Filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro is the subject of “A Life in Movies” in the 7/14 July 2008 issue of Newsweek. As readers of the regular feature know, there is a brief bio of the featured person along with a photo, and then he lists “My Five Most Important Movies” along with a sentence explaining why each made the list. Del Toro’s five include: Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados; the original The Bride of Frankenstein; the 1924 film Greed; Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush; and Renoir’s La Chienne. Del Toro also presents two “films parents should share with kids”: A Little Princess and The Iron Giant.
Del Toro wrote, directed, and produced the widely acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth (original title: El Laberinto del fauno); wrote and directed Hellboy and the current Hellboy II; and will be directing Peter Jackson’s forthcoming movie of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. This year, he won the George Pal Memorial Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Pan’s Labyrinth won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and the BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language; it was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Del Toro was nominated for a Bram Stoker award for his Hellboy screenplay.