Guillermo Del Toro Honored with BFI Fellowship
The British Film Institute (BFI) is set to honor acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro with its prestigious BFI Fellowship.
This award “recognises his extraordinary contribution to film and the distinctive artistry that runs through his work across animation and live action, and as a Mexican filmmaker, in both Spanish and English.”
The BFI Fellowship will be presented to del Toro during the annual BFI Chair’s dinner, hosted by BFI Chair Jay Hunt, in London in May 2026. As part of the celebration, del Toro will engage in a public Career Conversation at BFI Southbank. He will also participate in a retrospective at BFI IMAX and on BFI Player, as well as curate a film season at BFI Southbank later on. Additionally, he will conduct a series of Masterclasses for aspiring filmmakers from the BFI Film Academy.
Del Toro is renowned for his works, which include Hellboy (2004), Oscar-winning films Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), The Shape of Water (2017), and Pinocchio (2022). His latest project, Frankenstein (2025), was partially filmed in the UK, featuring locations such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Salisbury, and Peterborough.
In May, the BFI will also re-release del Toro’s debut feature, Cronos (1992), which has been recently remastered in 4K by the BFI and Les Films du Camelia, under del Toro’s supervision.
As part of the Fellowship festivities, del Toro will visit the BFI National Archive, a place with which he has a deep connection. As a young projectionist in Mexico, he sourced prints from the BFI National Archive, including those for Mexico’s inaugural screening of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom. Earlier this year, during a TCM event in Los Angeles celebrating the BFI National Archive’s 90th Anniversary, del Toro discussed his admiration for British cinema and the filmmakers who have shaped his artistry, referencing influences such as Alfred Hitchcock, Thorold Dickinson, and the iconic works of Powell and Pressburger.
Previous BFI Fellows include prestigious figures such as David Lean, Akira Kurosawa, and Martin Scorsese, as well as more recent awardees like Tilda Swinton and Christopher Nolan.
In reaction to the award, Guillermo del Toro stated: “This is the honor of a lifetime and a thrilling moment in a storyteller’s life: to join a rarefied pantheon and to be recognized by the BFI. I have been greatly influenced by British film and have enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration with great talent on both sides of the camera going back decades. I thank everyone at the BFI for this great distinction. I will endeavor to work hard to prove myself worthy of their faith in me.”
BFI Chair Jay Hunt remarked: “Guillermo del Toro is an extraordinary filmmaker with a long relationship with the BFI who has consistently championed British talent. His collaborations here speak to the strength of our wider screen industries and the skilled people who power them. His body of work is instantly recognisable as boldly imaginative and fantastical. In awarding a BFI Fellowship to Guillermo del Toro, we recognise his remarkable contribution to cinema and the inspiration and magic he has brought to filmmakers and audiences here and around the world.”
