Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, and Crimson Peak, will receive the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) Filmmaker Award at the MPSE Golden Reel Awards ceremony February 19, MPSE said.

Del Toro joins a list of heavy hitters who have received the award, including Sam Raimi, George Lucas, Ang Lee, and Steven Spielberg.

"I have spent as much time on the mixing board as I have on a stage, shooting or in a color-correction suite grading the final film," del Toro said in a statement released by MPSE. "To paraphrase Mark Twain: 'The difference between the almost-right sound and the right sound 'tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.'"

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Pan's Labyrinth

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, del Toro got his start as a make-up effects designer on local productions like Bandidos and Morir en el golgo before graduating to feature-film direction with his 1993 Cronos. The follow-up, Mimic, pointed the way forward to a Hollywood-friendly career, but del Toro kept in touch with his roots by making the low-budget fables The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth alongside studio pictures like Blade II and Hellboy.

His current project is The Shape of Water, a Cold War-era fantasy adventure starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins and del Toro's favorite creature performer, Doug Jones.

"Guillermo del Toro’s relentless imagination and energy provide inspiration to all of us in the entertainment industry," said MPSE President Tom McCarthy in a prepared statement. “He is constantly surprising, challenging and delighting audiences worldwide."

MPSE: mpse.org