The Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE, Local 800) will honor multi- Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro with the William Cameron Menzies Award, celebrating his visually striking and emotionally rich body of work. The ceremony will take place at the 27th Annual Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Awards on Saturday, February 18, at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown.
The William Cameron Menzies Award honors an individual of extraordinary distinction and exceptional contribution to the art of motion pictures or television, a champion of production design, who therefore merits special acknowledgment for outstanding service to the entertainment industry. Past recipients include Robert Osborne, John Musker and Ron Clements, Syd Mead, and Denis Villeneuve.
“Guillermo del Toro has stunningly brought humanity to non-human characters and full-fledged existence to environments which could be seen as devoid of life by integrating strong narrative imagery into his collaborations with production designers,” said Guild president Nelson Coates, ADG. “The Art Directors Guild is thrilled to celebrate his captivating work, which has indelibly pushed the bounds of production design to new heights.”
Guadalajara-born writer, director, producer, and author del Toro is among the most creative and visionary artists of his generation. He first gained recognition for writing and directing Cronos, which premiered at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Mercedes Benz Award, and went on to earn more than 20 international awards. Del Toro’s most noted films include Pan’s Labyrinth, which garnered Academy Awards for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Makeup and ranked in more than 35 critics’ polls for “best film of the year,” and The Shape of Water, which won the Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion as well as Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Production Design and Best Score. The filmmaker’s latest project, the much-lauded Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, continues his lifelong love of animation and stop-motion filmmaking. Additional credits include The Devil’s Backbone, Hellboy, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, and Nightmare Alley.
Del Toro is also a prolific producer of animated films and television. Among his EP credits are Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, Puss in Boots 1 and 2, and Rise of the Guardians; his producing credits include The Book of Life.
Del Toro has created for television, with the FX Network hit series The Strain, based on the eponymous New York Times best-selling trilogy that he co-wrote with novelist Chuck Hogan. Additional small screen credits include Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, which del Toro created.
The filmmaker’s artistic accomplishments have inspired two museum exhibitions: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters,” which traveled to museums in Minneapolis, Toronto, and Guadalajara, and the New York Museum of Modern Art’s current “Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio.”
The Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Awards honor excellence in production design in theatrical motion pictures, television, commercials, music videos and animated feature films. The 2023 ADG Awards will be produced by art director Michael Allen Glover, ADG (Station Eleven, The Alienist, Solos), and production designer Megan Elizabeth Bell, ADG (Out of the Blue, Breakwater, American Murderer).
ADG Awards are bestowed upon productions filmed in the U.S. by producers signatory to the IATSE agreement and upon foreign entries without restrictions.
