Studio Ghibli takes a bow at Cannes with an honorary Palme d’Or

CANNES, France – Studio Ghibli, the Japanese anime factory of surreal ecological wonders that has been exciting viewers for 39 years with stories of Totoros, magical jellyfish and floating castles, was celebrated on Monday at the Cannes Film Festival with a Palme d’Or honorary.

In the 22 years that Cannes has handed out honorary Palmes, the award for Ghibli was the first given to someone other than an individual filmmaker or actor. (This year’s other winners 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 spoke in a recorded video message in Japan.

“I don’t understand any of this,” Miyazaki said. “But thanks.”

In Cannes, where the standing ovation can last for a long time, the fervor that greeted Ghibli’s emissaries – Goro Miyazaki (son of Hayao) and Kenichi Yoda – was, however, one of the festival’s most thunderous receptions. Thierry Fremaux, artistic director of Cannes, walked across the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière filming the long ovation, he said, to send a video 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, president of the festival, when presenting the award.

The occasion was not marked by any new Ghibli film, but by four previous shorts that had not previously been shown outside of Japan. “Mei and the Baby Cat Bus,” a brief sequel to Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro,” by 1989, expands the Cat Bus from that classic to an entire fleet of cat vehicles, most notably the mini Baby Cat Bus.

The shorts, all made for the Studio Ghibli Museum outside Tokyo, included “Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess,” a culinary-themed dessert set for Miyazaki’s 2001 film “Spirited Away.” The other two — “House Hunting” and “Boro the Caterpillar” — play musical mini-adventures for forest creatures.

Studio Ghibli’s celebration came shortly after Miyazaki’s highly anticipated “The Boy and the Crane” won the Oscar for best animated film in March. (A documentary about his production, “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron”, also screened at Cannes.)

Miyazaki was also left out of the ceremony. Goro Miyazaki, whose own films include “From Up on Poppy Hill” and “Tales From Earthsea,” said they had to use a hotel towel to wrap Oscar and take him home to his father. the Cannes prize.

“I was reassured to see that the Palme d’Or was in a box,” he said, smiling.

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