Hayao Miyazaki, anime director and animator, will soon retire from filmmaking it was announced at the premiere of his latest and last film, The Wind Rises, at the Venice Film Festival. Koju Hoshino, president of Miyazaki's production company, Studio Ghibli, made the announcement at the premiere of the studio's competition title and refused to answer any more questions about Mr. Miyazaki's retirement, according to Deadline.

Watch The Trailer For The Wind Rises:

The 72 year-old anime artist and director, famed for his works on films such as Princess Mononoke, Laputa: Castle In The Sky, and My Neighbour Totoro, won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2001 for Spirited Away and was nominated for the same category in 2004 for Howl's Moving Castle.

Little is known so far about Mr. Miyazaki's reasons for retirement but Mr. Hoshino did say that more details would be revealed next week at a Tokyo news conference, explaining "he wants to say goodbye to all of you."

The Wind Rises, Studio Ghibli's latest movie and Mr. Miyazaki's swan song, tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi - the real life man who designed fighter planes for the Japanese army during World War II. The film opened in Japan in July and is expected to be released in the rest of the world this Autumn after its New York Film Festival showing on 28th September.

Vincent Maraval, long-time collaborator of Hayao Miyazaki and Wild Bunch co-founder, has expressed his awe of mr. Miyazaki's career whilst confirming the news, calling the retirement as "the end of an era." Mr. Maraval said "For me, he is simply the greatest animator that ever was." Knowing there will be no more "Ponyo or Catbus or monsters or witches or resourceful little girls, is very strange,"

Mr. Maraval adds. "At the same time, he is ending on a masterpiece that leaves us with his great humanism and a vision of our century to contemplate."

Disney will release The Wind Rises under the Touchstone banner.