KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — Japanese animation giant Studio Ghibli will receive an Honorary Palme d’Or award at the upcoming 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

In a statement from Cannes yesterday, the festival revealed that this will be the first time the award is given to a group.

The award is given to directors or actors who ‘had achieved a notable body of work’ but have never won a competitive Palme d’Or.

Previous Honorary Palme d’Or recipients have included Ingmar Bergman, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, and George Lucas among others.

Cannes said the Studio Ghibli founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata ‘unleashed a fresh wind on animated film’ since the 1980s by creating great stories and beloved characters.

Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki said he was honored and delighted that the studio will be given the prestigious award.

"I would like to thank the Festival de Cannes from the bottom of my heart,” Suzuki said in a statement.

"Forty years ago, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and I established Studio Ghibli with the desire to bring high-level, high-quality animation to children and adults of all ages.”

"Today, our films are watched by people all over the world, and many visitors come to the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka and Ghibli Park to experience the world of our films for themselves.”

Suzuki added that Studio Ghibli had come a long way to become a big figure in animation and although he and Miyazaki have aged they look forward to ‘taking on new challenges’ with the staff.

Festival de Cannes president Iris Knobloch said that this will be the first time Cannes celebrates the achievement of an institution instead of an individual.

"With Ghibli, Japanese animation stands as one of the great adventures of cinephilia, between tradition and modernity,” said Festival de Cannes General Delegate Thierry Frémaux.

Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by Miyazaki and Takahata after the success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to produce high quality independent films that will succeed commercially.

The studio would go on to release Grave of Fireflies and My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Monoke, and Spirited Away which would become highly acclaimed animated films.

Spirited Away and Miyazaki’s latest film The Boy and the Heron have both won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards.