Top 10 Best Movies Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Studio Ghibli's absolute crown jewel, and the only hand-drawn, non-English-language film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Ten-year-old Chihiro finds herself in a magical spirit bathhouse after her parents are turned into pigs. A timeless coming-of-age fairy tale full of wonder, No-Face, and the witch Yubaba.

Miyazaki's most epic and mature masterpiece. The violent conflict between Lady Eboshi's expanding iron industry and the ancient animal forest gods led by the wolf-girl San. A philosophical epic without simple heroes or villains, about the fragile balance between humanity and nature.

When young hatmaker Sophie is turned into a 90-year-old woman by a witch, she finds refuge in the walking mechanical castle of the wizard Howl. Miyazaki's adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' novel is a dazzling pacifist fairy tale romance featuring the fire demon Calcifer.

Two young sisters move with their father to an old house in the countryside to be close to their sick mother, and befriend the giant, huggable forest spirit Totoro and the Catbus. A wonder of warmth, melancholy, and the comforting power of childhood imagination.

Miyazaki's second Oscar-winning masterpiece. After his mother dies during wartime Tokyo, young Mahito enters a magical tower, guided by a mysterious heron. A deeply personal, surreal testament about grief, creation, and passing the world on to the next generation.

A melancholic fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi, the engineer who designed the famous Zero fighter plane for Japan during World War II. Miyazaki examines the tragic dilemma of an artist whose boyhood dream of flight is co-opted for mass destruction.

The ecological sci-fi film that led to the founding of Studio Ghibli. Princess Nausicaä glides on her wind glider over a toxic jungle ravaged by humanity, trying to stop a war between rival nations and giant mutant insects (Ohmu).

Studio Ghibli's very first official production. A breathtaking steampunk adventure about a boy and a girl with a levitation stone, pursued by sky pirates and secret agents searching for the legendary flying kingdom of Laputa.

Thirteen-year-old witch Kiki sets off on her broomstick with her talking black cat Jiji to a sunny coastal town to become independent for a year, starting a flying delivery service. A heartwarming story about growing up, burnout, and rediscovering your self-confidence.

"I'd much rather be a pig than a fascist." A melancholic Italian World War I flying ace has been cursed into the form of a pig and hunts sky pirates in his fiery red seaplane over the Adriatic Sea. Miyazaki's most stylish ode to aviation.