An award well deserved.

“Spirited Away” creator and Academy Award winner Hayao Miyazaki was honored at this year’s annual Ryman Arts dinner and program with the Sklar Creative Visionary Award. The Japanese moviemaker’s portfolio carries an impressive list of films including “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Ponyo,” and “The Wind Rises,” which earned an Academy award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film in 2013.

Awards and nominations also line up behind Miyazaki. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame and received an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 2014.

Phil Hettema, president of the Ryman Arts Board and President and Creative Executive of the Hettema Group, said that Miyazaki’s work has “advanced the art of visual storytelling and influenced the entire genre of animation,” which is why he was presented with such a big award.

The writer/director has 10 feature films and 11 television series to his credits. Currently, he is working on a new project at Studio Ghibli in Tokyo, Japan, which he co-founded in 1985 with Isao Takahata.

Other famous works under his belt include Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) and Princess Mononoke (1997).

Miyazaki is the second winner of the award. Last year’s recipient was Marvel Studio president, Kevin Feige.