Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Set To Open The 71st Annual San Sebastian Festival

Hayao Miyazaki - SICHOV/SIPA

International award-winning animator and director Hayao Miyazaki will have his animated fantasy epic The Boy and the Heron open for the 71st San Sebastian Festival (SSF), screening on September 22, 2023. Miyazaki’s film, produced by his production company Studio Ghibli, is declared to be his last. The Boy and the Heron will also open for the Toronto Film Festival in the span of a couple of weeks.  

The San Sebastian screening will mark the film’s European premiere. The double opening feature is a testament to the high regard Miyazaki is held within the industry and an upgrade in the importance of animation at San Sebastian. This is the fourth time a film by the Japanese moviemaker will screen at the SFF and the first time Miyazaki will participate in its Official Selection, the festival noted on Thursday, August 17. 

Miyazaki was previously at San Sebastian’s big screen Velodrome with Spirited Away and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, and in Perlak, San Sebastian’s best of fests spread with The Wind Rises. San Sebastian’s competition includes other animated features like Isabel Herguera’s Sultana’s Dream, and They Shot the Piano Player from Oscar winner Fernando Trueba. An animated feature has opened for San Sebastian before with Juan José Campanella’s Underdogs (Metegol) in 2013.

The Boy and the Heron premiered earlier this year in Japan, earning $13.2 million in its opening weekend to mark it as the biggest debut in Studio Ghibli’s history. The film follows a boy named Mahito Maki, who discovers an abandoned tower in his new town and enters a fantasy world with a talking grey heron. Animated film distributor Gkids will distribute The Boy and the Heron in North American theaters in late 2023.