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Asian productions or nominees with a predominantly Asian cast have been making headway at the Academy Awards in recent years. South Korean thriller “Parasite” made history in 2020 as the first non-English language movie to win best picture, alongside three further awards. "The Boy and the Heron" producer Toshio Suzuki speaks at a news conference in Los Angeles on March 11, 2024. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty ImagesFor others, the award offered Japan a boost after a rough start to the year. Kelts, the Japan-based author, said the second Oscar win showed the Academy had recognized Miyazaki’s artistic genius and that Japanese animation is far from solely entertainment.

Persons: CNN —, Hayao Miyazaki, ”, Huy Quan, Malaysia’s Michelle Yeoh, Heron ”, Ghibli’s, “, Roland Kelts, Miyazaki, Richard Harbaugh, Toshio Suzuki, ‘, ’ Suzuki, Suzuki, ” Suzuki, Richard A, Brooks, Tatsuji Nojima, “ Oscar, Takashi Yamazaki, Fumio Kishida, Yamazaki, ” Kishida, Hideaki Omura, Godzilla’s, Chris Hemsworth, Anya Taylor, Joy, Patrick T, Fallon, Kelts Organizations: CNN, Academy, Sony Pictures, Culture, Oscar Academy, Ghibli, Japan’s, NHK, Getty, Japan, Sunday, Gov, Hollywood, American, Waseda University Locations: Japan, America, Vietnam, ” Tokyo, Hollywood, Los Angeles, AFP, Aichi prefecture, Miyazaki, Japanese, Ishikawa, Tokyo

☆ 2024 Review: Oscars hits and misses including best moments, performances and speeches
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The Oscars faced the double whammy of starting an hour earlier and the switch to Daylight Savings Time. Video Ad Feedback See who Host Jimmy Kimmel thanked in his opening monologue at the Academy Awards 01:04 - Source: CNNBrevity (relatively, anyway). A clip of late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is played onstage during the 96th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California on March 10, 2024. Even with “Oppenheimer” nearly blotting out the sun, seven of the 10 best-picture nominees went home with at least something, with “Maestro,” “Past Lives” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” being the three that left empty-handed. Becky G performs during the 96th Academy Awards.

Persons: Ryan Gosling’s, “ Oppenheimer, ”, Christopher Nolan’s, Emma Stone, Lily Gladstone, Jessica Lange, Michelle Yeoh, Charlize, Theron, Jennifer Lawrence, Sally Field, Richard Harbaugh, A.M.P.A.S, Joy Randolph, He’s, Ken, Ryan Gosling, “ I’m, Ken ”, Emily Blunt, Barbie, Gosling, Jimmy Kimmel, Kimmel, helpfully, Alexey Navalny, Patrick T, Fallon, Jonathan Glazer’s, Mstyslav, Sen, Katie Britt, Donald Trump’s, “ Maestro, Hayao Miyazaki’s, John Cena’s, Becky G, Stewart Cook, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Michael Keaton Organizations: CNN, Savings, International Alliance, Alliance, Television Producers, Getty Locations: Hollywood , California, AFP, Gaza, Russian, Mariupol, Ukraine

Though one of the most potent and long-running (or at least long-stomping) forces in movies, Godzilla has never before rubbed elbows at the Academy Awards. At the Oscar luncheon, Steven Spielberg warmly greeted Yamazaki and told him he had seen “Godzilla Minus One” three times. But “Godzilla Minus One” returns to the essential nature of Godzilla as a sober symbol of nuclear holocaust and atomic trauma. My intent was to put a spotlight on what Godzilla represented.”In “Godzilla Minus One,” just as WWII is ending, Godzilla is growing. But unlike more broadly blockbuster-styled Godzilla films, “Godzilla Minus One” is rigorously rooted in a Japanese perspective.

