It’s turned out to be a monster night for Guillermo del Toro…
The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker had a nearly perfect night, picking up his first-ever Academy Awards for his romantic fantasy drama The Shape of Water.
del Toro, who co-wrote, directed and produced the film, was named Best Director, an award he was predicted to win throughout awards season.
Additionally, del Toro’s The Shape of Water took home the night’s top prize, Best Picture.
The romantic fable was conceived by del Toro as a tribute to the monster movies he loved as a child, updated to tell a story about tolerance and compassion that could speak to a contemporary audience.The film ultimately took home four Oscars, the most of any nominee.
“As a kid enamored of movies growing up in Mexico, I thought it would never happened, but it happened,” said del Toro, in accepting the Best Picture award.
del Toro, who missed out on being 3-for-3 when he lost in the Best Original Screenplay category, urged other young filmmakers to take inspiration from his win, and “use the power of fantasy to tell stories about things that are real in the world.”
The award was presented by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who famously announced the wrong Best Picture winner last year, naming La La Land instead of actual winner Moonlight.
He’s the latest Mexican filmmaker to take home multiple awards in the same night… Alejandro González Iñárritu previously scored three Oscar wins in 2015 for Birdman: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
One year earlier, Alfonso Cuaron took home two Oscars for his film Gravity: Best Director. and Best Film Editing.
Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s Dia de los Muertos-themed animated film Coco won best animated feature and its featured tune, “Remember Me,” won Best Original Song.
And, the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to A Fantastic Woman, from Chile, the story of a transgender person struggling in the aftermath of the death of a lover.
The film edged out Ruben Östlund’s Swedish satire The Square and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Russian fable Loveless.
Directed by Sebastián Lelio and written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, the film marks the first Chilean entry for the foreign language Oscar since Pablo Larraín’s No, and the first ever Academy award for Lelio, in his follow-up to the acclaimed film Gloria.
At Sunday’s ceremony, the film’s star Daniela Vega became the first openly transgender person to present an award at the Oscars.
Here’s a look at all of this year’s Academy Award winners.
BEST PICTURE
The Shape of Water
ACTRESS
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
ACTOR
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
DIRECTOR
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
ORIGINAL SONG (PRESENTED TO SONGWRITERS)
Remember Me, from Coco (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)
ORIGINAL SCORE
The Shape of Water, Alexandre Desplat
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Blade Runner 2049, Roger A. Deakins
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Get Out, Jordan Peele
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
The Silent Child
DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405
FILM EDITING
Dunkirk, Lee Smith
VISUAL EFFECTS
Blade Runner 2049
ANIMATED FEATURE
Coco
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Dear Basketball
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Shape of Water
SOUND MIXING
Dunkirk
SOUND EDITING
Dunkirk, Richard King and Alex Gibson
DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Icarus
COSTUME DESIGN
Phantom Thread, Mark Bridges
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Darkest Hour, Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick
