(Cannes) Studio Ghibli, a pioneer of Japanese animated films which has been enchanting moviegoers for 39 years with tales of Totoro, magical jellyfish and floating castles, was celebrated Monday by the Cannes Film Festival, being awarded a Palme Honorary Gold.
In 22 years that Cannes has awarded Palmes d’Honneur, the prize awarded to Studio Ghibli is the first not to be offered to 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, did not attend the ceremony, but he spoke in a video recorded in Japan.
“I don’t understand any of this,” Miyazaki said. But thanks. »
Standing ovations are not uncommon in Cannes. But the public reception was among the most thunderous of the festival for the representatives of Studio Ghibli – Goro Miyazaki (son of Hayao) and Kenichi Yoda. Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’ artistic director, walked across the stage at the Auditorium Louis Lumière to film the long ovation, he said, for a video to send to Miyazaki.
“With this Palme d’Or, we would like to thank you for all the magic you have brought to cinema,” said Iris Knobloch, the president of the festival, while presenting the prize.
The occasion was marked not by a new Studio Ghibli film, but by four old short films, which had never been shown outside of Japan. Mei and the Kittenbusa brief sequel to My Neighbor Totoro by Miyazaki, brings the Cat-bus of this classic to a whole fleet of means of transport cats, notably the mini Chatonbus.
The short films, all made for the Studio Ghibli museum outside Tokyo, included Mr. Dough and Princess Egga sequel to Spirited Away. The two others – Looking for a house And Boro the little caterpillar – offer mini musical adventures of forest creatures.
The Studio Ghibli celebration took place shortly after the highly anticipated The Boy and the Heron by Miyazaki won the Oscar for best animated film in March. A documentary on its creation, Hayao Miyazaki and the heronwas also screened in Cannes.
Miyazaki also missed this ceremony. Goro Miyazaki, whose own films include Poppy Hill And Tales from Earthsea, said they had to use a hotel towel to wrap the Oscar in order to take him home to his father. On Monday, he was relieved. “I am reassured to see that the Palme d’Or was in a box,” he said, smiling.