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"We must cherish the process": Guillermo del Toro's Master Class at the 24th FICM

Berenice Andrade Medina

The master class had barely begun when the legendary Guillermo del Toro shared a maxim with the more than 1,000 attendees, most of whom were young people: “We must cherish the process. They are stealing the past; they’ve already stolen it. They want to steal the future, and the future belongs to young people.”

With trademark charisma and generosity, the director joked about the enthusiasm shown by the young audience through their cheers and applause: “Hell fucking yeah! I paid you all to come here.”

Del Toro returned to the 24th Morelia International Film Festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Pan’s Labyrinth with FICM's audience, showing a special screening of the film’s restored edition. Given the anticipation and excitement his visit generated, the director added an extra screening to the program, as well as a master class that his fans could attend for free to learn about his craft.

In a conversation with film critic Alonso Díaz de la Vega, and in the presence of Daniela Michel, founder and director of FICM, del Toro expressed his concern about the use of artificial intelligence as a substitute for creative processes: “What they want to steal is the process—let’s not kid ourselves. They cloak themselves in humanizing adjectives, but they want your money, your joy, your learning. The less you articulate who you are as a human being, the more control they have over you.”

Regarding what it takes to make and write for film, he explained that, in his case, he needs to draw inspiration from other art forms, such as painting: “Painting is one of the most moving things, because painting deconstructs reality [...] when photography enters [history], painting already has a duty beyond the mere depiction of reality. The decomposition of light comes with the Impressionists; the decomposition of ideas into the symbolic, into the transcendent, follows.”

On the recurring elements in his work, he said that many of them stem from his own history and memories. “Film is biography,” he explained, “and you have to lay yourself bare because, at the end of the day, the only thing that communicates in film is not your ideas, but your heart. It’s direct communication from one heart to another. The image allows it to resonate on a nonverbal level [...] all that inner expression cannot be replaced by a machine.”

Del Toro also spoke of failure as an artistic catalyst. He explained that of the more than 42 screenplays he has written, only 13 of them have been made into films. “For me—and I’ve said this time and again—the two greatest torments in this world are success and romantic love. They’re fucking awful because they’re impossible, unattainable, torturous, terrifying—and no one has ever truly experienced them. They set standards for us that leave us deeply dissatisfied. But failure is very accessible, and you have to learn that it’s a fundamental tool. It’s really important to talk about how awful things are because that’s what we can all relate to as human beings.”

During the extensive Q&A session—in which some attendees took the opportunity to give the director gifts—del Toro seized the moment of trust and camaraderie to speak beyond the realm of cinema and even offer life advice: “Opportunity is just as important as obstacles. It sounds like a fortune cookie, but it’s true.”