Persons: he’s, “, ”, Takashi Yamazaki, —, Yamazaki, Ishirō Honda, Steven Spielberg, ” Yamazaki, ‘, ’, ’ They’ve, “ Oppenheimer, “ Barbie, Christopher Nolan’s, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Raymond Burr, Koichi, Ryunosuke, Robert Oppenheimer’s, Nolan, we’re, Hayao Miyazaki’s, Miyazaki, ‘ Oppenheimer, Jake Coyle Organizations: Academy, Toho, “, Galaxy, U.S ., Pictures, Warner Bros, American Locations: Tokyo , Hong Kong, Paris, San Francisco, Boston, Moscow, London, Hawaii, U.S, Canada, Canadian, Tokyo, Japan, Bikini, Kong, Hiroshima, Nagasaki

☆ How GKids Became the A24 of Animation
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-12 | by ( Carlos Aguilar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The hand-drawn movie has a real shot at winning and becoming the first GKids release to do so. How has a small outfit focused on animation managed to have such an outsized effect in Hollywood? Eric Beckman, a former music industry executive, founded GKids with the intent of redefining American audiences’ perception of animation as more than a children’s medium. At the time, family-friendly, computer-generated and stylistically similar studio productions had an even tighter stronghold on animation in the United States than they do today. GKids has since filled a precious gap by consistently releasing bold animated work from around the world.

Persons: Kells ”, Hayao Miyazaki’s, Eric Beckman, GKids, ” Organizations: Academy of Motion Picture Arts, Sciences, Ghibli Locations: GKids, Hollywood, United States

☆ ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Review: Hayao Miyazaki Has a Question for You
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

That blurred distinction is a hallmark of Miyazaki, whose films (among them “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away”) are windows into the subconscious. In interviews collected in the book “Starting Point: 1979-1996,” Miyazaki referred to a universal “yearning for a lost world” he refused to call nostalgia, since even children experience it. But that heron (voiced by Masaki Suda) keeps appearing, luring him toward the tower, taunting him with forbidden knowledge. (Robert Pattinson voices the heron in an English-language version that features Christian Bale, Gemma Chan and many others.) Even by his standards, though, “The Boy and the Heron” is enigmatic, at least regarding plot.

Persons: Miyazaki, ” Miyazaki, ”, we’ve, “, Mononoke ”, “ It’s, Masaki Suda, Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Gemma Chan, isn’t, — Locations: Miyazaki’s, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Japan

Tokyo CNN —The iconic Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli, which created internationally beloved films including “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away,” has been sold to Nippon TV after failing to find a successor for its legendary co-founder and director Hayao Miyazaki. “With director Hayao Miyazaki now 82 years old and producer Toshio Suzuki also 75, Studio Ghibli has long been struggling with the issue of their successors,” the statement said. Nippon TV and Studio Ghibli have long worked together, with the former broadcasting Ghibli films on air, investing in Ghibli movie productions, and even helping fund the Ghibli Museum, the statement said. Under the new arrangement, Nippon TV will become the largest Ghibli shareholder with 42.3% of the voting rights. Since its founding in 1985, Studio Ghibli has been known for its hand-drawn animation, sticking to old-school, painstaking frame-by-frame methods.

Persons: ”, Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, “, —, Ghibli, Miyazaki, Suzuki, Mononoke ” Organizations: Tokyo CNN, Ghibli, Nippon TV, Nippon, Kyodo, Suzuki, Ghibli Museum Locations: Tokyo

TOKYO (AP) — Studio Ghibli, the famed Japanese animation studio of Hayao Miyazaki, will become a subsidiary of Nippon Television Network Corp., both sides said Thursday. Nippon TV said it will send executives to support Ghibli’s management, while honoring its creative independence so it can focus on animation and other artistic projects. Ghibli and Nippon TV have collaborated in the past, since “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” aired on TV in 1985. Nippon TV has also helped produce various Ghibli works, starting with Miyazaki’s 1989 “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” It also helped set up the museum devoted to Ghibli works in Tokyo. He has produced an extensive range of animation works enjoyed by adults as well as children, including “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Ponyo.”___Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Persons: Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Suzuki, Yoshikuni Sugiyama, Sugiyama, Goro, “, ”, ” Miyazaki, ” ___ Yuri Kageyama Organizations: TOKYO, Nippon Television Network Corp, Nippon, Ghibli, Nippon TV Locations: Tokyo

