An Ode to Guillermo del Toro: How Chanel and The Museum of Modern Art Celebrated the Singular Director

“Guillermo loves to write backstories for all of his characters; eight pages of who these people were before the movie began; where they grew up; who their parents were; their loves…” said Richard Jenkins, who starred in Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning The Shape of Water. Jenkins spoke to an audience who had gathered to listen to actors (Jenkins, Jessica Chastain, Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett) sing the praises of the visionary Mexican director, who was being honored by the Museum of Modern Art at the 2022 Film Benefit, presented by Chanel for the 15th year.

“And so the first day of rehearsal of Shape of Water, Guillermo told us, ‘here's your backstory, use it if you'd like, if not fine,’” Jenkins continued, explaining that, in the end, he opted not to read del Toro’s research. “So at the first award show that we went to, we were all sitting at a table, and my category came up, and I lost. And he leaned over—I thought to console—and he said, ‘if you had used the backstory, you would have won.’” The room erupted with laughter, Del Toro himself amused by the cheeky memory. 

Earlier in the night, guests, including several Chanel-clad luminaries like Jessica Chastain, Ariana DeBose, Chloe Sevigny, Jemima Kirke, Barbara Bush, Zoe Lister-Jones, Lauren Santo Domingo, Sofia Boutella, and Jeremy O. Harris, joined Oscar Isaac, Michael Shannon, Gregory Mann, Helena Christensen, Finn Wolfhard, and more for a tour around the MoMA’s newest exhibition dedicated to del Toro’s next project Pinnochio. In the new film, the beloved tale is retold through the intricate stop-motion animation process in del Toro’s fantastical yet deeply human style of storytelling. 

After a spin around the exhibition “Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio” (which is open through April 15, 2023), guests found their places at an immaculate dinner table. The MoMA’s ground floor was reimagined into a gala dinner, and because Chanel was responsible, the space was as chic as ever—white blooms in sterling silver vessels and tea lights adorned the table tops; double C embroidered linens were folded neatly at each dinner place. 

After a dinner of braised beef, a starry reel of well-wishers was projected onto a screen behind the night’s stage; congratulations and sorry-I-couldn’t-be-theres were delivered by Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, and more before Jessica Chastain rose to address the crowd. 

“It's clear you're watching a Guillermo del Toro film, and now he turns his gaze to animation, managing to make a 140-year-old story his own in such a way that it feels like the definitive depiction,” she told the room, dressed in a gossamer, steely midnight blue Chanel gown. “That is not something just any artist could achieve, but it's a task fully cut out for Guillermo del Toro.”

Finally, the room heard from the man of the hour. “I am joined by the MoMA to present Pinocchio, an enterprise that took half of my career to get greenlit, took a thousand days of shooting with 65 units shooting at the same time to animate a film that, once more, presents a creature that is judged as an outsider and shows us that we can all embrace each other in our imperfections and forgive each other into love,” del Toro told his guests. 

The director continued to thank his audience (both those in the room and of his entire oeuvre) for allowing him to bring monsters to life, recast outsiders as protagonists, and create dreamworld fantasy lands that derive from his visions. MoMA, Chanel, and all those who were present to raise funds for the museum’s film department, led by MoMA’s chief curator of film Rajendra Roy, were touched. But before the night wrapped, a bit more theatrics, now from the signer-songwriter H.E.R. At around 11 pm, the artist took the stage, rotating from behind the piano to front and center with a guitar strapped to her tweed jumpsuit-clad body. She asked the room to rise and gave a rousing performance that punctuated the night perfectly.