The San Sebastian Film Festival will fete legendary filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar with its prestigious Donostia Award at its 72nd edition, running 20 — 28 September.
Presentation of the honorary award, which the festival said recognizes “extraordinary contributions to the world of cinema”, will take place in the Kursaal Auditorium before a screening of his latest movie, The Room Next Door. The film is Almodóvar’s first in English and stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. The Room Next Door will debut at Venice. Swinton will present Almodóvar with the award in San Sebastian.
Almodóvar first screened at San Sebastian with his second feature, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón / Pepi, Luci, Bom, competing in the New Filmmakers section. He competed in the Official Selection with his next film, Laberinto de pasiones / Labyrinth of Passions (1982).
Almodóvar has also previously handed out Donostia Awards in San Sebastian. Over the years, he awarded the honorary gong to Al Pacino, Woody Allen and Antonio Banderas.
“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,” Almodóvar said. “I have always immensely enjoyed myself. I have given the Donostia Award to Al Pacino, Woody Allen and Antonio Banderas. This year they are giving it to me, and I am delighted and grateful. I mean it, it’s an honor. 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. It is a dream to attend a festival like this, where the cinemas are always full.”
Last year, the Lifetime Achievement Award was handed to Javier Bardem. Other previous filmmakers to have received the Donostia Award include Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Agnès Varda, Hirokazu Koreeda, and Costa-Gavras.