CANNES, France (AP) — Studio Ghibli, the Japanese anime factory of surreal ecological wonders that has for 39 years spirited away moviegoers with tales of Totoros, magical jellyfish and floating castles, was celebrated Monday by the Cannes Film Festival with an honorary Palme d’Or.
In the 22 years that Cannes has been handing out honorary Palmes, the award for Ghibli was the first for anything but an individual filmmaker or actor. (This year’s other recipients are George Lucas and Meryl Streep.) Hayao Miyazaki, the 83-year-old animation master who founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 with Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, didn’t attend the ceremony, but he spoke in a video message taped in Japan.
“I don’t understand any of this,” said Miyazaki. “But thank you.”
At Cannes, where standing ovations can stretch on end, the fervor that greeted Ghibli’s emissaries — Goro Miyazaki (son of Hayao) and Kenichi Yoda — was nevertheless among the most thunderous receptions at the festival. Thierry Fremaux, Cannes’ artistic director, walked across the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière filming the long ovation, he said, for a video to send to Miyazaki.
National Television Awards 2024 nominations: Michelle Keegan and Leo Woodall go head
Channel 4 'spark axe fears as they halt production on a fan
Recreational marijuana backers can gather signatures for North Dakota ballot initiative
Feyenoord coach Arne Slot says his club in talks with Liverpool over a move to Anfield
Iran helicopter crash: President Raisi, the supreme leader's protege, dies at 63
Why Pedro Sánchez is mulling his future as Spain's leader
U.S. labor secretary says UAW win at Tennessee Volkswagen plant shows southern workers back unions
Mystery artist who erected signs comparing pothole
Supreme Court rejects an appeal from a Canadian man once held at Guantanamo
How Columbia's protest of the Israel