Hayao Miyazaki to Receive an Honorary Oscar

• By
 
• MICHAEL CALIA

A scene from Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Spirited Away.’

 

Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

Hayao Miyazaki

 

Miramax/Everett Collection

Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary Japanese animator and Studio Ghibli co-founder, will receive an honorary Oscar in November, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said.

It will be Miyazaki’s second Oscar, having won in the animated feature film category for his 2001 movie “Spirited Away.”  He was also nominated for “Howl’s Moving Castle” in 2005 and “The Wind Rises”last year. In September, the 73-year-old filmmaker reportedly retired, creating doubt about the future of Studio Ghibli, which he co-founded in 1985.

Co-founder Toshio Suzuki raised animation fans’ alarms earlier this month when he suggested that the Tokyo-based Studio Ghibli would be changing the way it makes animation, while suggesting that Miyazaki might end up doing another short project. In response, a studio representative told CNN that it had “decided nothing officially for the future of the studio.”

Yet, while the studio’s future is uncertain, its legacy is safe, especially because of Miyazaki’s work. Other than the films mentioned above, he has enchanted young and old audiences for more than five decades with titles such as “Porco Rosso,” “Future Boy Conan,” “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Princess Mononoke.” He is often compared to Walt Disney.

“The Quiet Man” star Maureen O’Hara and acclaimed french screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere will also receive honorary Oscars in November. Singer, actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Read the Academy’s announcement here.

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