Award-winning Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, a director and founder of the renowned Japanese animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli, is recognized as one of the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees.
Miyazaki is being honored for “his lifelong commitment to the use of art, specifically animation, to illuminate the human condition, especially lauding his devotion to children as the torchbearers of the imagination, to whom he has passed the light and spark of his own.”
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said the 83-year old Miyazaki “tackles complicated issues, using art to make them comprehensible to children.
“He educates by entertaining,” the foundation said.
Among his films are “Spirited Away” and “The Boy and the Heron,” which both won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
The other awardees this year are Bhutan’s Karma Phuntsho, Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, Indonesia’s Farwiza Farhan, and Thailand’s Rural Doctors Movement.
Phuntsho founded an educational charity in Bhutan while Nguyen is a Vietnamese physician who dealt with the effects of a toxic chemical used by the United States during the Vietnam War. Farhan heads a foundation dedicated to protecting Sumatra Island’s Leuser Ecosystem.
“This year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardees have reminded us that the future is shaped by those who dare to envision a better world and dedicate themselves to turning that vision into reality,” the foundation said.
Each of them will receive a medallion bearing the likeness of the late President Ramon Magsaysay, a certificate inscribed with their citation, and a cash prize.
The award will be formally bestowed at the 66th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Presentation Ceremonies on November 16 at Manila’s Metropolitan Theater.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki among 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees”
