Studio Ghibli movies screening outside Japan for first time

Hayao Miyazaki won’t be attending Cannes this year. Instead, a Studio Ghibli representative will accept the Honorary Palme d’or for the famed studio, bringing along some exclusive screenings as well.

Hayao’s fellow Studio Ghibli director and his son, Gorō Miyazaki, are representing the anime movie production company at the annual film festival. Gorō will take part in a ceremony at Cannes on Monday, May 20, at 3:30pm CET to receive the prize for Ghibli.

Excitingly, four shorts are being shown as part of the event, three of which have never made their way outside of Japan. The four films are: Mei and the Baby Cat Bus, House Hunting, Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess, and Boro the Caterpillar, all made and screened exclusively at the Ghibli museum in Mitaka.

Mei and the Baby Cat Bus, a follow-up to My Neighbor Totoro, was once shown to employees at Pixar by Hayao during his visit stateside while promoting Spirited Away in 2002. Until now, those were the only ones lucky enough to see the production properly outside of Ghibli’s own screening rooms.

These aren’t the only Ghibli rarities at Cannes, either. A behind-the-scenes documentary, Hayao and the Heron, charting his time directing The Boy and the Heron, is being shown on Sunday, May 19, at 9:30pm CET.

So far, Hayao and the Heron is just an extra on the Japanese home media release of The Boy and the Heron. With any luck, the subtitled version shown at Cannes will be what comes with the Blu-ray and 4K versions in the US and Britain.

For now, Cannes attendees get to be the lucky ones. If you’d like to see more of what’s been shown at the festival, check out our Furiosa review and our Kinds of Kindness review. We have an upcoming anime guide, for what shows and films you definitely can watch soon.