Studio Ghibli Awarded the Film Industry’s Highest Honor

Everybody knows and loves Studio Ghibli, the animation studio behind fantastic anime films like Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and most recently The Boy and the Heron. The studio has received near universal acclaim for decades, but now, it’s being honored with one of the film industry’s most prestigious awards.

Festival de Cannes, also known as the Cannes Film Festival, has announced that it will be awarding Studio Ghibli with an Honorary Palme d’or. Festival de Cannes says that this is the first time a group has been awarded with the honor, which is usually awarded to individual filmmakers, directors, and actors.

The Palme d’or, French for Golden Palm, is the highest prize awarded at the festival each year, and is considered the most prestigious award in the film industry. Regular Palme d’or awards are given to films, rather than filmmakers, and past winners have included Parasite, Anatomy of a Fall, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Pulp Fiction, among many others.

Honorary Palme d’or awards on the other hand are given to individuals sporadically, and the group of recipients is pretty star-studded as you’d expect. George Lucas, Jodie Foster, Clint Eastwood, and Jane Fonda are all past recipients of the award, so it’s a good group to be among.

Toshio Suzuki, one of the co-founders of Ghibli, released a lengthy statement in receipt of the award, saying that he is “honored and delighted” that the studio has been awarded with such a high honor.

“I would like to thank the Festival de Cannes from the bottom of my heart,” Suzuki says. “Forty years ago, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and I established Studio Ghibli with the desire to bring high-level, high-quality animation to children and adults of all ages. Today, our films are watched by people all over the world, and many visitors come to the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka and Ghibli Park to experience the world of our films for themselves.

“We have truly come a long way for Studio Ghibli to become such a big organization. Although Miyazaki and I have aged considerably, I am sure that Studio Ghibli will continue to take on new challenges, led by the staff who will carry on the spirit of the company. It would be my greatest pleasure if you look forward to what’s next."

It comes not long after the release of The Boy and the Heron, once said to be Miyazaki’s last feature film, although it sounds as if the legendary director may continue working following its release.