GKIDS and Fathom Events. The program kicks off April 27 with Spirited Away.
