Pedro Almodóvar receives “moved to tears” the honorary prize at the San Sebastian festival

“Cinema has given me everything,” declared the 75-year-old director upon receiving this Donostia Prize, one of the highest distinctions of this festival organized since 1968 in the city of the Spanish Basque country.

Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar said on Thursday “moved to tears” by receiving the honorary prize from the San Sebastian film festival for his entire body of work, marked according to the organizers by a “recognizable visual style” among all.

“For me, cinema is a blessing or a curse, I can’t imagine any other type of life than writing and filming tirelessly“, he added during a ceremony which took place in the presence of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

The Donostia Prize is one of the rare distinctions that the director of All about my mother And Talk to herrewarded during his career with two Oscars, five Goyas, four Césars, the National Cinematography Prize of Spain, among others. He also received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in early September for his first film in English, The room next doorwhich he is presenting in San Sebastian – a feature film on assisted suicide, with actresses Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

“I’ve had a career of 23 films, some better than others, and they are all mine and belong to mewhich is a privilege,” said Almodóvar, thinking “moved to tears“during a press conference organized before the award ceremony.”I never thought about the question of talent. I thought I had a calling (…) and that if I couldn’t make films, I would be the unhappiest person in the universe“, added the director during the ceremony.

The organizers of the festival, which runs until Saturday September 28, indicated last summer that they wanted to give him this prize to salute the “artistic talent“and the”recognizable visual style” among all the Spanish director. His work, launched in 1980 with Pepi, Luci, Bom and other girls from the neighborhoodr, stands out “through his writing of female characters, his direction of the actors“and his”boldness in approach“of certain themes”like the LGTBIQ+ universe“, they explained.

Another honorary prize was awarded this year 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“.