By MATT MANCUSO
During the 90th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, Guillermo del Toro won awards for Best Director and Best Picture. His 2017 film “The Shape of Water” took home awards for best Original Score and best Production Design.
During his acceptance speech, del Toro gave many heartfelt thanks to his family and friends. He received a hefty round of applause during his acceptance speech, particularly when he mentioned his Mexican heritage.
“I am an immigrant, and in the last 25 years, I’ve been living in a country all of our own. Part of it is here, part of it is in Europe, part of it is everywhere, ” del Toro said, “because I think the greatest thing that art does, and that our industry does, is erase the lines in the sand when the world tells us to make them deeper.”
“The Shape of Water” is a love story between a mute woman and a merman-esque creature that is held captive in a top-secret research facility. Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) speaks through sign language to her friends and coworkers. She feels a connection with the creature (Doug Jones) whose life is threatened by his captors, and their bond develops through the hardships they face.
Not His First Success
A previous nominated film in del Toro’s repertoire includes the 2007 film “Pan’s Labyrinth” which received nominations for best Foreign Language film at the 2007 Golden Globes award show.
“He definitely deserves it. It feels like he’s deserved the success for a long time.” said del Toro fan Cooper Heirakuji, 23, Ridgewood. “‘Pacific Rim’ was great, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is awesome, and I haven’t seen ‘The Shape of Water’ yet, but now I need to check it out.”
Fellow fan of del Toro’s previous work, Ryan Ayers, 23, Allendale, agreed, saying “Yeah, he’s a pretty great director. ‘Hellboy’ was also a really great movie, I really like that one.”
This was a well written story overall. Good use of inline links that allowed the story to go on further. Also, by having the video of his acceptance speech was a nice touch.