Guillermo del Toro: The Life Story Behind the Monster Master
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Guillermo del Toro was born on 9 October 1964 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and he became one of the most original directors in world cinema, a film-maker whose monsters are not villains but victims, and whose films, from Pan’s Labyrinth to The Shape of Water, have won Academy Awards and the love of audiences around the world. He grew up in Guadalajara, in a strict Catholic household, watching horror films and drawing monsters, and he began making short films as a teenager, learning makeup and special effects before he ever directed a feature. His career has moved between Mexico, Spain, and Hollywood, between Spanish-language art films and English-language blockbusters, and his friendship with Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, the Three Amigos of Mexican cinema, has become one of the best-known stories in modern film. Guillermo del Toro’s story is about a boy who loved monsters, and who grew up to make the most humane monster movies ever made.
Guadalajara: A Boyhood of Monsters and Movies
Guillermo del Toro Gómez was born in Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, Mexico, the son of Federico del Toro, a businessman, and Guadalupe Gómez, who was a homemaker, and he grew up in a large, traditional Catholic family, with a grandmother who was deeply religious and who told him stories about the supernatural. As a child he was fascinated by horror films, by monsters, and by the macabre, watching movies on television and drawing creatures in his notebooks, a passion that his family found strange but that they indulged. He attended school in Guadalajara, where he was a good student but a daydreamer, and where his interest in film was already clear to his teachers and his friends. The Guadalajara childhood was happy, creative, and steeped in Mexican culture, with its Day of the Dead traditions, its Catholic imagery, and its folk tales about ghosts and monsters, all of which would later show up in his films. The boy who drew monsters in his notebooks was already a director, even if he did not know it yet.
As a teenager del Toro began making short films with a Super 8 camera, filming his friends and his family in horror stories that he wrote and directed himself, and he learned the craft of film-making by doing it, without formal training. He also became interested in makeup and special effects, studying the work of the American makeup artist Dick Smith, who had created the effects for The Exorcist, and teaching himself to create monsters with latex, foam, and paint. The teenage years were a period of intense creativity, with del Toro making short films, drawing, and writing, and with his family supporting his ambitions, even when they did not understand them. He has spoken about the influence of his grandmother, who was a devout Catholic and who believed in the supernatural, and about the stories she told him, which mixed religion and horror in a way that would define his films. The Guadalajara years were the foundation, and the monsters he drew as a boy would become the monsters of his films.
By the time del Toro was in his twenties, he had decided to become a film-maker, and he studied at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Cinematográficos at the University of Guadalajara, where he learned film theory and production, and where he met other young film-makers who would become his collaborators. He also founded a special effects company, Necropia, in the 1980s, which provided makeup and effects for Mexican films and television, and which gave him a practical education in how to create creatures on a budget. The company was a success, and its work was respected in the Mexican film industry, but del Toro wanted to direct, not only to create effects, and the short films he made during this period, including Doña Lupe in 1985 and Geometría in 1987, showed a director with a distinct visual style. The Guadalajara years were a period of learning, in which del Toro built the skills, the network, and the reputation that would allow him to make his first feature film. The makeup artist was about to become a director.
Makeup, Short Films and the First Features
Guillermo del Toro’s first feature film, Cronos, was released in 1993, and it told the story of an antique dealer who discovers a golden device, a scarab, that grants eternal life at a terrible price, in a film that mixed horror, fantasy, and a touching story about a grandfather and his granddaughter. The film, which was made on a modest budget in Mexico, starred Federico Luppi as the antique dealer and Ron Perlman as a villain, and it won awards at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Critics’ Week prize, and it established del Toro as a director to watch. Cronos was a remarkable debut, because it showed a film-maker who could create a monster movie that was also a love story, and whose monsters were sympathetic rather than evil. The film’s success in Mexico and internationally gave del Toro the credibility to make his next film, and it introduced him to Ron Perlman, who would become his most frequent collaborator. Cronos remains one of del Toro’s most personal films, and it is still regarded as one of the best Mexican horror films ever made.
