Studio Ghibli is one of the most well-known and most respected animation studios not only in Japan, but in the world as well. For this year’s Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, the beloved animation studio gets the honor of winning the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Prize .

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The award is given to “an Asian filmmaker or group that has significantly contributed to the development of the Asian film industry and Asian culture,” and Studio Ghibli is definitely one of those as it blazed the trail for Japanese animation and captured the world’s imagination with films such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, and of course, My Neighbor Totoro.

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Attending the South Korean film festival will be co-founder, Toshio Suzuki, who will be accepting the award on behalf of the legendary animation studio. The festival will also be screening Miyazaki Hayao’s My Neighbor Totoro (1988) in the Open Cinema section and Takahata Isao’s Only Yesterday (1991) in the Wide Angle – Animation Showcase section.

Previous recipients of this award includes distinguished Asian filmmakers such as  Andy Lau, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Yash Chopra. NHK also won the award and has been the only company to win it until now.

Source: VarietyÂ