Of Gods and Monsters: Guillermo del Toro Receives the Sloan Science in Cinema Prize for ‘Frankenstein’

On November 12, SFFILM and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation honored Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein with the Sloan Science in Cinema Prize at San Francisco’s AMC Kabuki theater. The ceremony was preceded by a screening of the Netflix film to a sold-out, 500-person audience.

A passion project for Del Toro since his childhood, Frankenstein is the latest adaptation of Mary Shelley’s centuries-old novel, starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as The Creature, and Mia Goth as both Elizabeth and Claire Frankenstein.

“The beauty of the novel is that it was written with passion,” said del Toro, who revealed that he had read the book at age 11. “It was written by a teenager full of questions, but that is open to interpretation with every year, every decade, every century that has passed since then.”

“For me, the fundamental question of the novel is a John Milton kind of question of ‘Paradise Lost,’” del Toro said. “Who are we? What makes us human? Why are we here? I think that Mary Shelley superimposes the philosophical questions and the spiritual questions in a very profound way.”

The Sloan Science in Cinema Prize “…celebrates the compelling depiction of scientific themes or characters in a narrative feature film and is accompanied by a $20,000 cash prize,” as per SFFILM. Previous winners include Twisters, Oppenheimer, and Don’t Look Up. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funds research and education across various disciplines, awarding various grants and prizes within the film realm since 1996.

Del Toro was accompanied by several of the film’s key creatives, including Editor Evan Schiff, Head of Concept Design Guy Davis, Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Berardi, and Supervising Sound Editor Nathan Robitaille. They were joined by Nobel Laureate and CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna for a post-screening conversation, moderated by SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai.

Regarding his use of creatures as a means to unearth humanity’s own monstrosities, Del Toro said, “…There’s always a perfect way to do parables in modern times. I think that precisely because they come from a genre that belongs to a longer tradition, that then connects with parable and fairytales, it’s a ripe way of doing it.”

Del Toro added, “I start with truth and origin and the origin for me is as much the sort of Big Bang of monsters as it is my geographical Big Bang, which is Mexico. And I think that you bring Mexico to everything you do.”

Davis credits Del Toro’s vision as the guiding light in his designs. “I’ve worked with [Del Toro] for about 16 years now, and we always start the process with his ideas. I’ll scribble on a piece of paper, he’ll talk to me, and we start working out the designs and the looks of the film he wants.”

Following the screening and Del Toro’s acceptance speech, the invitees sat down on stage to discuss the film’s portrayal of the scientific pursuit, the moral complexities found within Shelley’s source material, and Frankenstein’s proximity to other monstrous portrayals across Del Toro’s career.

“I think the most interesting part of science is not certainty, but doubt. And Victor [Frankenstein] has very little doubts and a lot of certainty. So as a character, it’s very tragic,” said Del Toro during the conversation, where he described Victor’s scientific approach as a “cosmic-sized tantrum.” “The interest for me — as it was, I believe, to Mary Shelley — is not as much the scientific approach as it is the philosophical.”

Moral concerns notwithstanding, Doudna found resonance in Victor Frankenstein’s scientific pursuits during the film. She said, “The passion, the joy of discovery, to me, really comes through in the film. There’s a bit of a manic aspect to it in the film, but nonetheless, just the idea that scientists are driven by their interests, their excitement in what they do… I think that is very compelling to me in the film.” Doudna, a researcher and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her development of new genome editing technology with CRISPR.

Frankenstein had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, followed by a theatrical run in late October. It is now available to stream exclusively on Netflix. 

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Damian Danemann

Damian Danemann is a lifelong film aficionado, starting his awards predicting journey at 5 years old and never letting go since. He was raised in Mexico and moved to the United States during the pandemic, a transition that was essential to his growth as a writer. A student at UC Berkeley, he spends his time producing short films, getting involved in campus organizations, and making good use of his AMC A-List membership.

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