Having opened to record-breaking success in Japan earlier this month, TIFF has announced that Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s long-awaited new film The Boy and the Heron will serve as the Opening Night Gala Presentation of September’s 48th Toronto International Film Festival.
“We are honoured to open the 48th Toronto International Film Festival with the work of one of cinema’s greatest artists,” said Cameron Bailey, CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival. “Already acclaimed as a masterpiece in Japan, Hayao Miyazaki’s new film begins as a simple story of loss and love and rises to a staggering work of imagination. I look forward to our audience discovering its mysteries for themselves, but I can promise a singular, transformative experience.”
The Boy and the Heron will become both the first Japanese film and first animated film to open Toronto, although many Ghibli titles have screened at the festival over the years including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, From Up on Poppy Hill, and Miyazaki’s last film The Wind Rises, which was released back in 2013.
The Boy and the Heron will open the 48th Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, September 7th, and has been acquired for distribution in North America later in the year by GKIDS. As yet, there’s no word on any UK release details.
