Penélope Cruz will receive the Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Festival's 67th edition.The Spanish actress will be the protagonist on two occasions: she will receive its most important accolade, which has been recognising the career and contribution of great figures to the world of cinema since 1986, and her image will feature on the Festival poster.
Penélope Cruz (Madrid, 1974) is the Spanish actress to enjoy greatest international recognition: she received best supporting actress Academy Award and Bafta for her part in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, Zabaltegi-Pearls 2008), three Goyas for her work in La niña de tus ojos (The Girl of Your Dreams, Fernando Trueba, 1998), Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, Fipresci Grand Prix 2005) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the best actress award with the other women in the cast at the Cannes Festival (Volver), the honorary César and the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts (2018), among many other awards.
Cruz, who works in Spanish, English, Italian and French, has starred in films including Belle Époque (Fernando Trueba, 1992, Academy Award for best foreign language film), Jamón, jamón (Bigas Luna, 1992), Abre los ojos (Open your Eyes, Alejandro Aménabar, 1997), La niña de tus ojos (The Girl of Your Dreams, Fernando Trueba, 1998), Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar, 1999, Academy Award for best foreign language film), Sin noticias de Dios (Don't Tempt Me,Agustín Díaz Yanes, 2001), Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001), Elegy (Isabel Coixet, 2008), Nine (Rob Marshall, 2009), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Rob Marshall, 2011), To Rome With Love (Woody Allen, 2013), Ma ma (Julio Medem, 2015), Todos lo saben (Everybody Knows, Asghar Farhadi, 2018), Dolor y gloria (Pain and Glory,Pedro Almodóvar, 2019) and Wasp Network, directed by Olivier Assayas, not yet released. An announcement has also been made regarding her participation in two new international productions: 355, by Simon Kinberg, and Love Child, by Todd Solondz.
In San Sebastian she has competed three times in the Festival's Official Selection: Todo es mentira (Álvaro Fernández Armero, 1994), Volavérunt (Bigas Luna, 1999) and Venuto al mondo (Twice Born, Sergio Castellito, 2012). The last time she visited San Sebastian was to present Loving Pablo (2017) with Javier Bardem in the closing gala of the Pearls section, screened to a packed audience in the Velodrome.
Penélope Cruz is the fifth Spanish actor to receive the Festival's most important honorary award, preceded by Fernando Fernán Gómez (1999), Paco Rabal (2001), Antonio Banderas (2008) and Carmen Maura (2013).
In 2018, the San Sebastian Festival launched a new line of posters with a composition combining photography and illustration, featuring a figure from the contemporary film world. Isabelle Huppert inaugurated the series last year, and for the 67th edition the official San Sebastian Festival poster will focus on Penélope Cruz.The official poster has been created by the studio TGA based on a picture of Penélope Cruz taken by the photographer Nico Bustos.
Over the fifteen years of its existence, the fusion between functionality and aesthetics combined with the characteristic visual language of the studio from San Sebastian, TGA, has shaped the identity of Donostia Kultura, Fundación Kutxa, Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola and the Aquarium. Among the posters produced by the studio, headed by Nagore García Pascual, Julen Cano Linazasoro and Txema García Amiano, are those created for the 75th anniversary of the classical music festival, the Quincena Musical, for the Bandera de La Concha rowing competition in 2017, for the staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream and for the Festival's change of image in its last edition.
TGA also puts its signature to the other posters for the New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, Perlak, Nest Film Students and Culinary Zinema sections, and for the retrospective dedicated to Roberto Gavaldón. All share the same combination of photography and illustration.
Tickets are on sale on the Festival website from today, Friday, for the opening and closing galas of the 67th edition. A maximum of four tickets per gala may be purchased.
The Festival is possible thanks to the contributions and enthusiasm of many people and companies, including:
And the members of the Board of Administrators of the Sociedad Anónima Festival de San Sebastián: Spanish Government Ministry of Culture, Basque Government Department of Culture, Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and San Sebastian City Council.