Guillermo del Toro is getting the Beyond Fest treatment.
The filmmaker, who is coming off the Venice Film Festival premiere of his latest monster fantasy, Frankenstein, will be getting a 12-movie retrospective from the biggest genre film festival in the country that will showcase his three decades of bringing fantasy, dreams and nightmares to the screen.
In partnership with American Cinematheque, Beyond Fest is putting on Está Vivo: The Gods and Monsters of Guillermo del Toro, featuring new restorations, special director’s cuts and rare 35mm screenings of del Toro’s oeuvre, taking audiences from his debut with Cronos to his most recent, Nightmare Alley. This year’s festival runs Sept. 23 to Oct. 8.
“Guillermo del Toro’s films have inspired generations of filmmakers and audiences alike in a way unlike any other artist we’ve experienced,” said Beyond Fest head of programming Evrim Ersoy in a statement. “To welcome him and celebrate his artistic vision on this scale truly honors who he is as both a creative force of nature and a proudly obsessive servant of Cinema.” That’s right, the “C” is capitalized.
Del Toro will join the fest for four specially curated blocks of programming in which he will share his personal stories of his life behind the lens. And the blocks are divided into themes of monsters, humanity and imagination.
The celebration will open with In the Mood for Love, a triple bill exploring the emotional core of del Toro’s “high wire balancing of beauty and bloodshed,” per Beyond Fest. That will include Crimson Peak, his 2017 best picture Oscar winner The Shape of Water and a brand new version of Nightmare Alley: Vision in Darkness and Light. Shape of Water will have a post-screening Q&A.
From Sketch to Screen will explore del Toro’s comic book movie era with special screenings of Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Blade II. There will be a pre-screening Q&A for Hellboy.
His first movies that suggested a new fantasy voice in cinema comprise the next block, The Early Years, and includes the theatrical premiere 4K restoration of his debut feature Cronos, the L.A. premiere of the 4K restoration of The Devil’s Backbone, and a director’s cut of first studio feature, Mimic. The latter gets a post-screening Q&A.
The movie of del Toro’s that consistently lands on top film lists, his 2006 period fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth, gets its own rubric, that of Revolution. That one also will enjoy a pre-screening Q&A.
All the above movies will screen at The Egyptian in Hollywood.
Del Toro’s monster movie Pacific Rim and his stop-motion animation Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio will receive special screenings at the Los Feliz 3.
Tickets will be on sale on the American Cinematheque website Sept. 4 at 12 p.m. PT.
The Gods and Monsters of Guillermo del Toro.
Courtesy of Beyond Fest