Studio Ghibli Fest Is Bringing Your Favorite Films Back To Theaters For Their 40th Anniversary

Fans of classic anime are flocking to theaters this summer and fall for Studio Ghibli Fest 2025, celebrating forty years of the beloved studios award-winning output.

Founded on June 15, 1985, by animation directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, joined by producer Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli quickly became known for some of the most popular anime films of all time, including such greats as My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and The Wind Rises. Studio Ghibli’s most recent release—expected to be Miyazaki’s last film—was 2023’s The Boy and the Heron. He has retired before, but at the age of 84, he’s entitled to some time off.

Studio Ghibli’s films are known globally for sumptuous animation and beautiful soundtracks. At its founding, the studio’s parent company was Tokuma Shoten, the publisher of the popular anime and manga magazine Animage. The first of its kind, from its founding in 1987 Animage was intended for a general audience, whereas other animation magazines were aimed at professionals. As one of the magazine’s editors, Toshio Suzuki met Miyazaki and Takahata through Animage’s coverage of their movie releases. Both directors credit Suzuki for being a major force in the founding of Studio Ghibli. 

In 2005, the studio broke off from Tokuma Shoten and became an independent company with Suzuki as the Studio Ghibli’s president. Walt Disney Studios handles international and home video distribution for the studio’s releases. Disney might also have been an inspiration for Ghibli Park, a theme park based on Studio Ghibli’s releases, in Nagakute, Aichi, Japan.

What is Studio Ghibli Fest?

Studio Ghibli Fest brings classic Studio Ghibli movies back to theaters across the U.S., so they can be viewed on the big screen—as these beautiful productions deserve. The films are shown in the original Japanese and dubbed in English, on different days. This year’s lineup began with Kiki’s Delivery Service (May 17–21) and continues with The Secret World of Arriety (June 22–24), director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s adaptation of the classic children’s novel The Borrowers. Author Mary Norton’s 1952 book told the story of the Clock family, tiny people who live in the walls and floor of a house of people-sized people. The tiny ones “borrow” from the home’s residents to survive.

Following that are My Neighbor Totoro (July 19–23), Grave of the Fireflies (August 10–12), Ponyo (August 23–27), Howl’s Moving Castle (September 20–24), Spirited Away (October 18–22), and The Boy and the Heron (November 15–19). In the United States, Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 and 2023, respectively.

Upon its initial release, Spirited Away became Japan’s highest grossing film of all time, a record it held until 2019 when it was topped by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, which not only beat it in Japan but became the highest grossing film of 2020 worldwide. It’s currently available on Crunchyroll.