There’s a beautiful animated short making the rounds—and knocking the socks off Studio Ghibli fans—and while it looks like it was made by a team of animators, it was created primarily by one person: a French art student named Gwenn Germaine.
Developed for a final project at the Parisian university Créapole, Celles et Ceux des Cimes et Cieux (aka “Girls and Guys from Summits and Skies”) tells the story of a young man who lives in a giant tree and needs to find his way back home after he falls into the forest below. It’s an obvious (and beautiful) love letter to legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, with homages to Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and even a cameo from a man who looks quite a bit like Miyazaki himself. Kudos to Germain—this is one hell of a final project.