San-Sebastian International Film Festival opens with THE BOY AND THE HERON by Hayao Miyazaki.

Having worked for companies including Toei and Nippon Animation, Hayao Miyazaki joined Isao Takahata to found Studio Ghibli, from which he has directed films such as Tonari no Totoro / My Neighbour Totoro (1988), Kurenai no buta / Porco Rosso (1992) and Mononoke hime / Princess Mononoke (1997). In 2001, with Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi / Spirited Away (Velodrome, 2001), he bagged the Golden Bear in Berlin and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Hauru no ugoku shiro / Howl's Moving Castle (2004) earned him another Academy Award nomination and garnered a Golden Osella for its technical achievements in Venice, the festival that gave him a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Next came Gake no ue no Ponyo / Ponyo (Velodrome, 2009) and Kaze tachinu / The Wind Rises, Perlak (2013), also nominated for an Academy Award.

A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death and creation, in tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.