SF Honors: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro is among the most creative and visionary artists of his generation whose distinctive style is showcased through his work as a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and author. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, del Toro first gained worldwide recognition for the 1993 Mexican-American co-production Cronos, a supernatural horror film, which he directed from his own screenplay after beginning his career working as a special effects makeup artist.

Del Toro earned international acclaim as the director, writer, and producer of the 2006 fantasy drama Pan’s Labyrinth, for which he was honored with a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination. Released in 2017 by Fox Searchlight, del Toro’s contemporary fairy tale The Shape of Water won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival along with four Academy Awards. His other films include Mimic, The Devil’s Backbone, Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, and Nightmare Alley.

In animation, del Toro has been an executive producer on the DreamWorks films Kung Fu Panda 2, Kung Fu Panda 3, Puss In Boots 1 and 2, and Rise of The Guardians. He produced The Book of Life, for director Jorge Gutierrez, and his DreamWorks/Netflix animated series Trollhunters has been both a critical and audience success. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, a stop motion animated feature co-directed by Mark Gustafson, will be released by Netflix in 2022.

Academy-Award and BAFTA Award winner, John Knoll, is one of ILM’s longest serving and most highly sought-after Visual Effects Supervisors. He has served as Head of Department Production-side Supervisor on a myriad and diverse slate of projects, including the Star Wars prequels, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Academy-award winning Animated Feature Rango, as well as A Star Wars Story: Rogue One, where he also served as Executive Producer. In addition, Knoll contributes to many projects in his role as Executive Creative Director for the studio and Senior VFX Supervisor. This includes recently overseeing ILM’s work on Season 1 and Season 2 of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Disney’s feature, Jungle Cruise.

While he got his start in miniatures and motion control at ILM in 1986, Knoll is known for his pioneering and innovative computer graphics work throughout his lengthy tenure in the industry, including co-developing Photoshop with his brother Thomas and contributing to the recent workflow advancements in ILM’s virtual production toolset, StageCraft. Knoll’s extensive film background coupled with an advanced understanding of practical and digital VFX technologies has positioned him to contribute to many ground-breaking Visual Effects driven projects, garnering him five additional visual effects Academy Award nominations as well as five additional BAFTA nominations.