Yoshiaki Nishimura

Yoshiaki Nishimura is a Japanese film producer, born in Tokyo on 25 September 1977, who became the lead producer at Studio Ghibli and then founded his own animation company, Studio Ponoc. When Toshio Suzuki stepped back from producing in March 2014 to become general manager, Nishimura took over the producer role at Ghibli. He produced The Tale of Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There, and the two films earned him consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, in 2014 and 2015. After Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement and the studio paused to reassess its future, Nishimura left Ghibli together with director Hiromasa Yonebayashi and other staff and founded Studio Ponoc in April 2015. The new studio's first feature was Mary and the Witch's Flower, released in 2017. His later credits include Modest Heroes, Tomorrow's Leaves and The Imaginary.