Born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, in 1973, Makoto Shinkai made his commercial debut with the short film he produced on his own, Voices of a Distant Star.
Since then, every project he directed has been very well received, including the 2004 film The Place Promised in Our Early Days (garnering the Animated Feature award at the 59th Mainichi Film Concours), the 2007 film 5 Centimeters Per Second (awarded Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards), the 2011 film Children Who Chase Lost Voices (receiving the 8th Annual CICAF Golden Monkey King award), and the 2013 film The Garden of Words (awarded Best Feature Animation at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film).
More recently, his 2016 film Your Name. became an international sensation and social phenomenon, smashing Japanese box office records, winning several awards at the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize, including Excellent Prize for Animation Film, Excellent Prize for Director (Makoto Shinkai), Excellent Prize for Screenplay (Makoto Shinkai) and Excellent Prize for Music (RADWIMPS), and the 42nd Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature.
Makoto quickly followed up that success with Weathering with You (2019), which represented Japan for Best International Feature Film in the 92nd Academy Awards.
