Studio Ghibli receives a historic honorary Palme d’Or

The Cannes Film Festival pays homage to a cinema legend, awarding the honorary Palme d’Or to a group for the first time: Studio Ghibli. Alongside the greats of Hollywood, the Japanese studio embodied by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and a host of cult characters, has unleashed a new wind on animated cinema over the last four decades.

“I am truly honored and happy that Studio has been awarded the honorary Palme d’Or,” declares Toshio Suzuki, another co-founder of Studio Ghibli. “I would like to 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-end, quality animation to children and adults of all ages. Today our films are seen by people all over the world. Studio Ghibli has really come a long way to become such a large organization. Even though Miyazaki and I have aged significantly, I am sure that Studio Ghibli will continue to face new challenges, guided by staff who will carry forward the spirit of the company. It would be a great pleasure for me if you looked with interest at what is to come.”

Studio Ghibli, a historic Palme d’Or

With this honorary Palme d’Or, Studio Ghibli joins the exceptional winners of 2024, including George Lucas. “For the first time in our history, we have chosen to celebrate not a person but an institution,” declared Iris Knobloch, president of the Cannes Film Festival, and Thierry Frémaux, general delegate.

“Like all icons of the seventh art, these characters populate our imagination with prolific and colorful universes and sensitive and engaging narratives. With Ghibli, Japanese animation presents itself as one of the great adventures of cinephilia, between tradition and modernity.”

Cannes and animation

The Cannes Film Festival was a first explorer of the adventure of animated cinema. In the early years, Walt Disney productions presented short films (1946) and the feature film Dumbo (1947). In 1953, Walt Disney himself brought Peter Pan on the Croisette, where René Laloux won a Special Jury Prize in 1973 for his first feature film, The wild planet.

After a long absence, animation is back in force at Cannes with Shrek (2001) e Shrek 2 (2004), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004), Persepolis (2007), Waltz with Bashir (2008), all awarded in the competition, or even Upwhich 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 RobotDreams they made their mark out of competition. Also, Un Certain Regard welcomed The red turtle (2016), Studios Ghibli’s first collaboration with a European production company.