Jennifer Lawarence said that she was “incredibly fortunate and frankly awestruck” on receiving the 2nd Donostia Award of the 73rd edition of the San Sebastián Festival, an event at which stories from every corner of the globe are told; stories which, she believes, can “teach us about each other, bring us together for a shared emotional experience and, sometimes, remind us at just the right moment that maybe we are all more connected than it may seem at times”. Having thanked the Festival for “this incredible honour”, Lawrence said it was “really special” to be “at a festival where people genuinely love cinema – the storytelling art and the soul of the movies”.

Actor Iñigo Gastesi presented the gala held this afternoon in the Kursaal Auditorium, where the filmmaker J.A. Bayona, president of the Official Jury at the 73rd edition, presented Lawrence with the Donostia Award. Today the North American actress, producer and director became the youngest person to receive the Festival’s highest honorary award since it was first given in 1986.

 “When I think about the artists who have received this honour before me —like the incomparable Meryl Streep, the legendary Pedro Almodovar, and the iconic Lauren Bacall— I feel so incredibly fortunate and frankly awestruck.  To be counted among artists whose contributions and bold choices have shaped cinema and inspired me personally and creatively my entire life, it’s almost impossible to wrap my head around it.  It’s incredibly special. Thank you”, she said.

She also reminded us that bringing independent film to life is “really hard”, giving, as an example, the Donostia Award Screening following the gala, Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love whose character, she said, “struck her”. “She’s experiencing an existential identity crisis as an artist who is adrift, which maybe some of you can identify with —and as a wife and new mother which others may relate to as well. This story was so raw and unique I could only think to do it with the inimitable Lynne Ramsey who weaved in her mastery with raw emotion, complexity, and all out punk rock”, she maintained.

Before giving the award, Bayona jokingly recalled how her fellow Donostia Award-winner Donald Sutherland had suggested the actress change her name to Jennifer Lawrence Olivier, “because her acting abilities were equally as outstanding as those of the great British actor”. “Like Olivier, Jennifer Lawrence has a natural flow: shrewd, meticulous, charismatic. She is one of those actresses who speaks to the camera, who knows how to guide our eyes exactly where she wants them to go without us realising it, he said, going on to praise the “inordinate versatility” of her technique, as a person who can be “calm and cutting, passionate and subtle”. “She can be Lauren Bacall, but also Gena Rowlands, and even both at the same time in the same film.  She can be whatever she wants, because she makes everything she does ring true”, he stressed.

“But also, over and above her immense talent, she is a magnet for the audience, who love her and always admire her from a close distance. That’s why Jennifer Lawrence, at her young 35 years of age, is one of the biggest stars of recent decades. That’s why, even if she has worked with tens of directors, all of her films are also ‘a film by Jennifer Lawrence’”, going on to end by saying: “She has won all the major awards: the Oscar, the BAFTA, an Independent Spirit Award, two SAGs, three Golden Globes… but she still didn’t have a Donostia Award and one of my favourite recognitions: the applause of the public in San Sebastián. So let’s all put our hands together for her”.

Actress, producer and activist

Jennifer Lawrence is an Academy Award–winning actress, producer, and activist. She has starred in acclaimed films such as Silver Linings Playbook, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2012, American Hustle, Don’t Look Up, Joy, and The Hunger Games trilogy. In 2018, Lawrence expanded her influence behind the camera by co-founding Excellent Cadaver, a production company dedicated to telling bold, thought-provoking stories.

Together with her producing partner, Justine Ciarrocchi, Lawrence has cultivated a dynamic slate of critically lauded projects, including Causeway, No Hard Feelings, and the powerful documentaries Zurawski v. Texas and Bread & Roses—the latter honored with a prestigious Peabody Award.

Excellent Cadaver’s latest project, with Lawrence both starring in and serving as a producer with Lynne Ramsay directing, is a gripping adaptation of Die My Love, which premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The film also stars Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek.