Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki has been named one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People of 2024.” He is honored under the “Icons” category and received a write-up of praise from well-known Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Blade, Hellboy, Pinocchio, Shape of Water). He was joined by names such as American businessman Mark Cuban, retired actor and activist Michael J. Fox, and film director Sofia Coppola.
In Guillermo del Toro’s write-up piece, he mentions how Miyazaki’s works evoke the feeling of recognizing beauty only portrayed in films.
Miyazaki’s work provokes that rare emotion—the shiver of recognition of a type of beauty that is impossible in the real world and thus exists only in his films. Yet he is also a brutal realist regarding greed, war, and human rage. He knows that we shape and destroy the planet and that humans are the best and the worst of our world.
Excerpt from Guillermo del Toro’s tribute to Hayao Miyazaki on Time’s Top 100
He is entirely genuine. A one-of-a-kind creator who exists fully in his art. He is the single most influential animation director in the history of the medium, and one of my top 10 favorite storytellers in any audiovisual medium. The Boy and the Heron is a subtle masterpiece that exerts a gravitational pull—and many of us feel that pull intensely.
Del Torro’s mention of The Boy and The Heron, which recently won an Academy Award for Best in Animation, ties in with his profound love and interest for the film and other Studio Ghibli works. He was responsible for introducing The Boy and The Heron at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2023 and mentioned that Miyazaki is “the greatest director of animation ever.” Moreover, in an hour-long exclusive interview with The Collider in October 2023, Del Torro recommended My Neighbor Totoro to people just starting Studio Ghibli films.
When something is so absolutely staggeringly beautiful as a piece of art, you understand that you will never experience it in real life, you, at the same time, gain it and lose it, meaning you get a sense of almost melancholy and you’re moved to tears. When Totoro started, I started weeping and I never stopped during the film because it was, at the same time, a childhood I was gaining and a childhood that had never been. So I think that’s a great one to start with.
Excerpt from Guillermo del Toro’s interview with The Collider
Hayao Miyazaki is regarded as one of the most accomplished and celebrated filmmakers in the animation industry. Some of the films he directed under Studio Ghibli, which he also founded, include Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso (1992), Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Wind Rises (2013).
TIME is a global media brand that was created in 1923. It consists of a website, a magazine, and a social media footprint of over 51 million. TIME publishes several lists that offer a look at the stories that have shaped our world in the past year, such as TIME100 — a list of the most influential pioneers, leaders, and titans to artists, innovators, and icons.
Source: TIME100 Most Influential People 2024
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