Pedro Almodóvar and Cate Blanchett to Receive the “Donostia Award” at San Sebastian International Film Festival

Pedro Almodóvar will receive a lifetime achievement award at the 72nd San Sebastián Film Festival (also known as Zinemaldia) on 26 September, prior to the screening of his first feature film in English.

Almodóvar is Spain’s most famous international film director, screenwriter, and producer, having directed Spanish classics such as Volver, All About My Mother, and Pain and Glory. Almodóvar has enjoyed an illustrious career spanning from the 1980s and won two Academy Awards for his films All About My Mother and Talk to Her.

His next offering, La Habitación de al Lado (The Room Next Door) is his first feature film in English and stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. The film will compete for the Golden Lion award at the upcoming Venice Film Festival. 

Almodóvar Joins the List of Spanish Greats in San Sebastián

Almodóvar joins a prestigious group of other Spanish actors and directors who have been awarded the Donostia Award at the festival. Most recently was the actor Javier Bardem, who won the award in 2023. Antonio Banderas was given the accolade in 2008.

Tilda Swinton will award the director San Sebastián’s most sought-after honorary award.

A Lifetime Achievement Award Long in the Making

Almodóvar has enjoyed a career matched by few in the business. Boasting more than a dozen short films, nearly 30 feature films, the director has won almost 170 awards over his career and more than 200 nominations.

Apart from his two Oscars, Almodóvar has won two Golden Globes, seven European Film Academy Awards, five BAFTAs, five Goyas, and four Césars. He has also been celebrated at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice film festivals and been the subject of an homage in the MOMA in New York.

Almodóvar has put Spanish film on the map and frequently films in locations around the country. Extraña Forma de Vida (A Strange Way of Life), one of his latest films starring Ethan Hawke, was filmed in the Tabernas desert in Almeria province.

Almodovár Is a Regular at the San Sebastián Film Festival 

Apart from picking up awards at the San Sebastián Film Festival, Almodóvar has also awarded it three times, firstly to Al Pacino in 1996, then to Woody Allen in 2004 and finally to Antonio Banderas in 2008.  Finally, the wait is over for Almodóvar to pick up the richly deserved award for himself.

‘My career began in San Sebastian in the year 1980 and since then I have returned to the festival often, with or without a film. And I have always immensely enjoyed myself,’ Almodóvar said, on hearing that he will receive the award in September.

‘I am delighted and grateful – I mean it, it’s an honour,’ he said. ‘San Sebastian is one of the cities where the cinema is celebrated with enormous enthusiasm. More than ever, at these times, we need the complicity of the spectators, and their presence in the film theatres.’

Almodóvar: Never Afraid to Push Boundaries

Almodóvar’s films are instantly recognisable for their distinct style and unique personality. The director has never been afraid to push boundaries and is noted for his remarkable skill at writing female characters and the courage to confront issues like religion, sex, addiction, and historical memory head on.

Cate Blanchett to Receive Her First Accolade at San Sebastian Film Festival 

Cate Blanchett is also set to receive the “Donostia Award” at her first appearance at the festival. Blanchett’s career has gone from strength to strength over three decades in which she’s racked up more than 200 accolades, including two Academy Awards and six nominations.

Blanchett has also won four Golden Globes, four BAFTAs, a Lifetime Achievement Goya, and two Volpi Cups at the Venice Film Festival.

San Sebastián Film Festival Has Screened Several of Blanchett’s Films

Though this is Blanchett’s first appearance at the festival, a number of her films have been screened at the September festival. Babel competed for an award in 2007 and Veronica Guerin was nominated for the top prize at the festival, “La Concha de Oro” (The Golden Shell).

Cate Blanchett is only the second Australian to win the top honorary award at Zinemaldia, after Hugh Jackman was honoured in 2013. 

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