Director Guillermo Del Toro’s Emotional Reaction to His Whopping 13 Oscar Nominations
January 24, 2018Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water earned the most Academy Award nominations — a staggering 13 — at the forthcoming ceremony. Del Toro, who won the Best Director trophy at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, where he memorably refused to leave the stage when the shove off music queued him to wrap up his acceptance speech, reacted to the news on Jan. 23: “13 is a great number now, and it’s happened to the best movie of mine, that I love. It’s a good club to belong to, you know,” he told Deadline.
The filmmaker told the website his success did not come overnight: “It’s been such a long journey,” he said. “In hindsight, people will say, ‘But of course,’ but every time you take a risky mad dash on a premise like this—or like Pan’s Labyrinth or The Devil’s Backbone— when you’re doing alchemy as delicate as this with genre, you never know. It can go either way. There is no hindsight in this. This is a contact sport. You go at it, and you clash with the material. The one thing you learn in a quarter of a century of doing this is there’s no such thing as a sure bet.”
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Amid all the honors and accolades, del Toro is also dealing with a family health crisis. He skipped the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 21, where his film got nods for best actress and supporting actor, to spend time with his ailing father. Before the award ceremony aired, he gave fans an update on his father’s health: “My father has stabilized- thank you all for your kindness. Travelling back,” he tweeted. He also skipped the Producers Guild Awards Jan. 20, where he picked up the Best Motion Picture trophy.
The Shape of Water star Richard Jenkins read a statement from del Toro while accepting the award on the filmmaker’s behalf: “Life has a way of keeping you in check, so as you sit there tonight, I stand by the side of my father’s bed in my hometown in Mexico. I would like to ask of you all to allow me then to dedicate a little moment in the honors of this night to both my father and my mother, to whom my infinite gratitude belongs. And in turn, as a father, to offer it to my kids also. May they be free to pursue their dreams and fancies and may they stand by my side when I fade away.”