HAYAO MIYAZAKI Exhibit to Close at the Academy Museum

Hayao Miyazaki, the Academy Museum's acclaimed exhibition, will close on June 5, 2022. Marking the first museum retrospective in North America dedicated to the legendary filmmaker and his work, the exhibition has been on view since the museum's opening on September 30, 2021. Presented in the museum's Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery on Level 4, the exhibition features approximately 300 objects from Miyazaki's animated feature films, including My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and the Academy Award®-winning Spirited Away (2001).

Thematically organized in seven sections, the exhibition is designed as a journey. Visitors travel through Miyazaki's six-decade career via a dynamic presentation of original imageboards, character designs, storyboards, layouts, backgrounds, posters, and animation cels, as well as large-scale projections of film clips and immersive environments. June 5 is the last day visitors will be able to see many of these objects in person-a rare and exclusive opportunity as many have never been on view outside of Japan.

Highlights of the exhibition include the entry corridor where visitors follow 4-year-old Mei, a character from My Neighbor Totoro, into the Tree Tunnel gallery, a transitional space that leads into Miyazaki's enchanted worlds; the Sky View installation, where visitors can enjoy a moment of quiet contemplation, addressing another frequent motif in Miyazaki's films-the desire to reflect and dream; and the immersive Magical Forest with its Mother Tree installation. Standing at the threshold between dream and reality, colossal, mystical trees in many of Miyazaki's films represent a connection or gateway to another world. In the forest, visitors will discover spirits appearing and disappearing and be able to read some of Miyazaki's poetry.

Hayao Miyazaki was curated by the museum's Exhibitions Curator Jessica Niebel and Assistant Curator J. Raúl Guzmán, and organized in collaboration with Japan's Studio Ghibli, which Miyazaki co-founded in 1985. The Academy Museum exhibition galleries are open seven days a week, with hours Sunday through Thursday from 10am to 6pm and Friday and Saturday from 10am to 8pm.

FILM SCREENINGS

In celebration of the final months of the exhibition Hayao Miyazaki, the Academy Museum is screening key films by the director. All will screen in the David Geffen Theater on English-subtitled 35mm prints, most newly-struck by the Academy Film Archive.

Upcoming screenings include:

• Howl's Moving Castle (2004) | Friday, May 13 at 7:30pm
• Ponyo (2008) with discussion between Exhibitions Curator Jessica Niebel and Assistant Curator J. Raúl Guzmán | Friday, May 27 at 7:30pm

Image Credit: Mother Tree, Hayao Miyazaki, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/© Academy Museum Foundation

To post a comment, you must register and login.