Guillermo del Toro’s decades-long career in cinema comprises modern classics, emotionally rich explorations of monsters and madness, themes of transformation, grief, innocence, and devotion, and films that innovate genres, effects, and practical artistry. In works including Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the Mexican filmmaker’s singular vision has inspired collaborators from around the world to together create works of visual, sonic, and textural art. The Oscar- and BAFTA-winning director’s work has now been recognized with the highest honor by the British Film Institute, with the BFI Fellowship.
The award was given at the annual BFI Chair’s Dinner, a room filled with Del Toro’s friends, colleagues, and admirers, including J.J. Abrams, J. A. Bayona, Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson, Kate Hawley, Simon Pegg, and Cate Blanchett, who presented the director with his award. “Wildly entertaining, often hilarious and frequently terrifying, Guillermo del Toro offers a vision of what we have to guard against, while reminding us of what we have to fight for and protect — love, beauty, the life of the spirit, the touch of the human hand,” said Blanchett in her speech. “Guillermo’s artistry has never been more urgent and more essential.”
Guillermo del Toro and Cate Blanchett
Rian Johnson, Edgar Wright, Guillermo del Toro, J. A. Bayona, and J. J. Abrams
Del Toro took the stage to accept the honor and gave a speech in which he paid homage to his connection to the UK. “I was born in Mexico, geographically, spiritually, physically, but my soul has belonged to many parts of the world over the years, including England, and the UK has given me so much,” says del Toro, who once worked as a young projectionist in Mexico and sourced prints from the BFI National Archive. The director’s latest film, Frankenstein, brought his affinity for the country even closer as he worked with a beloved British novel as source material and filmed much of the movie in the UK to create his Gothic atmosphere.
Del Toro commended the important work the Institute continues to do for the cinema community. “The BFI is guarding not just British film, but guarding film as an art form and keeping that faith aligned. That is why this honor is so immense. I believe in the British Film Institute as a beacon of culture, in a time when we are told culture is not important.” The seriousness with which the director takes his craft is both seen in the films he has produced and felt in his comments: “For a man that has tried for 30 years to make the brutal and the beautiful sit together, I have never made a movie I would not die for.”