The success of Cronos led to an offer from Hollywood, and del Toro’s second film, Mimic, released in 1997, was a studio horror film about genetically engineered cockroaches in the New York subway, starring Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam. The film’s production was difficult, with studio interference, budget problems, and creative disagreements, and del Toro has spoken about the experience as a painful education in how Hollywood works, in which a director’s vision can be compromised by producers who do not understand it. Mimic was a commercial disappointment, although it has since gained a cult following, and its director’s cut, released years later, is closer to del Toro’s original vision. The experience taught del Toro to be wary of Hollywood studios, and to insist on creative control in his future films, a lesson that would shape his career. The Hollywood education was expensive, but it was necessary, because it taught him what he did and did not want from the American film industry. Mimic was a failure, but it was a useful one.
After Mimic, del Toro returned to Spanish-language film-making, with The Devil’s Backbone in 2001, a ghost story set in a Spanish orphanage during the Spanish Civil War, which he made in Spain with the producer Pedro Almodóvar. The film, which starred Marisa Paredes and Eduardo Noriega, was a critical success, and it established del Toro as a director who could make a horror film that was also a historical drama, with a ghost who is a victim rather than a villain. The Devil’s Backbone was followed by Blade II in 2002, a Hollywood sequel in which del Toro returned to the studio system, this time with more control, and the film, starring Wesley Snipes as the vampire hunter Blade, was a commercial success. The two films, made back to back, showed del Toro’s range, from a small, personal Spanish film to a large, commercial American one, and they established a pattern that would define his career: alternating between personal films and studio films, between Spanish and English, between art and commerce. The pattern worked, because it allowed him to make the films he wanted, while also making the films that paid for them.
Cronos, Mimic and the Hollywood Education
The Devil’s Backbone, released in 2001, is a film that deserves more attention than it gets, because it is a ghost story that is also a war story, set in an orphanage in Spain during the final year of the Spanish Civil War, with a bomb, unexploded, in the courtyard, as a symbol of the violence that surrounds the children. The film’s ghost, Santi, is a boy who was murdered, and whose spirit haunts the orphanage, not to frighten but to seek justice, and del Toro’s treatment of the ghost, as a sad, lonely child, is characteristic of his work. The film was produced by Pedro Almodóvar, Spain’s most famous director, and its Spanish setting, its historical context, and its emotional depth made it a critical success. The Devil’s Backbone is often paired with Pan’s Labyrinth, as a companion piece, because both films are set during the Spanish Civil War and both use fantasy to tell a story about war, and the two together form a diptych that is one of the great achievements of modern cinema. The film’s reputation has grown over the years, and it is now regarded as a classic.
Blade II, released in 2002, was del Toro’s return to Hollywood, and it was a commercial success, grossing more than one hundred and fifty million dollars, and it showed that he could make a studio action film without losing his visual style. The film, starring Wesley Snipes as Blade, a half-vampire who hunts vampires, featured del Toro’s signature creatures, with elaborate makeup and designs, and its action sequences were praised for their energy and their inventiveness. The film’s success gave del Toro the credibility to make his next personal film, and it established his relationship with Ron Perlman, who played a supporting role, and with the studio system, which now trusted him with larger budgets. Blade II is not del Toro’s most personal film, but it is an entertaining one, and it is a useful example of how a director with a strong visual style can work within a franchise. The film’s success also led to Hellboy, a comic book adaptation that would become one of del Toro’s most beloved films, and that would define his blockbuster years.
The Spanish films, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, are the heart of del Toro’s work, because they are the films in which his themes, childhood, war, fantasy, and monsters, are most fully realised, and in which his visual style is most distinctive. The films’ settings, in Spain during and after the Civil War, give them a historical weight that his American films lack, and their stories, about children who use fantasy to survive war, are among the most moving in modern cinema. Del Toro’s Spanish is the language of his most personal work, and his collaboration with Spanish producers, actors, and crews gave him a creative freedom that Hollywood rarely allowed. The Spanish films are not only del Toro’s best work; they are also a reminder that a director’s native language and culture are often the source of their greatest art. The boy from Guadalajara found his voice in Spain, and the voice he found there would speak to the world.
