At Cannes, Guillermo del Toro revisits Pan's Labyrinth and reflects on making the film

Fantasy films usually get remembered for the magic. Guillermo del Toro spent Cannes talking about the pain. At the 2026 festival, he came back with a 4K restoration of *Pan’s Labyrinth* and used the occasion to remind people that one of the most beloved films of the 2000s was, for him, a brutal movie to make. That lands because the film now looks inevitable — a classic, an Oscar winner, a Cannes legend. But turns out it felt anything but inevitable while he was inside it. ### What happened at Cannes? Del Toro appeared at Cannes Classics on May 12 for a restored screening of *Pan’s Labyrinth*, exactly 20 years after the film’s 2006 debut at the festival. Cannes programmed it as a pre-opening screening in the Debussy Theater, and the restoration was positioned as both an anniversary event and a fresh presentation of the film from the original 35mm materials. ### Why was this return such a big deal? Because *Pan’s Labyrinth* is not just another repertory title at Cannes. Its 2006 premiere became festival lore after a 22-minute standing ovation — still treated as one of the longest in Cannes history. So this wasn’t merely nostalgia. It was Cannes bringing back one of its own myths and letting the director talk about what that myth cost him to build. (festival-cannes.com) ### What did del Toro actually say? The line everyone grabbed was blunt. Del Toro said making *Pan’s Labyrinth* was the “second worst filmmaking experience” of his life, and he said the worst was *Mimic* with the Weinsteins. That framing matters because he wasn’t revisiting the film as a victory lap. He was revisiting it as a work he believes in deeply that was also born out of strain, resistance, and a lot of things going wrong around the edges. (variety.com) ### Why would a masterpiece be miserable to make? Basically, because great films are not always great experiences. Del Toro described *Pan’s Labyrinth* as a movie made “against everything at all times.” That fits the film itself — a dark Spanish-language fantasy set in Francoist Spain, centered on a child, fascism, violence, and myth. On paper, that is not the kind of project the industry naturally makes easy. The finished movie feels precise and controlled, but the production story sounds more like dragging a fragile object uphill in bad weather. (thewrap.com) ### Why bring up AI too? Because del Toro used the screening to defend art as handmade, human, and costly. He argued against the idea that art can be made with an app, which tied neatly into the *Pan’s Labyrinth* story. His point was not just anti-tech posturing. It was that the value of a film like this comes from judgment, craft, accident, obsession, and suffering — all the messy things people try to talk away when they reduce art to output. (variety.com) ### Why does this hit differently in 2026? Because the movie industry now talks constantly about IP safety, automation, and scale. *Pan’s Labyrinth* represents the opposite model — an original, director-shaped film that does not flatten its weirdness to be easier to market. Seeing del Toro bring it back in restored form makes the movie feel less like a relic and more like an argument. Not “look what we used to do,” but “look what it takes to do something lasting.” (thewrap.com) ### So what should readers take from this? The useful correction here is simple. Canonical films can look smooth in hindsight, like they arrived fully blessed. Del Toro’s Cannes appearance punctured that illusion. *Pan’s Labyrinth* came back as a restored classic, yes — but also as evidence that some of the most enduring movies are made under pressure, in doubt, and in conditions their makers would never want to relive. That’s the real story hiding inside the celebration. (deadline.com)