The Directors Project: #14 - Hayao Miyazaki

Scene from Cinema Paradiso

With the many lists and essays written on the subject of film, there has been one thing that The Oscar Buzz has tried to understand: Who is my favorite of the film world? For 10 weeks this summer, I will be exploring this with a countdown of the Top 50 names based on a numerical ranking of ratings from various sources, the following is a list of directors who rank above everyone else. With occasional upsets, this is intended as both a discussion opener as well as a better understanding of me as a film critic and fan. Please enjoy and leave any comments you have regarding the entry's selection.

My Top 10 Favorite Best Animated Feature Nominees

Ratatouille

This past weekend, How to Train Your Dragon 2 opened in theaters, and I was very ecstatic about it. I still consider it to be something of a masterpiece that will hopefully find more legs as its box office history continues. With the expectations of it topping next year's Academy Awards, it got me thinking: what are my favorite Best Animated Feature nominees? In the category's brief, 13 year existence, it has celebrated the growth of a style that used to be a lot cruder. However, it has also shown the progression effectively, especially as computer technology has trumped traditional technique and has taken some films into new artistic zones. 

Is "From Up on Poppy Hill" the First Best Animated Feature Contender?

This week, director Goro Miyazaki's From Up on Poppy Hill receives limited release. For many, Studio Ghibli is the premiere animation studio from Asia, having given us such gems as Princess Mononoke and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. The only difference is that those were made by Goro's father Hayao. While the studio continues to regale with quality work each year, they haven't had any success with the Academy Awards since 2005's Howl's Moving Castle. Is it possible that as one of the first notable animated features of 2013 that this will be the year that they return to the Best Animated Feature category?