Guillermo del Toro

Mexican-born filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has created a distinctive cinematic style mixing the world of horror, fantasy, and his exuberant personal visual imagery. He studied under Oscar-winning makeup effects artist Dick Smith and made his first feature film, Cronos, in 1993, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics Prize. Since then, he has directed and produced numerous films in both the United States and internationally, including The Devil’s Backbone (2001); Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), which earned del Toro a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination and won the Academy Awards for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Makeup; Mimic (1997), Hellboy (2004), Pacific Rim (2013), and Crimson Peak (2015). Del Toro wrote and directed The Shape of Water (2017), which was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won four, including Best Picture and Best Director. In addition, the filmmaker garnered both the Golden Globe and the BAFTA for best director. His first stop-motion feature, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022), which he directed alongside the late legend Mark Gustafson, won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Producers Guild Best Animated Film awards. Del Toro’s work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales and horror, with an effort to infuse visually poetic beauty into the grotesque. His upcoming Netflix live-action feature, Frankenstein, which stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, and more, will be released in the fall of 2025.