Makoto Shinkai

Makoto Shinkai (新海誠), formerly known as Makoto Niitsu (新津誠), born February 9, 1973 in Ogai-cho, Minamisaku-gun, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese animation director, screenwriter, and manga writer, who graduated from Nozawa-Kita Higher School in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, and from the Faculty of Literature, Department of Japanese Literature, Chuo University, Japan.

In 1997, he directed the black-and-white short film Distant World, which won the eAT Kanazawa '98にて Special Award. 2000, he directed the black-and-white animated short film She and Her Cat, which won the Most Outstanding Award at the 12th DoGA CG Animation Competition. 2002, he directed the animated film The Sound of the Stars. 2004, November 20, he directed his first feature-length film The Other Side of the Clouds, the Promised Land. On November 20, 2004, he directed his first full-length feature film "The Other Side of the Clouds, the Promised Land", which won the 59th Japan Daily Screen Awards Animation Prize.On March 3, 2007, he wrote and directed the animated romance film "5 Centimeters in a Second", which won the Best Animated Film Award at the Asia Pacific Film Festival.

On May 7, 2011, he directed the fantasy adventure animated film The Child Who Chases Stars, which was released.On May 31, 2013, he wrote and directed the romance animated film The Court of Words and Leaves, which was released, and won the Most Outstanding Award in the Feature Film Division of the Stuttgart International Animated Film Festival.In 2016, he wrote and directed the animated film Your Name. In 2016, he wrote and directed the animated film Your Name, for which he won the Best Screenplay Award at the 40th Japan Film Academy Awards and the Best Director Award at the 26th Japan Film Critics Awards. 2018, he directed the animated feature film Weatherchild, and in November 2019, Makoto Shinkai's animated film Weatherchild won the Best Animated Film Award at the 44th Newspaper Film Awards.