The San Sebastian Film Festival will fete Javier Bardem with its prestigious Donostia Award at its 71st edition, running 22 — 30 September.
The actor Javier Bardem will receive the career achievement prize on Friday 22 September at the Kursaal Auditorium, thirty years after his first visit to the Festival for the competition screening of Bigas Luna’s film Golden Balls in 1993. An image of Bardem will also serve as the official poster of this year’s festival.
Javier Bardem is one of Spain’s most prominent cinematic names, with over 70 screen credits. He picked up an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for his turn in the Coen Brothers’ neo-western No Country for Old Men. Bardem was last at San Sebastian in 2021 with the workplace comedy-drama The Good Boss from Fernando León de Aranoa. The pic was Spain’s submission for the international Oscar race. Later this year, Bardem returns for the second film in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune series, where he plays the character Stilgar alongside Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya.
Last year, the lifetime achievement award was handed to David Cronenberg and Juliette Binoche. Other previous filmmakers to have received the Donostia Award include Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Agnès Varda, Hirokazu Koreeda, and Costa-Gavras.
Colombian filmmaker Laura Mora clinched the Golden Shell in the main competition at last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival with her latest feature The Kings of the World (Los reyes del mundo). Elsewhere, the festival held the European premiere of Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio’s latest feature The Wonder based on Emma Donoghue’s novel starring Florence Pugh alongside an ensemble cast including Ciarán Hinds, Tom Burke, Toby Jones, Elaine Cassidy, and Niamh Algar. South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo also debuted his latest offering Top / Walk Up in Competition.