Kiki's Delivery Service

Japan | 1989 | 102 minutes | Director: Hayao Miyazaki 

As is traditional for trainee witches, thirteen-year-old Kiki leaves home with her black cat named Jiji, whom she can understand. She flies on her broomstick to the port city of Koriko. While searching for somewhere to live, Kiki is pursued by Tombo, a geeky boy obsessed with aviation who admires her flying ability. 

In exchange for accommodation, Kiki helps Osono, the kindly and heavily pregnant owner of a bakery. She opens a "Witch Delivery Business", delivering goods by broomstick. 

Kiki's Delivery Service was originally intended to be a 60-minute special, but expanded into a feature film running 102 minutes after Miyazaki completed storyboarding and scripting it. Nowadays this coming of age film is one of the most beloved works from the legendary Studio Ghibli and the Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki. In 2019 celebrate the 30th anniversary of this classic animation!

Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking animation in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan. Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1997) received the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Award for Best Film and was the highest-grossing domestic film in Japan's history at the time of its release. In 2002, American film critic Roger Ebert suggested that Miyazaki may be the best animation filmmaker in history, praising the depth and artistry of his films. In November 2014, Miyazaki was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for his impact on animation and cinema. He is the second Japanese filmmaker to win this award, after Akira Kurosawa in 1990.