TORONTO (AP) — Three generations of a Ukrainian family sit in a van in the documentary “In the Rearview.” They stare straightforward, staggered by all they’ve left behind. “I come from an aristocratic family,” one woman says in the film. The biggest battleground isn’t just a war zone but the home. In recent years, Canada has reckoned with its past treatment of Indigenous people, including heinous sterilization programs and forced-schooling systems. “Coming to New Zealand, being Māori, we don’t see enough of ourselves on screen,” Waititi said.

Persons: ”, “, Maciek Hamela’s van, Um Tae, Lee Byung, Ly’s, ” Ly, Oscar, Les, Alexis Manenti, Cameron Bailey, Waititi, ” Waititi, ” Hollywood’s, ” Andrew Haigh’s “, —, Cord, Jeffrey Wright, Hayao, Miyazaki, Alexander Payne’s “, Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa —, Agnieszka Holland’s “, Raoul Peck’s “, James Baldwin, –, Melvin, Peck, William Tecumseh Sherman, Garrison Frazier, Jonathan Glazer, Rudolf Höss, Christian Friedel, Hedwig, Sandra Hüller, Glazer, Nikolaj Arcel’s “, Mads Mikkelsen, Jonathan Demme’s, David Byrne, Jake Coyle Organizations: TORONTO, Toronto, America Samoa soccer team, “, Twitter Locations: Ukraine, Seoul, South Korea, Paris, Batiment, France, Canada, America, New Zealand, ” Toronto, Venice, New England, Belarus, Poland, Haitian, North Carolina, Georgia, Auschwitz, Denmark, Jutland Heath

For Miyazaki, who painstakingly crafts thousands of hand drawings for a film, it's a long and laborious process. Several of Miyazaki's films rank among the biggest box-office hits ever in Japan; there are few other filmmakers today as revered — and fiercely beloved — as Miyazaki. “I am making this movie because I do not have the answer," Miyazaki told The New York Times in 2021. We are again, invited into a dizzyingly colorful otherworldly fantasy of Miyazaki's making. If this is to be the last Miyazaki movie (it would be unwise to ever really count him out), it's a tremendously moving goodbye.

Persons: Miyazaki's, Miyazaki, “, ”, —, Mozart, Guillermo del Toro, Mahito Maki, Soma Santoki, It's, Mahito's mother's, Yoshino Kimura, Mahito's, Masaki Suda, Mei, Mahito, Jake Coyle Organizations: TORONTO, Toronto, New York Times, Twitter Locations: Japan, Miyazaki, Toronto, Tokyo

TORONTO (AP) — When the Hollywood actors union announced a strike this summer, Cameron Bailey, the longtime chief executive of the Toronto International Film Festival, dusted off his COVID-19 playbook. “This is the nature of running a festival,” Bailey says. We support them, but we’ll miss them.”The dual strikes have already taken the spotlight at the Venice Film Festival. “I’ve loved movies since I was child and I’ve never been to a film festival before,” says Jefferson. “Even the idea that I’m going to a film festival with a film that I’ve directed feels surreal.

