Known for Directing
Hayao Miyazaki (Miyazaki Hayao, born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly five decades, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company. The success of Miyazaki's films has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney, British animator Nick Park as well as Robert Zemeckis, who pioneered Motion Capture animation, and he has been named one of the most influential people by Time Magazine. Miyazaki began his career at Toei Animation as an in-between artist for Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon where he pitched his own ideas that eventually became the movie's ending. He continued to work in various roles in the animation industry over the decade until he was able to direct his first feature film Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro which was published in 1979. After the success of his next film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, he co-founded Studio Ghibli where he continued to produce many feature films until Princess Mononoke whereafter he temporarily retired. While Miyazaki's films have long enjoyed both commercial and critical success in Japan, he remained largely unknown to the West until Miramax released his 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing film in Japan—until it was eclipsed by another 1997 film, Titanic—and the first animated film to win Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards. Miyazaki returned to animation with Spirited Away. The film topped Titanic's sales at the Japanese box office, also won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards and was the first anime film to win an American Academy Award. Miyazaki's films often incorporate recurrent themes, such as humanity's relationship to nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. Reflecting Miyazaki's feminism, the protagonists of his films are often strong, independent girls or young women. Miyazaki is a vocal critic of capitalism and globalization. While two of his films, The Castle of Cagliostro and Castle in the Sky, involve traditional villains, his other films such as Nausicaa or Princess Mononoke present morally ambiguous antagonists with redeeming qualities.
Born
January 5, 1941 (age 85)
Birthplace
Tokyo, Japan
Filmography
217 films, 28 shows


Sherlock Hound: The Movie
2024 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
A collection of two theatrical rereleases from 1984 and 1986, each containing two episodes from the Sherlock Hound TV series


The Boy and the Heron
2023 · 2h 4m
country: Japan
While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother's tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy's mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him the "long-awaited one."


Boro the Caterpillar
2018 · 14m
country: Japan
Just before dawn, Boro the Caterpillar hatched from an egg among patches of scrub grass. Looking around for the first time, he noticed the brilliance of the morning sun and a deliciousness in the air. Boro lowered himself down to the ground from the groundsel, and stepped out into the world of caterpillars and caterpillars' enemies.


The Wind Rises
2013 · 2h 6m
country: Japan
A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.


Treasure Hunting
2011 · 9m
country: Japan
The film is an adaptation of a picture book by Rieko Nakagawa and Yuriko Yamawaki, with illustrations by Yuriko Omura. In the story, a boy named Yuuji and a rabbit named Gikku find a stick at the same time, and decide to compete in games to decide who can keep the stick. However, whether it is a foot race, long jump, or sumo wrestling, they always end up in a tie.


Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess
2010 · 12m
country: Japan
The story of a tiny Egg-girl who is forced to serve the evil Boar-like witch Baba Yaga. But after a blob of Dough comes to life, she befriends him and both escape from the witch's home at a Water mill on a cliff and set off to see the world. The soundtrack is Joe Hisaishi's arrangement of Vivaldi's La Folia


Ponyo
2008 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
When Sosuke, a young boy who lives on a clifftop overlooking the sea, rescues a stranded goldfish named Ponyo, he discovers more than he bargained for. Ponyo is a curious, energetic young creature who yearns to be human, but even as she causes chaos around the house, her father, a powerful sorcerer, schemes to return Ponyo to the sea.


Madaran's World
2007 · 1m
country: Japan
The universe of strange and colorful creatures that are born, eat, are eaten... and are reborn indefinitely on the screen.


The Day I Bought a Star
2006 · 16m
country: Japan
A young boy is tired of the city and escapes into the country. Two strangers trade him a strange seed. The boy accepts and the seed sprouts into a miniature planet, which continues to grow.


Mon Mon the Water Spider
2006 · 15m
country: Japan
The short film's main character is a diving bell spider who seems to have fallen in love with a water strider. Although she is scared of him at first, the water strider soon gets used to the presence of the spider.


House Hunting
2006 · 12m
country: Japan
A girl goes exploring to find a new house. Along the way, she encounters many of Japan's guardian spirits.


Howl's Moving Castle
2004 · 1h 59m
country: Japan
Sophie, a young milliner, is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king.


Tacolator
2002 · 1m
country: Japan
An octopus goes up an escalator placed in the water.
Bobo-kun
Bobo-kun
2002 · 1m
country: Japan
Bobo-kun is a fire demon who eats coal continuously.
Piyopiyo Baba
Piyopiyo Baba
2002 · 1m
country: Japan
The witch Yubaba from Spirited Away faces the viewer then laughs exaggeratedly, her mouth wide open. She spins around 180 degrees and a baby bird comes out of her hair, singing. The bird disappears in the hair of the witch who resumes her initial position and leaves with a great burst of laughter.


Imaginary Flying Machines
2002 · 6m
country: Japan
Kuso no Sora Tobu Kikaitachi (Imaginary Flying Machines) is a 2002 Japanese animated short film produced by Studio Ghibli for their near exclusive use in the Ghibli Museum. It features director Hayao Miyazaki as the narrator, in the form of a humanoid pig, reminiscent of Porco from Porco Rosso, telling the story of flight and the many machines imagined to achieve it.


