Pedro Almodóvar will receive the Donostia Honorary Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival at the end of September

The Spanish director has also won two Golden Globes, seven European Film Academy Awards, five Baftas and four Césars, in addition to receiving awards at the Cannes, Venice, Berlin and San Sebastian festivals.

Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar will receive the Donostia Honorary Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, an edition that will be held from September 20 to 28 in this city in northern Spain, the organizers announced on Wednesday.

“In addition to his artistic talent and his recognizable visual style – his personality shines through from the artistic direction to the soundtrack -, Pedro Almodóvar’s cinema stands out for his writing of female characters, the direction of the actors, the audacity in the approach to themes such as the LGTBIQ+ universe”say the organizers of this festival, which will be in its 72nd edition this year.

The 74-year-old director will receive his award on September 26, just before the screening of his latest film, the first shot in English, The Room Next Door, performed by Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, who will present her with the award.

In May, the festival announced that the other honorary prize of this edition would go to the American-Australian actress Cate Blanchett, the other face of the official poster of this edition, for a career of “more than 30 years combining auteur cinema and films aimed at the general public”.

Past recipients of the Donostia Honorary Award – the festival’s highest distinction, created in 1968 – include Gregory Peck, Vittorio Gassman, Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall, Catherine Deneuve, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Robert de Niro. It was Pedro Almodóvar who presented the Donostia Award to Al Pacino, Woody Allen and Antonio Banderas. He has directed around thirty feature films, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown has All About My MotherOscar for best foreign film in 1999, through Talk to herOscar for best original screenplay.

“It fills me with joy and gratitude. It’s truly an honour. San Sebastian is one of the cities where cinema is celebrated with the most enthusiasm.”reacted the director, quoted in the same press release.