Persons: Cameron Bailey, ” Bailey, Hayao Miyazaki’s, Oscar, “ Harry Potter, David Yates, Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, they’re, ”, Yates, “, Damien Chazelle, Adam Driver, Michael Mann, “ Ferrari, Bradley Cooper, Leonard Bernstein, “ Maestro, Cooper, Yorgos, Alexander Payne’s “, ” George C, Wolfe’s “ Rustin ”, Andrew Haig’s “, Bailey, Craig Gillespie’s, Gillespie, Lars, Tonya ”, ” Gillespie, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, Duncan Crabtree, ” Crabtree, Sean Penn, Dakota Johnson, Jessica Chastain, Willem Dafoe, Nicolas Cage, Finn Wolfhard —, Viggo Mortensen’s “, ” Kristin Scott Thomas ’ “, ” Michael Keaton’s “ Knox, ” Ethan Hawke’s “, Anna Kendrick’s, Lil Nas, Montero, ” “, Paul Simon ”, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin’s “, Jessica Yu’s “, Cord Jefferson, Larry Wilmore, Percival Everett’s “, Jeffrey Wright, “ I’ve, I’ve, Jefferson, “ I’m, Jake Coyle Organizations: TORONTO, Hollywood, Toronto, ”, SAG, Venice Film, Netflix, Amazon, Telluride Film, GameStop, America Ferrera, Cannes, Twitter Locations: North America, Toronto, Venice, Telluride, Cannes, Ireland

☆ 8 of the world’s best new theme parks
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Kate Springer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Peppa Pig Theme Park, FloridaFlorida's Peppa Pig Theme Park opened in 2022. Peppa Pig Theme ParkThe world’s first Peppa Pig Theme Park opened last year in Winter Haven, Florida, and has been delighting children with wholesome fun ever since. Look out for another Peppa Pig Theme Park, opening in Dallas, Texas, next year. Peppa Pig Theme Park. Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park, MalaysiaMalaysia's Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park offers 26 attractions across nine themed areas.

Persons: we’re, Katmandu, Kilgore Goode, Kyle Grillot, Peach’s, Mount Beanpole, Mario, Bowser, Bowser Jr, Tomohiro Ohsumi, Miyazaki’s, There’s, LEGOLAND, gil, Aquaverse, there’s, Chang, Potato’s, Grandad, Wynter, ” Organizations: CNN, Northern, Columbia Pictures, Super Nintendo, California Mario Kart, Universal Studios Hollywood, Bloomberg, Universal Studios Japan, Mushroom Kingdom, Toadstool, Nintendo, Universal City Plaza, Universal, Ghibli, Ghibli Park, South Korea LEGOLAND, LEGOLAND, Thailand Columbia Pictures, Columbia, Lotte, Adventure, South Korea Lotte, Adventure Busan Lotte, Tinker, Potato’s Showtime, Genting, Andromeda Base, Plaza, Genting SkyWorlds Locations: Japan, Thailand, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Caribbean, Nepal, Av, Alemania, California, Bowser’s, Mount, Universal City , CA, Nagoya, Nagakute, Aichi, Korea, South Korea, York, Legoland, LEGOLAND Korea, Chuncheon, Seoul, Gangwon, Asia, Pattaya, Bangkok, Transylvania, Chon, Adventure Busan, Tinker Falls, “ Queen, “, Busan, Florida, Winter Haven , Florida, Dallas , Texas, Wynter Haven , Florida, Malaysia, Resorts, Kuala Lumpur, Rio, Liberty Lane, Central Park, Genting, Genting Highlands, Pahang

☆ Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan: What it’s like to stay at the world’s oldest hotel
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Mayumi Maruyama | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Minobu, Japan CNN —Tucked deep in the mountains of Japan’s Yamanashi prefecture, the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan has tatami floors, kimono-sporting staff and signs in handwritten calligraphy. But its popularity received a huge boost in 2011 when the Guinness Book of World Records designated Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan as the oldest hotel in the world. The front entrance of Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan. Courtesy Nishiyama Onsen KeiunkanLearning to let goStandard rooms at Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan have three sections: two sitting areas and one living space. To solve this, he took over the original shares of the business and created the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Limited company.

Persons: Japan CNN —, that’s, Fujiwara, Naruhito, ”, Michiyo Hattori, Mayumi Maruyama, they’re, Kenjiro Kawano, CNN Kawano, Kawano, “, Kawano couldn’t, ” Kawano Organizations: Japan CNN, World Records, Mount, ”, Staff, CNN, Keiunkan Limited Locations: Minobu, Japan, Yamanashi, Tokyo, Shizuoka, Mount Fuji, It’s

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