Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata (Studio Ghibli co-founders)

Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿 Miyazaki Hayao^?, born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli, a film and animation studio. Born in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Miyazaki began his animation career in 1961, when he joined Toei Animation.

Isao Takahata (高畑 勲 Takahata Isao^?, born October 29, 1935) is a Japanese anime filmmaker that has earned critical international acclaim for his work as a director. Takahata is co-founder of Studio Ghibli with long-time collaborative partner Hayao Miyazaki. He has directed films such as the war-themed Grave of the Fireflies, the romantic-drama Only Yesterday, the ecological-adventure Pom Poko and the comedy My Neighbors the Yamadas. Of these Grave of the Fireflies is considered by film critic Roger Ebert one of the greatest war films ever made.^[1] Unlike most anime directors, Takahata doesn't draw and never worked as an animator before becoming a full fledged director.
According to Hayao Miyazaki, "Music and study are his hobbies".

Takahata graduated from the University of Tokyo French literature course in 1959.
Takahata was originally intrigued by animation after having seen the French animated cartoon feature Le Roi et l'oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird) based on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

While Miyazaki's films have long enjoyed both commercial and critical success in Japan, he remained largely unknown to the West until Miramax Films released Princess Mononoke. Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing film in Japan—until it was eclipsed by another 1997 film, Titanic—and the first animated film to win Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards. Miyazaki returned to animation with Spirited Away. The film topped Titanic's sales at the Japanese box office, also won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards and was the first anime film to win an American Academy Award.

Miyazaki's films often contain recurrent themes like humanity's relationship with nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic.

List of Studio Ghibli films