“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.
“For me, cinema is a blessing or a curse, I cannot imagine any other type of life than writing and filming tirelessly,” he added during a ceremony which took place in the presence of of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The Donostia Prize is one of the rare distinctions that was missing for the director of “All about my mother” and “Parle avec elle”, rewarded during his career with two Oscars, five Goyas, four Césars, the National Cinematography Prize of Spain, among others.
The “privilege” of making films
At the beginning of September, he also received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his first film in English, “The Room Next Door”, which he is presenting in San Sebastian. It is a feature film about assisted suicide, starring actresses Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.
“I have had a career of 23 films, some better than others, and they are all mine and belong to me”, which is “a privilege”, declared Almodóvar, saying he was “moved to tears” during a press conference organized before the award ceremony.
“I never thought about the question of talent. I thought that I had a vocation (…) and that if I could not make films, I would be the unhappiest person in the universe”, added the director during the ceremony.
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.
