Legendary and Academy Award-winning animation director, Hayao Miyazaki is not exactly retired, and it is evident as he is still planning to make a few animated shorts. This good news was revealed by his close friend and Studio Ghibli producer, Yoshiaki Nishimura, who recently sat down with UK news website, Den of Geek, for an interview.

Myazaki-oscar

According to Nishimura, the man behind such classics like My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away, is planning more animated shorts for the Ghibli Museum.

“Ah! Yes. Miyazaki’s plan is to produce 12 short films to be shown at the museum. If there are 12 of them, we can rotate them once a month. At the moment, they have nine, so there are three more to go. So Miyazaki’s working on that. Apart from that, there are talks of 15 to 30 second TV commercials, or TV series, but nothing is concrete.”

However, Nishimura did not state whether Miyazaki himself will be directing these three shorts, but as Nishimura revealed, it is Hayao Miyazaki himself who is doing the planning. Of the nine existing animated shorts for the Ghibli Museum, only seven are directed by Miyazaki himself.

Miyazaki retired back in 2013, with his final film, The Wind Rises, getting nominated for an Oscar. However, he clarified that he is only retiring from directing feature films, and would only be directing animated shorts for the Ghibli Museum every now and then.

In the interview with Den of Geek, Nishimura talked more about his latest film, When Marnie Was There, which he produced. You can check out his full interview here: http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/studio-ghibli/40880/when-marnie-was-there-director-producer-interview