The Cannes Film Festival will pay homage to a cinema legend and, for the first time, the Palme d’Or for Lifetime Achievement becomes a collective award that will be awarded to Studio Ghibli.
With Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and with a multitude of cult characters, the Japanese studio has been bringing fresh air to animated cinema for four decades. “I am truly honored and happy that the studio receives the honorary Palme d’Or,” said Toshio Suzuki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli. “I thank the Cannes Film Festival from the bottom of my heart. Forty years ago, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and I founded Studio Ghibli with the desire to bring high-concept, high-quality animated films to children and adults of all age Today, audiences around the world can see our films and many visitors come to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka and Ghibli Park to experience the world of our films firsthand. We have come a long way from making Studio Ghibli so great Although Miyazaki and I have aged, I am confident that Studio Ghibli will continue to face new challenges, led by teams that will carry on the spirit of the company.
“For the first time in its history, it is not a person but an institution that we wish to celebrate», underlined Iris Knobloch, president of the Cannes Film Festival, and Thierry Frémaux, general delegate. “Like all icons of cinema, these characters populate our imagination with abundant and colorful universes and sensitive and committed stories. With Ghibli, Japanese animated cinema is experienced as one of the great adventures of cinema, between tradition and modernity.”.
