Animated Features From Miyazaki and Others Toon Up Screens at Global Film Festivals
variety.comGregg Goldstein When Hayao Miyazaki’s semi-autobiographical fantasy “The Boy and the Heron” has its international premiere Sept.
7, it won’t just be the first animated film to open TIFF, or the master director’s first in a decade. It will be part of an unexpected resurgence of animated work for cineastes at major international festivals. “When we started doing [2017’s] ‘Loving Vincent,’ only one adult animated film every five years got any kind of recognition,” says Hugh Welchman, who directed ”Vincent” and his Sept.
8 world premiere “The Peasants” with wife D.K. Welchman. “Now it seems that every year one kind of breaks out.” Their Oscar-nominated Vincent van Gogh biopic helped inspire this trend, earning $42.2 million worldwide on a $5.5 million budget. “Heron” is already continuing arthouse animation’s successful run, taking in $50.6 million since July in Japan alone.
And prominent fests are increasing their support: in 2019, Cannes launched an Animation Day in partnership with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
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