The Princess of Asturias Awards, Premios Princesa de Asturias, has decided to award Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. It is the most prestigious award coming from Spain, handed out every year since 1981 in Oviedo, capital of Principality of Asturias, by the heir to the Spanish throne.
The award goes to of Studio Ghibli, instead of being personalised by one figure like Hayao Miyazaki, recognising the entire studio's incredible output of anime masterpieces produced during the last 40 years, including My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), and The Boy and the Heron (2023).
However, it is a bit unusual that Studio Ghibli has been recognised with the Communication and Humanities instead of the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, which historically has recognised several figures from the world of cinema, including Meryl Streep in 2023, composers Ennio Morricone and John William who shared the award in 2020, as well as directors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Haneke, Pedro Almodóvar, Woody Allen, Fernando Fernán Gómez, and Luis García Berlanga. This year's Award for the Arts was given to singer, poet, author and painter Patti Smith.
The Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities is usually awarded to people, but sometimes it goes to institutions or organisations, like the Guadalajara International Book Fair and Hay Festival of Literature & Arts in 2020, the Prado Museum in 2019, the Royal Society in London in 2011, the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 2009, or even Google in 2008. Last year it was given to South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han, and the previous year was awarded to Iranian novelist Marjane Satrapi; and in 2012 it was awarded to Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto, a rare recognition of video games as art in the elite circles.
