Studio Ghibli Takes a Bow at Cannes with an Honorary Palme D’Or 

Goro Miyazaki, left, and Kenichi Yoda pose for photographers with the Studio Ghibli honorary Palme d'Or upon arrival at the premiere of the film "The Apprentice" at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP)
Goro Miyazaki, left, and Kenichi Yoda pose for photographers with the Studio Ghibli honorary Palme d'Or upon arrival at the premiere of the film "The Apprentice" at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP)
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Studio Ghibli Takes a Bow at Cannes with an Honorary Palme D’Or 

Goro Miyazaki, left, and Kenichi Yoda pose for photographers with the Studio Ghibli honorary Palme d'Or upon arrival at the premiere of the film "The Apprentice" at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP)
Goro Miyazaki, left, and Kenichi Yoda pose for photographers with the Studio Ghibli honorary Palme d'Or upon arrival at the premiere of the film "The Apprentice" at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP)

Studio Ghibli, the Japanese anime factory of surreal ecological wonders that has for 39 years spirited away moviegoers with tales of Totoros, magical jellyfish and floating castles, was celebrated Monday by the Cannes Film Festival with an honorary Palme d'Or.

In the 22 years that Cannes has been handing out honorary Palmes, the award for Ghibli was the first for anything but an individual filmmaker or actor. (This year's other recipients are George Lucas and Meryl Streep.) Hayao Miyazaki, the 83-year-old animation master who founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 with Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, didn't attend the ceremony, but he spoke in a video message taped in Japan.

“I don't understand any of this,” said Miyazaki. “But thank you.”

At Cannes, where standing ovations can stretch on end, the fervor that greeted Ghibli's emissaries — Goro Miyazaki (son of Hayao) and Kenichi Yoda — was nevertheless among the most thunderous receptions at the festival. Thierry Fremaux, Cannes' artistic director, walked across the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière filming the long ovation, he said, for a video to send to Miyazaki.

“With this Palme d'Or, we'd like to thank you for all the magic you've brought to cinema,” said Iris Knobloch, the president of the festival, presenting the award.

The occasion wasn't marked by any new Ghibli film but four earlier shorts that hadn't previously been shown outside Japan. “Mei and the Baby Cat Bus,” a brief follow-up to Miyazaki's 1989 “My Neighbor Totoro,” expands the Cat Bus of that classic to a whole fleet of cat conveyances, most notably the mini Baby Cat Bus.

The shorts, all of which were made for the Studio Ghibli Museum outside Tokyo, included “Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess,” a culinary-themed desert for Miyazaki's 2001 film “Spirited Away.” The other two — “House Hunting” and “Boro the Caterpillar” — make musical mini-adventures for forest creatures.

The Studio Ghibli celebration came on the heels of Miyazaki's long-awaited “The Boy and the Heron” winning the Academy Award in March for best animated film. (A documentary on its making, “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron,” also played in Cannes.)

Miyazaki sat out that ceremony, too. Goro Miyazaki, whose own films include “From Up on Poppy Hill” and “Tales From Earthsea,” said they had to use a hotel towel to wrap the Oscar to bring home to his father. On Monday, he was relieved by the portability of the Cannes prize.

“I'm reassured seeing the Palme d'Or was in a box,” he said, grinning.



Timothee Chalamet Channels Bob Dylan with Warning about Cult-like Figures

 US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends a press conference for the film "A Complete Unknown" presented as Berlinale Special at the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends a press conference for the film "A Complete Unknown" presented as Berlinale Special at the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
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Timothee Chalamet Channels Bob Dylan with Warning about Cult-like Figures

 US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends a press conference for the film "A Complete Unknown" presented as Berlinale Special at the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends a press conference for the film "A Complete Unknown" presented as Berlinale Special at the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 14, 2025. (AFP)

Timothee Chalamet learned from his roles as Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown" and Paul Atreides in "Dune" that cult-like figures should be approached with caution, the Oscar-nominated actor said at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday.

"It's in the nature of his music, the warnings against cult-like figures," Chalamet told journalists when asked what he learned from the US singer-songwriter about how to deal with the current state of the world.

"My interpretation is just be wary of any savior-like figures," said Chalamet, whose Dylan biopic was being shown in the festival's non-competition Special section.

"That's honestly the warning in Frank Herbert's 'Dune', which was written in the same period in American history," added Chalamet.

"Granted, Frank Herbert was on the West Coast, probably doing acid at a typewriter, and Bob Dylan was on the East Coast, but the messaging was still similar," Chalamet said.

The 29-year-old actor starred in both parts of Denis Villeneuve's science-fiction epic "Dune", based on author Herbert's highly acclaimed 1965 novel of the same name.

Chalamet, a frontrunner in the race for best actor at next month's Oscars for his turn as Dylan, said he was grateful for his chance to play the artist.

"A Complete Unknown", which also stars Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro, chronicles Dylan's arrival in New York in 1961, his rapid ascent in folk music circles, and his divisive turn to electric rock music in 1965.

"We (the cast) know these projects are few and far between now," he said.

"I was looking at the Berlinale film program, you guys have a lot of really intellectually driven, artistically driven projects, but I guess we do in the States too, but ... these things are harder to come by."