The Devil’s Backbone, Blade II and the Spanish Films
Pan’s Labyrinth, released in 2006, is Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece, a dark fantasy set in Spain in 1944, after the Spanish Civil War, in which a young girl, Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero, escapes the cruelty of her stepfather, a fascist captain played by Sergi López, by entering a magical labyrinth, where she meets a faun who gives her three tasks. The film, which was written and directed by del Toro, was a critical and commercial success, winning three Academy Awards, for cinematography, art direction, and makeup, and it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay. The film’s creatures, the Faun, played by Doug Jones, and the Pale Man, also played by Jones, are among the most memorable in modern cinema, with their elaborate designs and their terrifying presence. Pan’s Labyrinth is a film about a child’s imagination as a refuge from war, and its ending, which is deliberately ambiguous, has been debated by audiences ever since. The film is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 2000s, and it is del Toro’s defining work.
The making of Pan’s Labyrinth was a labour of love, with del Toro writing the script over many years, drawing the creatures himself, and insisting on filming in Spain, in Spanish, with a cast that included Spanish actors and a young girl, Ivana Baquero, who was eleven years old when she was cast. The film’s production was difficult, with a modest budget, long days, and the challenge of creating creatures with practical effects, rather than with computer graphics, a choice that del Toro made deliberately, because he believes that a real creature, made of latex and foam, is more convincing than a digital one. The film’s cinematography, by Guillermo Navarro, gives it a dark, rich look, with deep greens and browns, and its music, by Javier Navarrete, is haunting and beautiful. Pan’s Labyrinth premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a twenty-two-minute standing ovation, one of the longest in the festival’s history, and its success made del Toro a world-famous director. The film’s legacy is enormous, and it remains the standard against which del Toro’s later work is measured.
Pan’s Labyrinth’s impact went beyond awards, because it changed how the world saw del Toro, from a horror director to a major artist, and it proved that a Spanish-language fantasy film could be a global success. The film’s themes, about fascism, about childhood, and about the power of imagination, resonated with audiences in many countries, and its images, the Faun, the Pale Man, the labyrinth, became part of popular culture. The film also established del Toro’s reputation as a director who could make a film that was both a fairy tale and a war story, and whose monsters were not villains but victims, or guides, or tests. The success of Pan’s Labyrinth gave del Toro the freedom to make bigger films, and it made him one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood. The boy who drew monsters in Guadalajara had made a film about a girl who meets a faun, and the film had conquered the world.
Pan’s Labyrinth: The Masterpiece in the Forest
Del Toro’s Hellboy films came before and after Pan’s Labyrinth: Hellboy was released in 2004, and its sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, was released in 2008. Hellboy, based on the comic books by Mike Mignola, starred Ron Perlman as Hellboy, a demon who works for a secret government agency, and the film was a commercial success, with its mix of action, humour, and del Toro’s creature designs. The sequel, Hellboy II, was even more successful, with its elaborate fantasy world, its creatures, and its visual inventiveness, and it is regarded as one of del Toro’s best blockbusters. The Hellboy films showed that del Toro could adapt a comic book without losing his style, and that his monsters, which were the heart of the films, could carry a franchise. The films’ success also deepened his collaboration with Ron Perlman, who played Hellboy with a warmth and a humour that made the demon lovable. Hellboy is a fan favourite, and its influence can be seen in later superhero films.
Pacific Rim, released in 2013, was del Toro’s biggest film to that point, a science-fiction epic about giant robots, Jaegers, fighting giant monsters, Kaiju, who emerge from the Pacific Ocean, starring Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, and Rinko Kikuchi. The film was a visual spectacle, with its robots and monsters designed by del Toro and his team, and its action sequences, which were filmed with a sense of scale and weight, were praised for their inventiveness. The film was a commercial success, particularly in China, where it became a major hit, and its success led to a sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising, in 2018, which del Toro produced but did not direct. Pacific Rim showed that del Toro could make a blockbuster on the scale of Hollywood’s biggest films, and that his love of monsters, which began in Guadalajara, could fill a cinema screen. The film’s creatures, the Kaiju, are among the most memorable in modern science fiction, and its robots, the Jaegers, are a tribute to the Japanese mecha films that del Toro loved as a child. Pacific Rim is a love letter to monsters, and it is one of del Toro’s most entertaining films.
The blockbuster years also included del Toro’s work as a producer, on films such as The Orphanage in 2007, a Spanish horror film directed by J. A. Bayona, and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark in 2010, a remake of a 1970s television film, and his involvement in the Hobbit films, for which he was originally hired to direct, before leaving the project due to delays. The Hobbit experience, in which del Toro spent years developing the films with Peter Jackson, only to leave before filming began, was a disappointment, but it also showed his commitment to a project, and his willingness to walk away when the conditions were not right. The blockbuster years were a period of large-scale film-making, with big budgets, big crews, and big expectations, and del Toro handled them with a visual imagination that few directors possess. The films of this period, Hellboy II and Pacific Rim above all, are spectacles, but they are also personal, because del Toro’s monsters, even in a blockbuster, are never only monsters; they are characters, with feelings, with histories, and with a humanity that makes them memorable.
Hellboy, Pacific Rim and the Blockbuster Years
The Shape of Water, released in 2017, is Guillermo del Toro’s most acclaimed film, a romantic fantasy about a mute cleaning woman, Elisa, played by Sally Hawkins, who falls in love with a fish-man, played by Doug Jones, in a secret government laboratory in 1960s Baltimore. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for del Toro, making him the third Mexican director to win Best Director, after Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and it became a critical and commercial success. The film’s story, about love between a woman and a monster, is a fairy tale for adults, and its themes, about otherness, about loneliness, and about the power of love, resonated with audiences. The Shape of Water’s success was a triumph for del Toro, because it proved that a film about a woman and a fish-man could win Best Picture, and that the Academy, which had often ignored fantasy, could embrace it. The film is now regarded as one of the great romantic films, and it is del Toro’s most honoured work.
After The Shape of Water, del Toro directed Nightmare Alley in 2021, a remake of the 1947 film noir, starring Bradley Cooper as a carnival worker who becomes a mentalist, and the film, although a commercial disappointment, was praised for its visual style and its performances. He followed it with Pinocchio in 2022, a stop-motion animated film for Netflix, based on Carlo Collodi’s novel, which del Toro co-directed with Mark Gustafson, and which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Pinocchio, which was set in Fascist Italy and which dealt with themes of loss, fatherhood, and disobedience, was a personal project for del Toro, who had wanted to make it for many years, and its success, with its handcrafted animation and its emotional depth, proved that he could work in animation as well as in live action. The film’s win, his third Oscar, made del Toro one of the few directors to win Academy Awards in three different categories, and it confirmed his place as one of the great directors of his generation. The Shape of Water and Pinocchio are the two poles of his recent career, a live-action romance and an animated fable, both about monsters and love.
Today Guillermo del Toro lives and works in Los Angeles and in Toronto, where he has a home filled with monsters, books, and film memorabilia, known as Bleak House, and he continues to direct, to produce, and to write, with a new film, Frankenstein, released in 2025, starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the creature. The film, which is del Toro’s long-awaited adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel, is a fitting project, because Frankenstein’s monster is the most famous monster in literature, and del Toro, who has spent his life making humane monsters, is the ideal director for it. His career, which spans more than thirty years, from Cronos to Frankenstein, is one of the most remarkable in modern cinema, and his influence, on directors, on designers, and on audiences, is enormous. The boy from Guadalajara who drew monsters in his notebooks became a director whose monsters are loved around the world, and whose films, from Pan’s Labyrinth to The Shape of Water, will be watched for decades to come.
