Modest Heroes

Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Director of Kanini & Kanino

Yonebayashi joined Studio Ghibli in 1996 as an in-between animator on Princess Mononoke (1997) and My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999), and was a key animator on the Oscar® winning Spirited Away (2001), Ghiblies episode 2 (2002), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008). After his work as Assistant Supervising Animator for Tales from Earthsea (2006), Yonebayashi debuted as a director on Arrietty
(2010), that year’s top grossing film in Japan. He directed When Marnie Was There (2014), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film. He also directed Studio Ponoc’s debut feature-length animated film Mary and The Witch’s Flower (2017) and Kanini & Kanino, a film in the studio’s short-film anthology Modest Heroes – Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1 (2018)."

Yoshiyuki Momose, Director of Life Ain’t Gonna Lose

Momose joined Studio Ghibli after working as Key Animator on Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies (1988), then was in charge of storyboard drawings for Takahata’s Only Yesterday (1991) and Pom Poko (1994) and computer-generated portions of Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997), and was a leading Key Animator of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) and sequence director for Takahata’s My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999). After debuting as the director of a theatrical feature with the Ghiblies episode 2 (2002), Momose was in charge of scene design for Takahata’s final masterpiece, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013). At Studio Ponoc, he directed Life Ain’t Gonna Lose, one of the three short films in Studio
Ponoc’s anthology Modest Heroes – Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1 (2018), Tomorrow’s Leaves (2021), an animated short film created in collaboration with the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage and his latest work is The Imaginary (2023)."

Akihiko Yamashita, Director of Invisible

Yamashita started working as a freelance animator in the 1980s and worked on several projects including character design, storyboards, and key animation supervision of Giant Robo The Animation – The Day the Earth Stood Still (1992-1998). His first work for Ghibli was as a key animator for Spirited Away. He has since played an important role in various Studio Ghibli films such as The Wind Rises (2013), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), The Secret World of Arrietty (2010), From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008), When Marnie Was There (2014), and Mary and The Witch's Flower (2017). He debuted as Director on A Sumo Wrestler's Tail (2010), a short film for the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. At Studio Ponoc, he directed Invisible (2018)."