Annecy 2024: A First Look at "The Wild Robot"

by Cláudio Alves

Photo by Marc Piasecki | © Getty Images for DreamWorks Animation

Paper airplanes fly through the air, zipping across the auditorium and above the audience. Some crash land on unsuspecting heads, while others sway wild into oblivion, lost in dark corners of the cinema. It's a merry sight, which only grows merrier when these crafts arrive at their intended destination – the stage – prompting applause from the crowd in good festival fashion. Within this hubbub of enthusiasm, a sense of community prevails, made more heartfelt by the presence of children among press folk, the families of filmmakers and animators excited to see how the world reacts to their work. Such was the scene at the Annecy Film Festival, as DreamWorks Animation came to celebrate its 30th anniversary and present The Wild Robot…

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Cannes 2024: Three more titles join the Official Competition

by Cláudio Alves

Michel Hazanavicius joins the Official Competition with an animated film.

As expected, a few more titles have been added to this year's Cannes Film Festival lineup. In the Premiere section, Jessica Palud's Maria Schneider biopic joins a star-studded selection. One of this year's two Count of Monte-Cristo adaptations will screen Out of Competition, while a pair of buzzy documentaries will bow in the Special Screenings program. They are Oliver Stone's Lula and Lou Ye's An Unfinished Film. Other new titles in that section include Arnaud Desplechin's latest Paul Dedalus film and Nasty, directed by Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu, and Tudor D. Popescu. But of course, the most important announcements concern the Main Competition, where three films complete the 22-title lineup…

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A Palme d'Or for Studio Ghibli

by Cláudio Alves

NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984) is the only Miyazaki film ever screened at Cannes.

In 1997, to mark the occasion of its 50th edition, the Cannes Film Festival awarded a special Palme des Palmes to Ingmar Bergman. Afterward, and since 2002, it has also attributed the Honorary Palme d'Or to film artists in honor of their esteemed careers. Until now, the prize has gone to directors, producers and actors such as Catherine Deneuve, Manoel de Oliveira, and Agnès Varda, among many others. This year, however, the festival will award its first Palme d'Or to animated cinema and a group rather than an individual. The honoree is Studio Ghibli, cofounded by Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, and the dear departed Isao Takahata. This comes after The Boy and the Heron won the studio its second Oscar and breaks with American dominance over these Honorary awards in the past few years.

It's a joyous occasion but it's also imbued with a fair amount of sorrow…

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My Miyazaki Ranking: Part Four – The Eternal Mystery

by Cláudio Alves

Exploring Hayao Miyazaki's filmography is to dive into a cinema that's often as moving as it is mysterious. Connections to the land abound, calling for ecological harmony in a place ravaged by modernity. Tradition dances with progress, teetering on the edge of oblivion, while dreams soar high above the clouds, for flight is the highest form of freedom. Even his most straightforward exercises tend to have an oneiric touch, some connection to the unknown within us and the world we inhabit. Because he taps into such (un)realities, Miyazaki's narrative work can move between genres and expectations, often complicating conflicts beyond the usual archetypes or doing away with them altogether. And through it all, animation allows the impossible to become possible, the screen a window to imagination unbound…

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My Miyazaki Ranking: Part Three – Self-Portraits

by Cláudio Alves

One way or another, artists can't help but put some part of themselves into their work. It might not be obvious or a direct expression of character. It might not even be conscious on their part. However, it's there for those willing to see, from works by the most self-effacing hacks to world-renowned auteurs. Hayao Miyazaki is no different, though he's sometimes prone to underselling just how personal some of his pictures can be. Of course, there's no denying the introspection happening in his most recent "last films," and not even the director has tried to distance The Wind Rises or The Boy and the Heron from such interpretations. But there's more self-portraiture in his filmography than just those late-career triumphs. I'd say there's a lot of Miyazaki in a little witch who loved to fly…

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