The Stunning First Trailer and Poster for Guillermo del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER

The first trailer and poster for The Shape of Water, from visionary director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) is here and it’s a stunner.

An other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963, The Shape of Water details the story of Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a woman who is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment in the hidden high-security government laboratory where they work.

The trailer, awash with muted greens and browns, feels very reminiscent of the works of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, most particulary Amélie and The City of Lost Children. It manages to feel both dark and moody and childlike as well. Ahead of this trailer and poster release, the film and its director and stars have been working their way up the Oscar predictions from the Gold Rush Gang. Currently, the film sits at #5 in Best Picture and Best Director.

The film also stars Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones. Fox Searchlight will release the film on December 8th.

Here is the trailer.

Here is the poster with artwork from James Jean, the same artist who designed the poster for Darren Aronofsky’s mother!

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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