My Take:
Pan’s Labyrinth is a masterpiece, and it deserves its reputation, because it is a film that works on every level: as a fairy tale, as a war story, as a horror film, and as a coming-of-age story, and del Toro’s direction is the reason it all holds together. Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero, is a young girl who escapes the cruelty of her fascist stepfather by entering a magical labyrinth, and her journey, through three tasks set by the Faun, is both a fantasy and a moral test. The film’s creatures, the Faun and the Pale Man, both played by Doug Jones, are among the most memorable in modern cinema, with their elaborate designs and their terrifying presence, and the Pale Man’s scene, in which he eats fairies at a banquet, is one of the most frightening in any film. The film’s ending, which is deliberately ambiguous, has been debated ever since, with some viewers believing Ofelia’s fantasy was real and others believing it was a dying dream, and that ambiguity is part of the film’s power. Pan’s Labyrinth is a great film, and it is del Toro’s greatest.
The Shape of Water is a film that I love, and its Best Picture win was deserved, because it is a romantic fantasy that is both beautiful and strange, and del Toro’s direction makes the impossible feel real. Sally Hawkins, as Elisa, a mute cleaning woman who falls in love with a fish-man, gives a performance that is entirely physical, communicating through gesture and expression, and her work is one of the best in modern cinema. The fish-man, played by Doug Jones, is a creature who is both monstrous and beautiful, and del Toro’s design, with its scales, its gills, and its eyes, makes him a character the audience can love. The film’s setting, in 1960s Baltimore, with its Cold War paranoia and its racial tensions, gives the fairy tale a historical weight, and its themes, about otherness and love, are timeless. The Shape of Water is a film about a woman and a monster, and it is also a film about all of us, and that is why it won Best Picture.
Cronos is a film that deserves more attention than it gets, because it is del Toro’s debut, and it already contains everything that would define his later work: a monster who is sympathetic, a child who is brave, and a story that is both horror and love. The film’s antique dealer, played by Federico Luppi, discovers a golden scarab that grants eternal life, and his relationship with his granddaughter, played by Tamara Shanath, is the film’s heart, a touching portrait of a grandfather and a grandchild. Ron Perlman, as the villain, is menacing and funny, and his performance is one of the best in the film. Cronos was made on a modest budget, but its visual style, with its rich colours and its detailed sets, is already fully formed, and its success at Cannes established del Toro as a director to watch. The film is a useful introduction to del Toro, because it shows a young director who already knew what he wanted to say, and who said it with a confidence that is rare in a debut.
The Devil’s Backbone is a film that is often paired with Pan’s Labyrinth, and the pairing is apt, because both films are set during the Spanish Civil War, both use fantasy to tell a story about war, and both feature a child as the protagonist. The Devil’s Backbone, set in an orphanage with an unexploded bomb in the courtyard, is a ghost story in which the ghost, Santi, is a victim seeking justice, not a villain seeking revenge, and del Toro’s treatment of the ghost, as a sad, lonely boy, is characteristic of his work. The film’s atmosphere, with its dusty, sun-baked orphanage and its sense of dread, is masterful, and its performances, particularly by the child actors, are excellent. The film was produced by Pedro Almodóvar, and its Spanish setting gives it a historical depth that del Toro’s American films lack. The Devil’s Backbone is a great film, and it deserves to be mentioned alongside Pan’s Labyrinth as one of del Toro’s best.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army is the blockbuster that best shows del Toro’s visual imagination, because its fantasy world, with its elves, its trolls, and its golden army, is one of the most inventive in modern cinema, and its creatures, designed by del Toro and his team, are a delight. Ron Perlman, as Hellboy, gives a performance that is both funny and warm, and his chemistry with Selma Blair, as Liz Sherman, is the film’s heart. The film’s action sequences, particularly the fight in the troll market, are spectacular, and its production design, with its rich colours and its detailed sets, is a feast for the eyes. Hellboy II was a commercial success, and its reputation has grown over the years, with fans regarding it as one of the best comic book films ever made. The film’s failure to get a third instalment, after del Toro left the franchise, is a pity, because the Hellboy films deserved a conclusion. Hellboy II is a triumph, and it is del Toro at his most entertaining.
