The first award of the night goes to Guillermo Del Toro as he lifts the golden statuette for Pinocchio for Best Animated Feature Film. Following Pans Labyrinth in 2006 and The Shape of Water in 2017, this is the third Oscar win for Del Toro.

In his Oscar reception speech, Del Toro said, ““Animation is Cinema, Animation is ready to be taken to the next step.” 

Pinocchio is a stop-motion animated film directed by Guillermo Del Toro and Mark Gustafson based on a screenplay that Del Toro co-wrote with Patrick McHale while the story credit is shared between Del Toro and Matthew Robbins. The film is a loose adaptation of the famous children’s story The Adventures of Pinocchio by Italian writer Carlo Collodi, originally published in 1883.  The film is jointly produced by Netflix Animation, The Jim Henson Company, and ShadowMachine

Del Toro’s Pinocchio was lauded for its inventive use of stop-motion animation and its handling of heavier, philosophical themes like death, immortality, and growing up. The voice cast of the film includes Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, and Ron Perlman.