Guillermo del Toro gets key to his ‘second home,’ Toronto

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro honoured with key to the city in Toronto.

Academy-award winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has been given the key to the City of Toronto, a place he describes as his “second home” and where he’s filmed a number of movies over his nearly 40-year career.

At a ceremony Thursday morning, the Mexican director spoke about the first time he came to the city 30 years ago, in part, to meet Toronto film legend David Cronenberg but also to shoot the first–and what he called the most “difficult”–movie of his career, “Mimic.”

“So, one would wonder, ‘Well, he should’ve run away,’” he said with a laugh. “But the crew was amazing. Everybody was amazing. We got really drunk on Fridays on the camera truck and I liked that!”

Mayor Olivia Chow presented del Toro with the key at Cinespace Studios in Toronto, where he shot the Academy-award winning “The Shape of Water,” as well as “Nightmare Alley” and “Cabinet of Curiosities.”

“Guillermo del Toro is a once-in-a-generation storyteller, director and filmmaker...Today, we celebrate his contributions to Toronto and his films which have touched viewers from around the world,” she said.

As part of Thursday’s ceremony, Cinespace announced that a section of its film production space will now be known as the “Guillermo del Toro Stages.”

His upcoming film “Frankenstein” was also shot in Toronto and will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Del Toro hasn’t been shy about his love of Toronto. In recent years, he’s shouted out some of his favourite bookstores in the city and even called on the mayor to jump in to save a west-end cinema that was at risk of closing.

“For all of this, I want to say thank you. I have loved Toronto for so many years, and I am very happy that it loves me a little back.”