Japanese Animation Studio Founder Miyazaki Isn’t Ready to Retire Just Yet, After Latest Oscar Win 

Kiyofumi Nakajima and Kenichi Yoda pose with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film for "The Boy and the Heron" on behalf of Director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki, at the Governors Ball following the Oscars show at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Kiyofumi Nakajima and Kenichi Yoda pose with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film for "The Boy and the Heron" on behalf of Director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki, at the Governors Ball following the Oscars show at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Japanese Animation Studio Founder Miyazaki Isn’t Ready to Retire Just Yet, After Latest Oscar Win 

Kiyofumi Nakajima and Kenichi Yoda pose with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film for "The Boy and the Heron" on behalf of Director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki, at the Governors Ball following the Oscars show at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Kiyofumi Nakajima and Kenichi Yoda pose with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film for "The Boy and the Heron" on behalf of Director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki, at the Governors Ball following the Oscars show at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. (Reuters)

Ghibli, the Japanese studio that just won its second Oscar for feature animation for “The Boy and The Heron,” hasn't said yet what it plans next.

But founder Hayao Miyazaki, who at 83 was the oldest director ever nominated in that category, won’t rule out making another film, even if his next project is a short instead of a full-length feature.

Miyazaki, according to a longtime confidante, is a bit embarrassed about having pronounced a decade ago that he would no longer make movies, citing his age.

“He regrets having announced to the world he won’t make another film,” producer Toshio Suzuki, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, said after the latest win.

When the Oscar was announced early Monday in Japan, a cheer went up in the tiny, humble building that houses the studio on the fringes of sprawling Tokyo where dozens of invited media had crammed in to watch the ceremony on a big screen.

It was a big day for Japanese filmmaking, with “Godzilla Minus One” winning the award for best visual effects, marking Japan’s first win in that category.

Japanese media heaped praise on both the Ghibli and Godzilla films, noting that a double win at the Oscars hadn’t happened for the country since 2009. An editorial Tuesday in the mass-circulation Yomiuri newspaper heralded “a new page in the history of Japanese filmmaking.”

Japan is also very much in the backdrop of “Oppenheimer,” which won seven Oscars, including best picture. The biopic centers on an American scientist working on the atomic bomb. The film has yet to be released in Japan.

“Perfect Days,” Wim Wenders’ touching film about a sanitation worker, was nominated in the international feature film category but did not win. Japanese actor Koji Yakusho, who portrays a gentle and lonely man who takes photos and cares for plants, won best actor for his performance at Cannes in May last year.

“War is Over,” which won for short animation, was inspired by Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s music. Their son Sean, who co-wrote the film, gave a shout-out to his mother, who is Japanese, at the Academy Awards.

Miyazaki celebrated his Oscar win in private at his atelier and did not attend the studio event, Suzuki said. When asked why Miyazaki had shaved off his trademark beard, Suzuki said: “He doesn’t want to look important.”

Suzuki said he spent time analyzing why Ghibli’s latest film was chosen, wondering if it was because of the Old Testament references in the storyline, which centers on a young boy dealing with his mother’s illness and death, and the relationship he develops with a talking bird. Suzuki said Ghibli's hand-drawn illustrations were more effective than computer graphics in portraying the bird’s metamorphosis.

Ghibli didn’t do much publicity for the film, choosing instead a low-key approach for a work that was 10 years in the making and released after Miyazaki was supposedly retired.

“We thought it was OK to make something we really wanted to make,” said Suzuki.



Daniel Day-Lewis Ends Acting Retirement for a Movie Directed by His Son

Writer-director Rebecca Miller, right, and husband Daniel Day-Lewis attend a special screening of "She Came to Me" at Metrograph, Oct. 3, 2023, in New York. (AP)
Writer-director Rebecca Miller, right, and husband Daniel Day-Lewis attend a special screening of "She Came to Me" at Metrograph, Oct. 3, 2023, in New York. (AP)
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Daniel Day-Lewis Ends Acting Retirement for a Movie Directed by His Son

Writer-director Rebecca Miller, right, and husband Daniel Day-Lewis attend a special screening of "She Came to Me" at Metrograph, Oct. 3, 2023, in New York. (AP)
Writer-director Rebecca Miller, right, and husband Daniel Day-Lewis attend a special screening of "She Came to Me" at Metrograph, Oct. 3, 2023, in New York. (AP)

Daniel Day-Lewis is coming out of retirement, seven years after his last movie, for a film directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis.

The project was announced Tuesday by Focus Features and Plan B, who are partnering on “Anemone.” The film, Ronan Day-Lewis’ directorial debut, will star his father along with Sean Bean and Samantha Morton. The film was co-written by the two Day-Lewises.

Earlier Tuesday, Daniel Day-Lewis and Bean were spotted driving a motorbike through Manchester, England, stoking intrigue about his impending return to acting. After making Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 film “Phantom Thread,” the 67-year-old had said he was quitting acting.

“All my life, I’ve mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don’t know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion,” he told W Magazine in 2017. “It was something I had to do.”

Since then, his appearances in public have been infrequent. In January, though, he made a surprise appearance at the National Board of Review Awards to present an award to Martin Scorsese, who directed him in “Gangs of New York” (2002) and “The Age of Innocence” (1993).

“Anemone,” currently in production, is described as exploring “the intricate relationships between fathers, sons and brothers, and the dynamics of familial bonds.”

Ronan Day-Lewis, 26, is a painter who has previously exhibited his works in New York. His first international solo exhibition debuts Tuesday in Hong Kong.

“We could not be more excited to partner with a brilliant visual artist in Ronan Day-Lewis on his first feature film alongside Daniel Day-Lewis as his creative collaborator,” said Peter Kujawski, chair of Focus Features. “They have written a truly exceptional script, and we look forward to bringing their shared vision to audiences alongside the team at Plan B.”