CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/7/2021

'Hayao Miyazaki' is new from DelMonico Books and Academy Museum of Motion Pictures!

Featured spreads are from Hayao Miyazaki, the gorgeous, richly illustrated survey published to accompany the first-ever retrospective of the legendary Japanese animated filmmaker’s work in the United States—which also happens to be the inaugural exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, opening September 30, 2021. Exhibitions curator Jessica Niebel writes, “There is no doubt that Hayao Miyazaki’s films are exceptional. This is true not only of the quality of the animation—a huge team effort that requires the grueling work of the most talented and experienced craftspeople in Japan—but also of the filmmaker’s approach and his intent. While Miyazaki is driven by the desire to create films that are entertaining, he believes they should, above all, have purpose and meaning. Touching something deep within our souls, his films elicit a powerful longing for another world—a world that may not be perfect but is nevertheless beautiful. We might even believe this place exists somewhere not too far from our own reality. Perhaps his films feel so strangely familiar because they share their creator’s understanding of the world, of humanity and of the times we live in. Miyazaki is much more than an animator or a director of films. He is an auteur and a philosopher who seeks to express his insights, values and vision through animated films. While never negating, simplifying or downplaying the problems that we—and his protagonists—may face along our journey, he seeks to convey that there is still beauty in this world, something to be appreciated, something to give us hope."