WHEN HAYAO MIYAZAKI personally accepted the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival last weekend, observers were shocked. After all, the man rarely shows his face.
This master of personal expression and beauty in hand-drawn animation has avoided promoting his films at festivals - such as in Venice last year, when Howl's Moving Castle premiered, or in 2002 when Spirited Away won the Berlin Festival's top prize, the Golden Bear. He didn't even attend the Oscars, when Spirited Away won the award for animated film in 2002.
Yet, here he was in Venice, at the behest of festival director Marco Muller, an Asian specialist and regular visitor to Japan.
Miyazaki told a packed press room that he had come 'because of Marco Muller's passion in asking me'. But he has expressed disdain for awards.
'I hate sitting, worrying whether I'll get this award or not,' he says. 'I knew for sure that I was getting an award here, so that's why I came.' Miyazaki, a sprightly 64 year-old with an impish grin, has been described as the 'god of Japanese anime'.
Spirited Away is the biggest earner in Japanese box-office history, beating out Titanic. Miyazaki's previous feature, Princess Mononoke, held third place until it was overtaken recently by Howl's Moving Castle.