Guillermo del Toro states five of his projects have been turned down in the last two months

Del Toro also said that he’ll focus on animated feature films going forward

In a recent interaction at the Annecy animation festival, Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said that studios have turned down five of his projects in the last two months. The director called out the film industry for being “geared toward grinding out sh*t and destroying your art.”

“They still say no to me. In the last two months, they said no to five of my projects. So it doesn’t go away. Making movies is eating a sandwich of sh*t. There’s always sh*t, just sometimes you get a little more bread with yours,” said the filmmaker. “The rate of productivity against your efforts will remain frustratingly difficult, and frustratingly long. And you will always encounter assholes. But have faith in the stories you want to tell and wait until someone wants to buy them.”

Del Toro also said that he’ll focus on animated feature films going forward. Speaking about his love for animation, the director said, “There are a couple more live-action movies I want to do but not many. After that, I only want to do animation. That’s the plan.”

With his stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio opening to rave reviews, his film Buried Giant is also an animated feature. “Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good sh*t into the animation world. I believe you can make an adult fantasy drama with stop-motion and move people emotionally. I think stop-motion can be intravenous, it can go straight to your emotions in a way that no other medium can.”