Mei and the Kittenbus
2002 · 13m
country: Japan
Mei is eating a caramel on one very windy day, when suddenly a whirlwind appears and starts chasing her. The whirlwind turns out to be a baby cat bus. Mei offers the kitten a caramel and the two become friends. That night, the baby cat bus visits Mei. Letting Mei ride inside him, he leaps out into the sky. They head for the midnight forest full of ghosts. Other cat buses large and small have also gathered together.


Koro's Big Day Out
2002 · 14m
country: Japan
The film is about Koro the puppy, who runs away from his mistress, experiences some adventures around town and who is finally happily returned home.


The Whale Hunt
2001 · 16m
country: Japan
Kujiratori tells the story of school children pretending they are building a boat. As imagination replaces reality, they find themselves on the ocean, hunting for a whale. A big, gentle whale appears, accompanies them back to land and plays with them. Then the fantasy ends and the children are back in their class room.


A Splendid Dance
2001 · 2m
country: Japan
A sewing dummy turns on itself. Her white dress then reveals her different layers of colors. It then returns to a stationary state.


Rambutan Adventures
2001 · 1m
country: Japan
The hero, Rambutan, fights against a rival inside an old convertible launched at high speed. His opponent manages to rush him out of the vehicle and then bends over the hero's girlfriend who desperately resists by kicking him in the face. Meanwhile, Rambutan catches up with the car running. He throws himself on his enemy and gets rid of him then kisses his girlfriend. The rival arises again, separates the two lovers and he and Rambutan fight again. The cycle resumes.


The Fish of the Fish
2001 · 1m
country: Japan
A small white fish enters the frame and is eaten by a larger one, then the latter is in turn eaten by an even larger fish... At the end, only a huge white fish remains which seems to shrink in size. swimming towards the bottom of the screen. He leaves the frame and the cycle resumes.


Spirited Away
2001 · 2h 5m
country: Japan
A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.


Princess Mononoke
1997 · 2h 14m
country: Japan
Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict.


Chage & Aska: On Your Mark
1995 · 7m
country: Japan
Set in the future: Two men learn that a mysterious winged girl has been taken prisoner, and then decide that they must free her at any cost.


Lupin the Third: Greatest Capers
1995 · 50m
country: Japan
A compilation of two episodes from the second Lupin III television series that was released on video from Streamline Pictures.


Porco Rosso
1992 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
In Italy in the 1930s, sky pirates in biplanes terrorize wealthy cruise ships as they sail the Adriatic Sea. The only pilot brave enough to stop the scourge is the mysterious Porco Rosso, a former World War I flying ace who was somehow turned into a pig during the war. As he prepares to battle the pirate crew's American ace, Porco Rosso enlists the help of spunky girl mechanic Fio Piccolo and his longtime friend Madame Gina.


Kiki's Delivery Service
1989 · 1h 43m
country: Japan
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.


My Neighbor Totoro
1988 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.


Castle in the Sky
1986 · 2h 5m
country: Japan
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.


Sherlock Hound: Mrs. Hudson Is Taken Hostage / The White Cliffs of Dover
1986 · 46m
country: Japan
In Baker City, London, the city of fog, the famous trademark Detective Holmes has a pipe as its trademark. Together with his assistant Watson, he uses his clear mind to solve difficult cases.


Sherlock Hound: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle / Treasure Under the Sea
1984 · 46m
country: Unknown
The famous blue ruby is stolen in such an elaborate way, that only one villain can be suspected - Professor Moriarty. It is up to Sherlock Holmes to return it and, in the process, to turn a young pick-pocket on the right path. In the second part, Moriarty sets his sights even higher, stealing a top-secret submarine from the Navy. What does he need it for? Holmes is once again on the trail.


Future Boy Conan: The Big Giant Robot's Resurrection
1984 · 49m
country: Japan
In the aftermath of a war fought by magnetic weapons which caused massive earthquakes, a young and spunky boy naned Conan gets involved in a grand adventure. Conan lives in a world that is mostly oceans; the major land masses having been destroyed by the weapons of the great war. He meets a young girl named Lana, and they eventually foil the plans of the city-state of Industria which wants to regain the lethal weapons. Note: This film is only a compilation of the final three episode of the television series.


Warriors of the Wind
1984 · 1h 35m
country: Japan
After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.


The Castle of Cagliostro
1979 · 1h 42m
country: Japan
After a successful robbery leaves famed thief Lupin the Third and his partner Jigen with nothing but a large amount of expertly crafted counterfeit bills, he decides to track down the forgers responsible—and steal any other treasures he may find in the Castle of Cagliostro, including the 'damsel in distress' he finds imprisoned there.


Yuki's Sun
1972 · 5m
country: Japan
TV pilot based on an original manga by Tetsuya Chiba, about a 10-year old girl named Yuki. An orphan who's being adopted by a family.