Homage to Japanese legends at the 77th Cannes Film Festival

This year's Cannes Film Festival will pay homage to Japan's contribution to film over the years.  The poster for the Cannes Film Festival, for ecxample,  is inspired by the film Rhapsody in August by legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, while an an honorary Palme d'Or will be awarded to Japanese animators Studio Ghibli, creators of Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron.

Kurosawa was 81 at the time his film Rhapsody in August was presented Out of Competition in at the Cannes festival in 1991.

Based on the novel Nabe no naka by Kiyoko Murata, it tells the story of a grandmother who lost her husband in the 9 August 1945 atomic bombing of the city of Nagasaki by the United States.

While caring for her four grandchildren over that summer, she finds out she has a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him before he dies. American film star Richard Gere appears as Suzujiro's son Clark.

Despite the suffering, she shares a message of faith in love and integrity as a bulwark against war.

The image for the poster, in several hues of blue, shows the cast from behind, contemplating an evening sky, with the Cannes palm logo shining down at them like a moon.

It was designed by Lionel Avignon and Stefan de Vivies from the Hartland Villa studio, the same company who designed the festival poster in 2023 with Catherine Deneuve and with Spike Lee in 2021.

Cinema to combat oblivion

The organisers said they wanted to communicate the Seventh Art as a place of peace, where "everyone has a voice.

"Because it [cinema] remembers wounds, it combats oblivion. Because it bears witness to perils, it calls for union. Because it soothes trauma, it helps repair the living. 

"In a fragile world that constantly questions otherness, the Festival de Cannes reaffirms a conviction: cinema is a universal sanctuary for expression and sharing," the press statement reads.

Rhapsody in August was the second last film to be made by the director of Sanshiro Sugata, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Dersu Uzala and Dodes'ka-den.

Kurosawa won the Palme d'Or in 1980 for Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior) and in 1983, designed the poster for the Cannes Film Festival.

Meanwhile, another genre of Japanese filmmaking is also being honoured this year.

The Oscar-winning Studio Ghibli, co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki 40 years ago, will be awarded an honorary Palme d'Or for its contribution to cinema.

It will mark the first time that that Cannes is giving an award to a collective rather than an individual.

Ghibli is known worldwide for its masterpieces like Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle.

Miyazaki makes few public appearances and his long-time collaborator Isao Takahata died in 2018.

Bridging tradition and modernity

The other founder, producer Toshio Suzuki, said he was "truly honoured and delighted" to be receiving the award.

Ghibli's "characters populate our imaginations with prolific, colourful universes and sensitive, engaging narrations," said the Cannes organisers in a statement.

"With Ghibli, Japanese animation stands as one of the great adventures of cinephilia, between tradition and modernity," they added.

Miyazaki, now 83, has announced his retirement more than once, but was back in cinemas last year with The Boy and the Heron, which won the Oscar for best animated film last month, his second after Spirited Away in 2003.

It had previously been announced that another huge figure in cinematic storytelling, George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, would also receive an honorary Palme at this year's festival, which runs from 14 - 25 May.

(with newswires)