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Ghibli's Isao Takahata to Receive Annie Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award
posted on by Jabulani Blyden
Entertainment news website Variety announced on Thursday that Studio Ghibli's co-founder Isao Takahata will receive the Winsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement at the 43rd Annie Awards on Saturday.
Takahata will receive the award alongside Phil Roman (Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown's co-director) and the late Joe Ranft (head of story at Pixar).
Variety asked Takahata if The Tale of Princess Kaguya was his last film or if he was inspired with another story, and Takahata responded, "I have several projects that I still have in mind that I am currently working on to get closer to realizing. Whether those will be finalized as films is something that no one, myself included, can know."
Takahata recently declined an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. According to a source connected to the matter, Takahata cited "being too busy at work" as the reason for his refusal.
Takahata had a long career directing such classics as Little Norse Prince Valiant (Taiyō no Ōji - Hols no Daibōken), Alps no Shōjo Heidi, and Anne of Green Gables before he co-founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki. He went on to create the feature films Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko, and My Neighbors the Yamadas
The Annie Awards honor excellence in the animation industry. The awards have 36 categories encompassing animated feature films, TV series, as well as individual awards in film and television. Studio Ghibli's When Marnie Was There and Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and The Beast have received nominations this year in a new category: Best Animated Feature-Independent. When Marnie Was There's Hiromasa Yonebayashi has also been nominated for Outstanding Achievement awards in the writer and director categories.
Studio Ghibli's The Wind Rises won Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production at the 41st Annie Awards. Akira's Katsuhiro Ōtomo was honored with the Winsor McCay Award that year. Takahata's The Tale of Princess Kaguya was nominated for the Best Animated Feature, Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production, and Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production at last year's Annie Awards, but did not win.
Source: Variety
