Del Toro’s talent for terror — and tortillas — celebrated at Sundance

Guillermo del Toro’s three-decade-old debut diagnostic is not scheduled to surface astatine the Sundance Film Festival until Tuesday night, but the acclaimed Mexican manager is already making waves astatine the yearly event.

“Cronos,” a 1992 fearfulness movie filmed successful Mexico, volition surface contiguous astatine the Ray Theatre successful Park City, a metropolis successful Utah that hosts the Sundance Film Festival each January.

The movie — “regarded by galore arsenic an aboriginal masterpiece,” according to The Guardian — volition surface arsenic portion of the “Park City Legacy” programme of Sundance, which is said to observe “the festival’s affluent past … done archival screenings of iconic films from erstwhile editions.”

Ahead of the screening, Netflix hosted a enactment successful grant of del Toro, a 61-year-old Guadalajara autochthonal known for films specified arsenic “Blade II,” “The Shape of Water,” “Pinocchio” and “Frankenstein,” a 2025 movie nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including champion picture.

Elijah Wood, an histrion champion known for “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the filmmaking duo known arsenic “The Daniels” and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir were among the guests.

Del Toro took halfway signifier astatine the Sundance shindig, held astatine a Park City home, and successful the process made respective nods to his Mexican heritage.

¡Muy mexicano! 🇲🇽
Guillermo del Toro sorprende con mariachi, tortillas y tacos en celebración de #Netflix 🪇🌮

Durante una celebración organizada por Netflix en grant a Guillermo del Toro, el cineasta sorprendió a los asistentes al cantar clásicos rancheros con un grupo de… pic.twitter.com/wPK5ZG6BhJ

— Cuarto Poder (@CuartoPoderMX) January 27, 2026

Backed by a mariachi band, the Oscar-winning manager “delivered astir a afloat performance with astatine slightest 7 songs, adjacent coming backmost for an encore arsenic the assemblage enthusiastically chanted, ‘Uno más,” according to a study by The Hollywood Reporter.

Among the songs helium sang were “México Lindo y Querido,” a classical ranchera song, and “La Bamba,” a accepted Mexican people opus that belongs to Veracruz’s son jarocho genre.

Del Toro besides stepped into the room during the enactment to assistance successful the mentation of a meal paper provided by Holbox, a Michelin Guide-rated Mexican seafood edifice successful Los Angeles.

Video footage shows the filmmaker utilizing a tortilla property to crook balls of masa (dough) into perfectly formed tortillas, which helium aboriginal utilized to hole tacos.

Cronos astatine Sundance 

A recently restored 4K mentation of “Cronos” volition surface astatine the Ray Theatre astatine 8:45 p.m. section time. Del Toro volition beryllium successful attendance for an extended Q&A league with filmgoers.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that “Cronos” tells the communicative of an alchemist (in Veracruz) “who creates a instrumentality that tin springiness its idiosyncratic eternal life.”

“Four centuries later, the alchemist, present a ghostly white, is killed by debris from a falling building. Enter an unsuspecting antique trader who comes crossed the device, lone to observe it tin reconstruct his youth, adjacent if immortality comes with gruesome consequences,” the work wrote.

In a reappraisal published past year, The Guardian’s movie professional Peter Bradshaw wrote that “Cronos” is “a macabre body-horror comedy, possibly much intriguing than frightening, with a hint of steampunkiness.”

The film, starring Ron Perlman and Federico Luppi, has “a distinctive authorial signature, the enactment of a precise idiosyncratic film-maker,” Bradshaw wrote.

“Cronos” was filmed successful Mexico City implicit a play of 8 weeks successful 1992, the paper Reforma reported. It outgo astir US $2 cardinal to marque and was partially funded by del Toro himself.

“The movie was finished utilizing my recognition card, and conscionable arsenic I was paying the past installment, it was declined due to the fact that I had exceeded my limit, but I didn’t attraction due to the fact that we had already finished,” the filmmaker told Reforma.

“I was besides connected the verge of losing my location due to the fact that we stake everything we had connected this production, but it was worthy it due to the fact that it has been enthusiastically received astir the world,” del Toro said.

With reports from Reforma, El Universal and The Hollywood Reporter