Your wishes to help others
Guillermo del Toro knows he is lucky to be able to occupy the position he is in. He is also aware that the public has been decisive for this and therefore takes advantage of every opportunity to try to return the favor. There are the scholarships that he is part of to prove it: ANIMEXICO in collaboration with Cinépolis and the Morelia International Film Festival that allows young talents to study a Master of Arts, Character Animation and Animated Filmmaking at GOBELINS, considered the best animation school in the world; the Jenkins – del Toro together with the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation, the organization of the Board of Trustees of the International Film Festival in Guadalajara, AC, the University of Guadalajara and the University of Guadalajara AC Foundation, and which allows the beneficiaries to study any cinematographic discipline at any part of the world. Or El Taller del Chucho, a creative hub that he founded in Guadalajara and whose artists were responsible for several important sequences of Pinocchio. A boost of confidence to the talent of Mexican animation. More recently, he also expressed his desire to support the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences in the realization of Ariel 2023 given the drastic reduction of its budget by the authorities.
His efforts are not limited to film. In 2017 he was contacted by a retweet seeking support to pay for a biopsy and ended up paying for it. In 2020 he covered the treatment of an uninsured artist for chronic kidney failure. In that same year he supported twelve students from the Mathematical Society team to attend the Olympics that were held in South Africa. The list is long and constantly growing, which leaves the feeling that Guillermo del Toro is always there watching over his loved ones.
for his monsters
While the film industry has focused its efforts on exalting beauty and perfection, Guillermo del Toro has given us monsters. Not those that inspire fear, but those that invite compassion and, above all, reflection on ourselves. No one better than the man from Guadalajara to explain his interest in these creatures. This is what he said after being recognized at the 2018 Golden Globes for The Shape of Water: “Since I was a child I have been faithful to monsters. They have saved me and absolved me, because I believe that monsters are the patron saints of our beautiful imperfections and represent the possibility of failing and living. Today we can safely say that Guillermo del Toro is the filmmaker who has best understood the symbolic value of the monster since James Whale, who did the same with Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein almost a century ago.
because he is mexican
Guillermo de Toro takes every opportunity to express his pride in Mexico. Not just with movie references, but with countless tokens of love. There are two that come to the mind of every fan: when he wore a national flag to the presentation of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The most famous is when he was asked how by being so cheerful he understood the darker sides of humanity so well.
“I’m Mexican,” he replied. “No one loves life more than us.” Her phrase did not take long to go viral and to go from meme to the exaltation of a pride that we all feel deep within us. Thank you for so much, Guillermo del Toro!