Guillermo Del Toro Announces Plan For Stop-Motion Animation Center In His Hometown Of Guadalajara

Joining del Toro for the conversation at the festival was Melissa Cobb, Netflix vice president, kids & family, which doesn’t come as a surprise given that the director previously served as executive producer of the Trollhunters cg animated series for the streaming company and is now working with them on his first stop-motion animated feature, Pinocchio, which has been a passion project of his for many years.

Del Toro encouraged the mostly young attendees to “make maquettes, skeletons, help with cleaning, or whatever else needed” in order to get into the upcoming center. He noted the importance of starting from the ground up and taking advantage of every opportunity no matter how insignificant it may seem.

“There is no better road than the immediate one. Working your way up is really important. If you are going to be a filmmaker understand all the elements going into making a film. No moment of being a PA or note-taking or picking up after an animator, none of that is wasted. It’s all super-valuable growth,” he said according to Variety’s piece on the announcement.

The eclectic filmmaker also explained that the Center of Industrial Animation will also invite prominent international production houses and industry figures to share insight and provide training for emerging Mexican talents.

No details about how to apply for the center or how people will be selected have been revealed as of yet.

At FICG, del Toro made good on his promise to support Mexican filmmaking talent via the Jenkins-Del Toro Scholarship, by revealing the names of the first two young recipients of the funds that will allow them to get an education at a leading film school.

Image at top: A stop-motion parody of Guillermo del Toro created for Lexus’ L/Studio.