Guillermo del Toro
Venice: “The Shape of Water” Wins Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival
The Three Amigos have conquered Venice.
Guillermo del Toro has won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for The Shape of Water, a Cold War romantic fairy tale that the director has called a portrait of hope, “an antidote to now.”
Accepting the award, which he already nicknamed “Sergio Leone,” del Toro said Saturday, “If you remain pure and stay with your faith, whatever you have faith in — in my case, it’s monsters — eventually things go right.” He dedicated the award to young Mexican and Latin American filmmakers who are working to push the fantasy genre.
Del Toro is the first Mexican to win the Golden Lion. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years. You go up, you go down. You fly, you land, you crash. A career is an accident in slow motion. It’s not a trajectory you plan,” he said after the ceremony. “This is an airbag being deployed. What the festival is saying to me is, ‘We understand your voice in the context of film, and we’re inviting you to be a part of the conversation.’”
Shape of Water was well-received in Venice by critics. Sally Hawkins stars as a mute cleaning woman in this anti-Hollywood love story who falls in love with a sea monster being held captive by the U.S. government. Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Doug Jones and Richard Jenkins also star.
Del Toro’s fellow “Three Amigos” have all struck Oscar gold after debuting big on the Lido, with Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (2013) taking home seven Academy Awards and Alejandro G. Inarritu’s Birdman (2014) winning four. After his Venice premiere, del Toro will attempt to complete the circle as Shape of Water continues on its awards path….
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I got the opportunity to see this movie at telluride film festival last weekend and it really was incredible! Michael Shannon especially kills it in this movie. Be warned though if you go see it that the trailer is… understated relative to the movie. I wouldn’t say that it’s misleading but the movie is definitely much crazier than I thought it would be.
‘The Shape of Water’ – Red Band trailer
