Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
won the Oscar for best animated film this Sunday
.
The Mexican director obtains in this way the third statuette of his career.
He does so with what he himself has called one of his most personal works which, despite being based on a literary classic that he places in the era of fascism, has allowed him to delve into some of the themes he has touched on in his films, like the parent-child relationship.
After having made a name for himself in Hollywood as the master of monsters, the filmmaker established himself thanks to the most famous wooden puppet in cinema.
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Del Toro's (Guadalajara, Mexico, 58 years old) journey has been one back to the origin.
The film, which he directs with Mark Gustafson, is made in
stop motion
, which allows the movement of the figures to be simulated thanks to frame-by-frame photography.
It is the same technique with which the filmmaker experimented in his first short films.
In fact, he thought of making his first feature film in this way, with clay and plasticine characters.
But someone vandalized the animation studio and destroyed the puppets he had made with his partner while they both watched
Viridiana
.
This stop motion
debut
came in the best possible way.
It was with a Netflix production in which the director had at his disposal the best technology and animation artisans in Portland, United States, Manchester, England and Guadalajara, the filmmaker's hometown.
"
Stop motion
is in perpetual extinction because it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort and it's all physical," the director said a few months ago.
The shooting with the puppets took 1,000 days.
This is the first prize in the animation category for Netflix.
Throughout the campaign for the Oscar, the Mexican director has led a crusade in defense of the union of those who are dedicated to animation.
“I want to say it soon: animation is cinema, it is art.
It is not a genre nor is it for children”, said the filmmaker a few days before the premiere of the film, which arrived on the streaming platform last December.
Del Toro has launched a message: animation is not a genre, it is a means of telling stories.
Del Toro already had a long experience in the field, where he had opted for other techniques.
He is a producer and director of the
Trollhunters
and
Tales of Arcadia
series for the Dreamworks studio.
His words made a lot of echo among those who are dedicated to animation.
At the end of February he won the Annie, considered the Oscar of discipline.
“I can tell I really wanted this damn award.
He is the most beautiful in the world! ”, He said at the ceremony organized by the International Animated Film Association.
"Pinocchio was made by artists, and the animators were treated like the cast and not technicians," he added after winning the night's grand prize, increasing the chances of victory on Sunday night.
This was the sixth nomination for del Toro, one of the three Mexican friends.
His first appearance in Hollywood's most famous awards was in 2006, when he was nominated for the screenplay for Pan's Labyrinth, which launched a war trilogy that Pinocchio now closes.
Together with Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, Del Toro starred in an incomparable five years between 2013 and 2018. Between the three of them they shared five best director awards out of six nominations.
Two statuettes for best film were also won in the same period.
In 2017, Del Toro won these awards with The Shape of Water.
In that ceremony he only lost in best screenplay.
His presence has been a constant at the Academy Awards ever since.
Last year he appeared at the gala thanks to
The alley of lost souls
, who went home empty-handed.