*Updated with video of del Toro's speech.* For decades he's given a spotlight to misunderstood monsters and outcast characters in his films, and at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, Guillermo del Toro finally got to step into his own well-deserved spotlight when he won the award for Best Director of a Motion Picture for his work behind the camera on his latest film, The Shape of Water.
Selected by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in a nomination class that included Martin McDonagh, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, and Steven Spielberg, del Toro took the stage at The Beverly Hilton for an emotional speech after his name was announced for Best Director.
In addition to thanking his core cast—many of whom were sitting with him the moment his name was called—del Toro discussed how his love of monsters has saved his life several times over the years, citing three creature-centric projects in particular: The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, and The Shape of Water.
As the end-of-speech music began to swell for a second time (del Toro bought himself a few more precious seconds with an impassioned plea), del Toro fittingly paid tribute to one of the greatest monster actors of all time by saying, "Lon Chaney is smiling down on all of us."
The Shape of Water was nominated for seven total Golden Globe Awards, with composer Alexandre Desplat also earning a Golden Globe for his work on the film.
Get Out, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and Twin Peaks were also nominated for various Golden Globes, but none of them brought home any awards at the ceremony. Viewers of the Twin Peaks event series (also known as Twin Peaks: The Return) may have been surprised that Kyle Maclachlan did not win Best Actor in a TV Movie or Limited Series, considering that he played four drastically different characters in David Lynch and Mark Frost's event series.
It was a big night, however, for Pixar and Disney's Coco and its growing legion of fans, as the Día de los Muertos movie was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film.
In case you missed it, you can catch up on our previous coverage of The Shape of Water here, including Heather Wixson's review and interviews with the cast and crew.
Did you watch the Golden Globe Awards? What did you think of the nominations and winners? Let us know what you think and watch his speech below.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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