Pedro Almodovar will receive one of the Donostia Awards at the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival, which will be held from September 20 to 28.

This is the second Donostia Award announced by the San Sebastian competition for its new edition, after the Australian actress Cate Blanchettwhich is also the protagonist of this year’s official poster.

“The most internationally recognized Spanish director, screenwriter and producer will be honored on Thursday 26th before the screening of his latest film, La habitacion de al lado / The Room Next Door. The actress Tilda Swintonone of the film’s protagonists, will be the one to present the award on stage,” the Festival said in a statement.

In this way, the Zinemaldia will recognize “the extraordinary contribution of the honoree to the world of cinema,” in an event in which it will be precisely Swinton who will present him with the award on stage, the festival reported in a statement.

“In addition to his artistic talent and his recognizable visual style – his personality is evident from the art direction to the soundtrack – Pedro Almodóvar’s films stand out for the writing of the female characters, the acting direction, the audacity in the approach to topics such as the LGTBIQ+ universe, religion, sex, addictions or historical memory, and his political commitment, which has led him to publicly position himself against war conflicts or the discourses of the extreme right,” underlines the Zinemaldia.

A legendary career

He highlights that Almodóvar’s career, with more than a dozen short films and almost thirty feature films, is supported by More than 200 nominations and more than 170 awardsincluding two Oscars, two Golden Globes, seven European Film Academy Awards, five Baftas, four Cesars, five Goyas and two David di Donatellos. He has won awards at the Cannes, Berlin, Venice and San Sebastian film festivals, and has been honoured at MoMA, the museum of contemporary art in New York.

The author of ‘Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown‘ and ‘All about my mother‘He has also received awards such as the Jean Renoir Prize, has been chosen for the David Lean Lecture and has been named an honorary doctor at Harvard and Oxford, recalls the San Sebastian competition for this author.

He has also been awarded the Gold Medal of Fine Arts of the United States, the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts of Spain, the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts and the Order of Knight of the French Legion of Honor.

He first attended the Basque competition in 1980 with his first film, ‘Pepi, Luci, Bom and other ordinary girls‘, which competed in the New Directors section. With his next film, ‘Labyrinth of passions‘ (1982), competed for the Golden Shell. In 1995, Almodóvar returned to the Official Section with ‘The flower of my secret‘, which was screened out of competition.

That same year the retrospective ‘The bazaar of surprises‘ got his short film back ‘Trailer for lovers of the forbidden‘ (1985). Since then, many of his films have been part of the San Sebastian programme after appearing at festivals such as Cannes and Venice.