Pinocchio, the 2022 stop-motion film, is a work of art, and its Oscar win for Best Animated Feature was deserved, because it is a handcrafted, emotional, and visually stunning adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s novel, set in Fascist Italy. Del Toro’s Pinocchio is a wooden boy who is disobedient, curious, and alive, and the film’s themes, about fatherhood, loss, and what it means to be human, are handled with a depth that few animated films attempt. The stop-motion animation, with its detailed puppets and its painstaking craftsmanship, is a marvel, and the film’s voice cast, including Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket and David Bradley as Geppetto, is excellent. The film’s setting, in Mussolini’s Italy, gives the fairy tale a historical weight, and its songs, by Alexandre Desplat, are haunting. Pinocchio is a film for adults as well as for children, and its Oscar win confirmed del Toro’s place as a master of animation as well as of live action. It is a beautiful film, and it is one of his best.
Pacific Rim is a film that I enjoy enormously, because it is a love letter to monsters and robots, and del Toro’s enthusiasm for the genre is visible in every frame. The film’s Jaegers, giant robots piloted by two humans, and its Kaiju, giant monsters from the Pacific, are designed with a scale and a weight that make the action feel real, and the film’s battles, in Hong Kong and in the ocean, are spectacular. Idris Elba, as Stacker Pentecost, gives a commanding performance, and Rinko Kikuchi, as Mako Mori, is the film’s emotional centre, a young woman seeking revenge for her family’s death. The film was a commercial success, particularly in China, and its success led to a sequel, although del Toro did not direct it. Pacific Rim is not del Toro’s most personal film, but it is one of his most fun, and it shows a director who loves monsters so much that he built the biggest ones he could. The film is a joy, and it deserves to be seen on the largest screen possible.
Mimic is a film that del Toro himself has mixed feelings about, and I understand why, because its production was troubled, with studio interference that compromised his vision, and the film that was released is not the film he wanted to make. The director’s cut, released years later, is closer to his original, and it shows a film that is more atmospheric, more character-driven, and more del Toro. The story, about genetically engineered cockroaches in the New York subway, is a classic horror premise, and Mira Sorvino, as the entomologist who created the insects, gives a strong performance. The film’s creatures, designed by del Toro, are creepy and effective, and its setting, in the dark tunnels of the subway, is claustrophobic and frightening. Mimic is not a great film, but it is an interesting one, and its troubled production is a lesson in the difficulties of working in Hollywood. The film’s failure taught del Toro to insist on creative control, and that lesson shaped his later career.
My honest assessment is that Guillermo del Toro is one of the greatest directors of his generation, and that his career is defined by a unique vision: monsters who are humane, children who are brave, and fantasy that is used to tell the truth about war, love, and loss. His strength is his visual imagination: no director working today creates creatures, worlds, and images as richly as del Toro, and his films are a feast for the eyes. His weakness, if it can be called one, is that his films can be uneven, with some, like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, being masterpieces, and others, like Mimic and Nightmare Alley, being flawed. That is not a criticism; it is the fate of any director who takes risks. His legacy will be Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and Pinocchio, and the monsters he created, which will be loved for generations. He changed what a monster movie could be, and he did it by loving monsters.
