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Tonight, Guillermo Del Toro is now an Academy Award winner Guillermo Del Toro. The Mexican filmmaker walked away with the Best Director Oscar for his moving work helming “The Shape of Water.” This is the first directing Oscar with Guillermo Del Toro’s name etched on it. The filmmaker was previously nominated for writing “Pan’s Labyrinth” in 2007. He was also in contention for Best Original Screenplay, with Vanessa Taylor, and he’s nominated for Best Picture with J. Miles Dale.
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Guillermo Del Toro also won Best Director at the Golden Globes and he was similarly nominated with Taylor for Best Screenplay. During his speech at the Globes, Del Toro talked about how he has been working for the past 25 years making “very strange little tales” made of “emotion, color, light, and shadow,” and in three different instances, the monsters that have “absolved and saved” him have predominately come from three of his most personal projects that “saved his life”: “The Devil’s Backbone,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and now “The Shape of Water.” He traded three years of his life for a credit on IMDb that is a part of his biography, and therefore “his life.”
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Guillermo Del Toro has also previously won the David Lean Award for Direction at the BAFTAs. He also won the Director’s Guild Award for “The Shape of Water.”
In addition to the film’s mentioned above, Guillermo Del Toro is also the filmmaker behind “Cronos,” “Mimic,” “Pacific Rim,” “Crimson Peak,” and the “Hellboy” movies. With this win, Guillermo Del Toro becomes the third member of Mexico’s Three Amigos to win the top directing prize. Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for “Gravity” back in 2014, while Alejandro Inarritu won Best Director for two consecutive years in a row for “Birdman” and “The Reverent” in 2015 and 2016, respectively. It’s unclear what Guillermo Del Toro will do next, especially considering the fact that Del Toro always has 2030 other projects attached to his name, but we’re certain to watch whatever comes next. Guillermo’s success is well-deserved, and we’re very happy for his success tonight. Congratulations Guillermo!