PARIS: Japanese anime powerhouse Studio Ghibli Inc. will be given an Honorary Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, it was announced Wednesday.

“For the first time in our history, it’s not a person but an institution that we have chosen to celebrate,” Iris Knobloch, president of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Fremaux, general delegate, said in a statement.

In the festival, to be held in May in France, the award will be given for the long-term achievements of the studio, known for its films by director Hayao Miyazaki.

“I am truly honored and delighted that the studio is awarded the Honorary Palme d’Or,” Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki was quoted as saying. “I would like to thank the Festival de Cannes from the bottom of my heart. … I am sure that Studio Ghibli will continue to take on new challenges.”

The Festival de Cannes said that Ghibli “has unleashed a fresh wind on animated films over the past four decades” since its establishment in 1985.

The studio “achieved what seemed to be an impossible feat: independently producing pure masterpieces and conquering the mass market,” its statement said.

Jiji Press