Director
Hayao Miyazaki is the greatest animator who ever lived and arguably one of cinema's supreme visionaries regardless of medium. His films are hand-drawn worlds of extraordinary detail, populated by characters who earn their complexity through behaviour rather than exposition. Flight, ecology, pacifism, the moral ambiguity of progress, vast themes carried by images so beautiful they bypass argument and go straight for something older. He makes children's films that contain more truth than most art cinema.
Learn More →Signature Traits
Major Works
Spirited Away (2001)
The highest-grossing Japanese film in history. A ten-year-old navigating a spirit economy. Perfect in every frame.
Princess Mononoke (1997)
An ecological war with no villains. The most politically complex film ever made for a young audience.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
The grammar of wonder. Every animator since has been influenced by this film whether they know it or not.
Also Worked On
The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) • Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) • Castle in the Sky (1986) • Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) • Porco Rosso (1992) • On Your Mark (1995) • Kujiratori (2001) • Kūsō no Sora Tobu Kikaitachi (2002) • Mei and the Kitten Bus (2002) • Howl's Moving Castle (2004) • Mizugumo Monmon (2006) • Ponyo (2008) • The Wind Rises (2013) • Boro the Caterpillar (2018) • The Boy and the Heron (2023)
