Guillermo del Toro Receives British Film Institute’s Highest Honor, the BFI Fellowship
The celebrated Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro, has been awarded the British Film Institute’s (BFI) highest accolade, the BFI Fellowship, placing him among cinematic giants like David Lean, Akira Kurosawa, and Martin Scorsese.
The BFI announced the honor today, recognizing del Toro’s “extraordinary contribution to film and the distinctive artistry that runs through his work across animation and live action, and as a Mexican filmmaker, in both Spanish and English.” The award acknowledges a career marked by both critical acclaim and commercial success, spanning diverse genres and filmmaking techniques.
Del Toro will officially receive the BFI Fellowship at the annual BFI Chair’s dinner in London in May 2025, hosted by BFI chair Jay Hunt. The celebration will extend beyond the formal ceremony, encompassing a public career conversation at BFI Southbank, a comprehensive retrospective of his films, and a curated film season also at BFI Southbank. Furthermore, del Toro will share his expertise through masterclasses for aspiring filmmakers from the BFI Film Academy and a special visit to the BFI National Archive.
“This is the honor of a lifetime and a thrilling moment in a storyteller’s life: to join a rarefied pantheon and to be recognized by the BFI,” del Toro stated. He further emphasized his long-standing connection to British cinema, noting decades of collaboration with talent on both sides of the camera and expressing gratitude to the BFI for their “great distinction.”
Del Toro’s relationship with the BFI dates back to his early days as a projectionist in Mexico, where he regularly sourced film prints from the BFI National Archive, even securing the first Mexican screening of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom. At a recent event celebrating the archive’s 90th anniversary, del Toro and BFI Chief Executive Ben Roberts discussed the profound influence of British filmmakers – including Alfred Hitchcock (The Lodger, 1927), Thorold Dickinson (Gaslight, 1940), and the collaborative duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (Black Narcissus, 1947, and The Red Shoes, 1948) – on his own work, with The Red Shoes specifically inspiring his Oscar-winning The Shape of Water.
According to BFI Chair Jay Hunt, “Guillermo del Toro is an extraordinary filmmaker with a long relationship with the BFI who has consistently championed British talent.” Hunt highlighted the strength of the UK’s screen industries and the collaborative spirit that del Toro embodies, adding that his work is “instantly recognisable as boldly imaginative and fantastical.”
As part of the fellowship celebration, the BFI will re-release del Toro’s 1992 debut feature, Cronos, a unique take on the vampire genre. Recently remastered in 4K by the BFI and Les Films du Camelia, the film will be shown in cinemas across the U.K. Cronos served as del Toro’s international breakthrough, earning nine Ariel Awards in Mexico and the grand prize at Cannes Critics Week, ultimately attracting the attention of Miramax and leading to his English-language debut, Mimic (1997).
Del Toro’s prolific career encompasses a wide range of projects, from large-scale comic book adaptations like Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004), and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), to visually stunning blockbusters such as Pacific Rim (2013) and Crimson Peak (2015). He has also achieved critical and commercial success with Oscar-winning fantasy dramas Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and The Shape of Water (2017), and the stop-motion animated masterpiece Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022). His latest film, a reimagining of Frankenstein starring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac, and Mia Goth, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and is already generating significant awards buzz.
Del Toro joins a distinguished lineage of BFI Fellows, including Bette Davis, Ousmane Sembène, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Tilda Swinton, Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, Tom Cruise, and Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson. His inclusion in this esteemed group underscores his lasting impact on the world of cinema and his continued influence on generations of filmmakers and audiences.
