Guillermo Del Toro, Aaron Sorkin To Receive Honorary Degrees At AFI Commencement
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- Category: Entertainment News
- Published on Monday, 13 July 2026 09:52
- Written by AFI
AFI announced it will confer a Doctorate of Fine Arts degree honoris causa for contributions of distinction to the art of the moving image upon OSCAR® and Emmy®-winning screenwriters and directors Guillermo del Toro and Aaron Sorkin.
Del Toro and Sorkin will be recognized during the AFI Conservatory's commencement ceremony celebrating the Class of 2026 on Friday, August 7, 2026, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
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"Guillermo del Toro and Aaron Sorkin are peerless, prolific creative forces at a time the world needs them most," said Bob Gazzale, AFI President and CEO. "From the vast nature of dreams to an incisive line of dialogue, their contributions to the art form have inspired audiences around the world – as they will inspire this year's graduates of the AFI Conservatory."
Del Toro and Sorkin join a distinguished group of past AFI Honorary Degree recipients, including Robert Altman, Maya Angelou, Saul Bass, Angela Bassett, Kathryn Bigelow, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Anne V. Coates, Jamie Lee Curtis, Viola Davis, Clint Eastwood, Roger Ebert, Nora Ephron, Jodie Foster, Lesli Linka Glatter, James Earl Jones, Lawrence Kasdan, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Quentin Tarantino, Lily Tomlin, Robert Towne, Cicely Tyson, Haskell Wexler, John Williams and Michelle Yeoh.
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About Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro is among the most creative and visionary artists of his generation whose distinctive style is showcased through his work as a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and author. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, del Toro first gained worldwide recognition for the 1993 Mexican American co-production CRONOS, a supernatural horror film, which he directed from his own screenplay after beginning his career working as a special effects makeup artist. The film premiered at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Mercedes-Benz Award and went on to garner over 20 international awards, including nine Ariels in Mexico.
Since then, Del Toro has earned widespread acclaim as the director, writer and producer of award-winning films including 11 Oscars for THE SHAPE OF WATER, PAN'S LABYRINTH, PINOCCHIO, and FRANKENSTEIN. At the 2026 Cannes International Film Festival, Guillermo celebrated the 20th anniversary of PAN'S LABYRINTH's premiere, which will be re-released in theaters worldwide in 4K and 3D. He is also the co-author with Chuck Hogan of "The Strain" vampire novels, which became a hit series for FX Networks, and the recent "The Boy in the Iron Box," first published as an ebook by Amazon and soon to be a Netflix motion picture. Insight Editions has published making-of and art-of books for six of his films, along with the lavishly illustrated GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, which explores his creative work, his libraries, collections and his personal, illustrated notebooks. The book inspired the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition, GUILLERMO DEL TORO: AT HOME WITH MONSTERS, which also ran at the MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART, Toronto's ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO and spawned a related exhibition in his hometown of Guadalajara. A member of the Board of the Lucas Museum, del Toro recently became a British Film Institute Fellow, as well as Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a member of the Board of the Academy Museum of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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About Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin made his Broadway debut with "A Few Good Men," which earned him the John Gassner Award for Outstanding New American Playwright. His other plays are "The Farnsworth Invention" and the stage adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which was nominated for nine Tony Awards and went on to become the most successful American play on Broadway. He contributed a new book for Bartlet Sher's Lincoln Center production of "Camelot."
In film, Sorkin's screen adaptation of "A Few Good Men" was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Picture. He followed that with THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT and CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, directed by Mike Nichols. In 2011, Sorkin won the Academy Award®, Golden Globe, BAFTA Award and Critics' Choice Award for writing THE SOCIAL NETWORK and followed that with nominations for MONEYBALL and STEVE JOBS. He wrote and directed MOLLY'S GAME, THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7—nominated for seven Academy Awards® including Best Picture—and BEING THE RICARDOS.
In television, Sorkin wrote and produced SPORTS NIGHT and followed that series up with THE WEST WING, which won two Peabody Awards and broke records for Emmy® wins. He wrote and produced STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP and the HBO series THE NEWSROOM.
His latest film, THE SOCIAL RECKONING, a companion piece to THE SOCIAL NETWORK, stars Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Bill Burr and Jeremy Strong and will be released on October 9, 2026.
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About the American Film Institute (AFI)
The American Film Institute (AFI) is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to champion the moving image as an art form. Established in 1967, AFI launched the first comprehensive history of American film and sparked the movement for film preservation in the United States. In 1969, AFI opened the doors of the AFI Conservatory, a graduate-level program to train narrative filmmakers. The Conservatory, which counts Deniese Davis, Affonso Gonçalves, Susannah Grant, Matthew Libatique, David Lynch, Melina Matsoukas and Rachel Morrison as Alumni, is ranked one of the top film schools in America. AFI's enduring traditions include the AFI Life Achievement Award, which honors the masters for work that has stood the test of time; AFI AWARDS, which celebrates the creative ensembles of the most outstanding screen stories of the year; and scholarly efforts such as the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and the AFI Archive that preserve film history for future generations. AFI exhibition programs include AFI FEST and year-round exhibition at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Maryland. AFI Movie Club is a destination for movie lovers from around the world to celebrate and engage with the art form every day. Other pioneering programs include workshops aimed at elevating emerging storytellers and technology, including AFI DWW+ and the AFI Cinematography Intensive Workshop. Read about all of these programs and more at AFI.com and follow us on social media at Facebook.com/AmericanFilmInstitute, YouTube.com/AFI, X.com/AmericanFilm, TikTok.com/@americanfilminstitute and Instagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute.
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About the AFI Conservatory
The AFI Conservatory opened its doors in 1969 to an inaugural class that included Terrence Malick, Caleb Deschanel and Paul Schrader. Today, the Conservatory offers a two-year MFA degree in six filmmaking disciplines: Cinematography, Directing, Editing, Producing, Production Design and Screenwriting. In a collaborative production environment, AFI Fellows learn to master the art of storytelling, collectively creating up to 175 films a year. Fellows actively participate in the entire life cycle of a film, from development through production and exhibition.
Alumni of this elite program, ranging from modern masters to bold new voices defining the state of the art form, include Andrea Arnold, Darren Aronofsky, Ari Aster, Deniese Davis, Sam Esmail, Brad Falchuk, Affonso Gonçalves, Susannah Grant, Liz Hannah, Patty Jenkins, Janusz Kamiński, Matthew Libatique, David Lynch, Melina Matsoukas, Polly Morgan, Rachel Morrison and Wally Pfister, among others.
