Guillermo Del Toro Set To Return To The Venice Film Festival As Jury President

According to Deadline, director Guillermo del Toro has been selected as President of this year's Venice Film Festival competition jury. Del Toro is returning to the film festival after winning the Golden Lion with his film The Shape of Water. The director will lead a Venice panel selecting this year's Golden Lion winner.

Del Toro states, "To serve as president in Venice is an immense honor and responsibility that I accept with respect and gratitude. Venice is a window to world cinema and the opportunity to celebrate its power and cultural relevance."

Festival Director Alberto Barbera commented, "Guillermo Del Toro personifies generosity, a love for movies past or future, and a passion for the kind of cinema that can spark emotions, affect people and, at the same time, make them reflect. By virtue of his lively imagination, uncommon sensitivity and his trust in the power of images, he has brought to life a fantastic universe in which love and fear can coexist, and to treasure diversity is a fundamental value. We are pleased and honored that he has agreed to preside over the Jury of the 75th Venice Film Festival, after having illuminated the previous edition with the dazzling beauty of The Shape Of Water. He will be a genial, inquisitive and enthusiastic President."

The Venice Film Festival will celebrate its 75th year this year. The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organises retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.

Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and novelist. In his filmmaking career, del Toro has alternated between Spanish-language dark fantasy pieces, such as the gothic horror films The Devil's Backbone (2001) and Pan's Labyrinth(2006), and more mainstream American action films, such as the vampire superhero action film Blade II (2002), the supernatural superhero film Hellboy (2004), its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), and the Science fiction monster film Pacific Rim (2013). The fantasy film The Shape of Water (2017) received critical acclaim and won a Golden Lion at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. Del Toro won a Golden Globe and received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for the film, both of which were his first.

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Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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