Oscars 2018: Guillermo Del Toro wins Best Director award for The Shape of Water

'I am an immigrant. The greatest thing art does is erase the lines in the sand, when the world tells us to make them deeper.'

(REUTERS)

Guillermo del Toro has won the award for Best Director at the 2018 Oscars.

He wins for The Shape of Water. Inspired by his memories of growing up watching the Creature from the Black Lagoon and wishing to see the film end in a happy romance, del Toro’s film follows a sweeping romance between a mute janitor at a secret scientific laboratory (Sally Hawkins) and the aquatic creature kept prisoner within its walls (Doug Jones).

Fellow nominees were Jordan Peele for Get Out, Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk, Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, and Paul Thomas Anderson for Phantom Thread.

This is first Oscar. He was previously nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Not in the English Language for Pan’s Labyrinth in 2007.

“I am an immigrant,” del Toro said in his acceptance speech. “The greatest thing art does is erase the lines in the sand, when the world tells us to make them deeper.”

Follow all the live coverage from the ceremony here.

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