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.



Tomorrowland Music Festival Opens after its Main Stage was Destroyed by Huge Fire

The burned main stage is seen at the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium, Friday, July 18, 2025, two days after a huge fire destroyed the stage on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
The burned main stage is seen at the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium, Friday, July 18, 2025, two days after a huge fire destroyed the stage on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
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Tomorrowland Music Festival Opens after its Main Stage was Destroyed by Huge Fire

The burned main stage is seen at the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium, Friday, July 18, 2025, two days after a huge fire destroyed the stage on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
The burned main stage is seen at the Tomorrowland music festival in Boom, Belgium, Friday, July 18, 2025, two days after a huge fire destroyed the stage on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Fans roared in excitement and organizers sighed with relief as the Tomorrowland music festival kicked off Friday — just two days after a massive fire engulfed the main stage and threw one of Europe's biggest summer concert events into doubt.

Workers labored around the clock to clear out the debris from the elaborate backdrop that was consumed in Wednesday's fire.

Shouting ‘’We made it!'', the festival's opening performers, Australian electronic music group Nervo, were able to take to the main stage Friday after a last-minute scramble and slight delay. Some charred frames were still visible behind them.

No one was hurt in the fire, organizers said. The causes are being investigated.
Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world attend Tomorrowland's annual multi-day festival outside the Belgian town of Boom.

Some 38,000 people were camping at the festival site Friday, Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen said.

’’Maybe there are some few people that say, OK, we would like to have a refund, but it’s only like a very small percentage because most of them are still coming to the festival,” she told AP.

“It is all about unity, and I think with a good vibe and a positive energy that our festival-goers give to each other and the music we offer, I think they will still have a good time,″ she said. ’’We really tried our best.″

Australian fans Zak Hiscock and Brooke Antoniou — who traveled half the world to see the famed festival as part of a summer holiday in Europe — described hearing about the fire.

“We were sitting having dinner when we actually heard the news of the stage burning down. We were very devastated and shattered, quite upset because we travelled a long way,'' Hiscock said.

Ukrainian visitor Oleksandr Beshkynskyi shared their joy that the festival went ahead as planned.

‘’It’s not just about the one DJ or two DJs you’re looking to see, but about all the mood and about the dream being alive," Beshkynskyi said.