If a new viewer wants to approach del Toro, the order is straightforward: start with Pan’s Labyrinth, then The Shape of Water, then Cronos, and then Hellboy II, because those four films show his range, from Spanish fantasy to romantic fable to horror debut to blockbuster. The Devil’s Backbone will show the companion piece to Pan’s Labyrinth, Pinocchio will show the animator, and Pacific Rim will show the entertainer. The order matters, because it shows the arc from a boy in Guadalajara who drew monsters to a director who won Oscars, and it avoids the temptation to judge him by a single film. Del Toro’s career is a long one, and it repays patience, because each film adds a layer to the last, and the whole is a portrait of a director who loves monsters, and who loves the people who love them. He is one of the best, and his best is still coming.
One final point about del Toro is that his friendship with Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, the Three Amigos, is more than a piece of Hollywood gossip, because it explains how Mexican cinema conquered the world. The three directors supported each other’s work, recommended each other for jobs, and celebrated each other’s wins, and their collective success changed what was possible for Latin American film-makers. Del Toro’s Oscar for The Shape of Water, Cuarón’s for Gravity and Roma, and Iñárritu’s for Birdman and The Revenant, together, proved that a director from Mexico could win the highest prizes. The friendship is generous, in an industry that rewards competition, and the three men have spoken about each other with warmth. Del Toro’s career cannot be understood without Cuarón and Iñárritu, because they are part of the same story.
Del Toro’s Bleak House, his home in Los Angeles filled with monsters, books, and film memorabilia, deserves a last word, because it is a physical manifestation of his imagination, a house that is also a museum, a library, and a workshop. The house contains thousands of objects, from horror film props to original artworks, and del Toro has said that it is a place where he goes to think, to write, and to be inspired. The house is a reminder that del Toro’s love of monsters is not a pose but a lifelong passion, and that his films come from a place of genuine obsession. A director who lives in a house full of monsters is a director who means it, and del Toro means it, completely.
Del Toro’s Pinocchio, released on Netflix in 2022 and co-directed with Mark Gustafson, is a stop-motion animated film that reimagines Carlo Collodi’s story in Fascist Italy, with a wooden puppet who must learn what it means to be human, and it won del Toro his third Academy Award, for Best Animated Feature, at the 2023 Oscars. The film’s production took years, with hundreds of puppets and sets built by hand, and its visual style, with its dark, painterly look, is unmistakably del Toro, with monsters, with fascists, and with a warmth that is surprising. The film’s themes, about disobedience, about mortality, and about a father’s love, are personal, and del Toro has spoken about the film as a tribute to his own father, who died in 2021. Pinocchio is a masterpiece of animation, and its Oscar win, together with its Golden Globe and BAFTA wins, confirmed del Toro as one of the great directors working today, in any genre. The puppet who wanted to be a real boy became a real film, and a great one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where was Guillermo del Toro born?
Guillermo del Toro was born on 9 October 1964 in Guadalajara, Mexico. He grew up in a strict Catholic household, watching horror films and drawing monsters, and he began making short films as a teenager.
What was Guillermo del Toro’s first film?
His first feature film was Cronos, released in 1993, about an antique dealer who discovers a golden device that grants eternal life. The film won the Critics’ Week prize at Cannes and established del Toro as a director to watch.
What is Pan’s Labyrinth about?
Pan’s Labyrinth, released in 2006, is a dark fantasy set in Spain in 1944, in which a young girl, Ofelia, escapes her fascist stepfather by entering a magical labyrinth. The film won three Academy Awards and is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 2000s.
How many Oscars has Guillermo del Toro won?
Guillermo del Toro has won three Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Picture for The Shape of Water in 2017, and Best Animated Feature for Pinocchio in 2022. He was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Pan’s Labyrinth.
Which Guillermo del Toro film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature?
His stop-motion film Pinocchio, released on Netflix in 2022 and co-directed with Mark Gustafson, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 2023 Oscars. The film reimagines Carlo Collodi’s story in Fascist Italy, and it also won the Golden Globe and the BAFTA for Best Animated Film.
What is The Shape of Water about?
The Shape of Water, released in 2017, is a romantic fantasy about a mute cleaning woman, Elisa, played by Sally Hawkins, who falls in love with a fish-man in a secret government laboratory. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
