Guillermo del Toro’s film school will be back in session in Toronto this summer when the Oscar-winning director hosts a lecture series on Canadian horror movies at TIFF Lightbox.
The July 9 to 13 curated showcase for TIFF Cinematheque, entitled From Rabid to Skinamarink: Canadian Movie Madness, will see the maestro of monsters take audiences through a series of iconic genre pics like David Cronenberg’s sophomore feature Rabid (1977), Vincenzo Natali’s Cube (1997) and John Fawcett’s supernatural fright pic Ginger Snaps starring Katharine Isabelle (2000) to reveal and explain their horror genre beats.
The Mexican director will also explain the mechanics of Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool (2008), and Kyle Edward Ball’s feature directorial debut, Skinamarink (2022) for their own visual and emotional impacts on audiences.
Del Toro has made Toronto a second home after Los Angeles. And the Canadian city has hosted production for a number of his movies, including Mimic, the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak, Pacific Rim, Nightmare Alley and more recently the Netflix adaptation of Frankenstein. His TV series The Strain was also shot locally.
That proximity has allowed del Toro to develop a close association with the Toronto International Film Festival and its year-round headquarters, TIFF Lightbox. His master classes on filmmaking techniques often coincide with production on his latest movie projects in Toronto. And del Toro has hosted an earlier lecture series at TIFF Lightbox on Mexican cinema, Alfred Hitchcock films and film noir pics.
The prolific director’s creative ties to Toronto also includes key positions in his locally-shot movies, besides himself as director and Hollywood leads, being filled by Canadians down to longtime producer and collaborator J. Miles Dale, the production designer, costume designer, editors and other technical posts.
TIFF Lightbox and del Toro have also partnered on a free, upcoming outdoor screening of The Shape of Water as part of the film festival’s 50th anniversary this summer.