Oscar Profile #631: Guillermo del Toro

Born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of an automotive entrepreneur and his wife, Guillermo del Toro is a world renown filmmaker who throughout his career has alternated between Spanish and English language films.

Del Toro first began to experiment with his father’s Super 8 camera when he was about 8. He worked with toys from his Planet of the Apes collection and other objects. He published his first book while studying at the University of Guadalajara. It was a biography of Alfred Hitchcock, who had long been one of his idols.

He married fellow student Lorenza Newton in 1986 with whom he would have two children.

After studying with special effects and makeup with artist Dick Smith, del Toro spent ten years as a special-effects makeup designer and formed his own company, Necropia. His first film as a director, 1993’s Chronos, was supposed to be stop-motion but was ultimately made as a live-action film.

In 1997, del Toro was given $30 million from Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films, then a part of Disney, to make the horror film, Mimic, but he didn’t like the way he was being treated by Miramax and soon parted ways. That same year, his father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and held for ransom for 72 days before del Toro, with the help of fellow director James Cameron, was able to pay the ransom.

Del Toro’s 2001 film, The Devil’s Backbone, filmed in Spain, was a critical and commercial hit. He followed it up with two English language hits, 2002’s Blade II and 2003’s Hellboy.

2006’s Pan’s Laybyrinth, once again made in Spain, was a major box-office and critical success that won numerous awards, propelling del Toro into the Oscar spotlight where the film was nominated for six Oscars including two for del Toro as producer and director of the film. It won three for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Makeup.

Del Toro had further successes with 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 2013’s Pacific Rim, and 2015’s Crimson Tide. He was divorced from Newton in 2017.

2017’s The Shape of Water received 13 Oscar nominations and won four, two of them for del Toro as producer and director of the year’s Best Picture winner. 2021’s remake of Nightmare Alley was nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture. He married Kim Morgan, with whom he wrote the screenplay for the latter, in 2021.

Guillermo de Toto’s Pinocchio, the director’s take on the Pinocchio legend is a leading contender for Best Animated Feature at the 2022 Academy Awards. Del Toro remains a vital participant in today’s film world at 58.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE (2001)

The film that put del Toro on the map was this beautifully atmospheric work, a stylish and unpredictable thriller which deftly mixes horror, suspense, and dark humor. The tale of an orphanage during the last days of the Spanish Civil War, its central figure is a 12-year-old orphan who traverses the world of the living and the dead in finding his way in the world. Produced by Pedro and Augustin Almodovar, the principal adult roles are skillfully played by Marisa Paredes (The Flower of My Secret), Federico (Men with Guns), and Eduardo Noriega (Open Your Eyes).

PAN’S LABYRINTH (2006)

Set during the bleak days of Franco’s “mopping up” after the Spanish Civil War, this is another highly atmospheric film set nine years later in Spanish history than The Devil’s Backbone. Nominated for six Academy Awards, and winner of three, this fantasy film is as dark as The Devil’s Backbone but draws the line just short of out and out horror. Ivana Baquero won numerous awards for her portrayal of the young girl at the center of the film’s atrocities. Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, it lost the Oscar in that category to Germany’s The Lives of Others.

THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017)

Del Toro’s charming fantasy film was nominated for thirteen Oscars, three of them for del Toro himself for writing, directing, and producing the film that won four Oscars in all including two for himself. Sally Hawkins was nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of a lonely janitor who forms a relationship with an amphibious creature being held in captivity. Richard Jenkins, and Octavia Spencer were nominated for their memorable supporting performances in one of the rare Oscar winners that was also a major box-office hit in recent years. Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Doug Jones co-star.

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021)

Del Toro’s remake of the 1947 classic received four Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Bradley Cooper, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, and Cate Blanchett star in the roles made famous in the earlier version by Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, and Helen Walker. Blanchett received the lion’s share of awards recognition among the film’s stars including a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the steely psychiatrist playing cat-and-mouse with Cooper’s carnival worker turned psychic medium. Oscar favorite Cooper mostly sat on the sidelines during awards season.

GUILLERMO DEL TORONO’S PINOCCHIO (2022)

The latest screen version of the beloved classic effectively moves the action from the 1800s to Mussolini’s Italy echoing del Toro’s settings of The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth during real-life political backgrounds. Puppet maker Geppetto is given a backstory in which he makes the wooden Pinocchio as a replacement for his real-life son killed during an airstrike on a church near the end of World War I. The stop-motion cinematography is eye-popping and the voicework of the actors is outstanding including that of Gregory Mann who voices both Geppetto’s son Carlo and Pinocchio.