Hayao Miyazaki to Receive Berkeley Japan Prize

Renowned animated filmmaker will screen five of his groundbreaking films

Hayao Miyazaki, internationally acclaimed filmmaker, will be awarded the Berkeley Japan Prize by the Center for Japanese Studies on Saturday, July 25. The Prize honors individuals from all disciplines and professions who have influenced the world's understanding of Japan.

For nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has created fantastic, meticulously composed and emotionally soaring films, making him one of the world's most respected and revered animators and directors.

In 2002, Miyazaki’s Spirited Away won the Academy Award for best animated feature film—the first Japanese film ever to win the award. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times heralded the film as “enchanting and delightful, . . . the best animated film of recent years,” referring to Miyazaki as “the Japanese master who is a god to the Disney animators.”

In conjunction with his in-person acceptance of the Berkeley Japan Prize, Miyazaki will be the subject of a symposium on July 25 bringing together leading scholars of Japanese popular culture and literature to discuss Miyazaki’s body of work.

Additionally, the Pacific Film Archive will host screenings of four of Miyazaki’s films:

My Neighbor Totoro (1988, 87 mins.), July 12
Porco Rosso (1992, 93 mins.), July 14
Castle in the Sky (1986, 123 mins.), July 19
Princess Mononoke (1997, 133 mins.), July 21

Miyazaki’s most recent film, Ponyo (2008, 100 mins.), will have its Northern California premiere at Zellerbach hall on July 24. Japan’s biggest box office hit in 2008, Ponyo won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Animation for that year and was screened at the 2008 Venice Film Festival.

For more information on the events surrounding Hayao Miyazaki’s visit to Berkeley, visit the Center for Japanese Studies website.