Fans of Mexican cinema, and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro are in for at the Toronto International Film Festival. According to a new announcement, del Toro will work with collaborator Diana Sanchez to curate a special program of 25 films spanning six decades that will be shown at TIFF’s year-round theater, Bell Lightbox.
“The series not just explores some of the films that most influenced myself and the current generation of filmmakers working today in Mexico, but it also reflects the depth and the richness of my country’s cinema: genre, auteurist efforts, and independent film,” del Toro said (via THR).
The program will is titled “Sui generis: An Alternative History of Mexican Cinema,” and will focus not only on the classic Mexican films from auteurs that del Toro grew up admiring, but will also focus on up and coming filmmakers that have yet to make a huge splash on the international scene.
Del Toro is a recent Oscar winner for his work on “The Shape of Water” and has dedicated a large part of his career working with other filmmakers, producing their films (essentially giving them his stamp of approval so they could go into production).
‘Sui generis’ will cover a large length of time in Mexican cinema, from the golden age of the 1930s and 1940s to the modern day, with an eclectic lineup that is reflective of del Toro’s own personal tastes and interests.
“Many of the films we present are by filmmakers who are unafraid to play with themes, with social mores, with genre-bending stories. It speaks to a diversity and idiosyncrasy that is uniquely Mexican,” he said.
As we already know, del Toro has lined up his next project already, a stop-motion adaptation of the classic “Pinocchio” tale.