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Javier Bardem to get lifetime achievement award at San Sebastian

Movie star Javier Bardem will receive a lifetime achievement award at Spain's San Sebastian film festival, organisers said Friday.

Published: 13 May 2023 08:14 CEST
Javier Bardem
In this file photo taken on May 28th, 2022 Spanish actor Javier Bardem arrives for the Closing Ceremony of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France. The San Sebastian Festival will fete Javier Bardem with its prestigious Donostia Award in its 71st edition, which will be held from September 22nd to 30th, as announced by the festival on May 12, 2013 during the presentation of the official poster of the festival that this year will feature an image of Bardem. Photo by: LOIC VENANCE / AFP

The 54-year-old, the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar, will collect the Donostia award at the opening gala on September 22, a statement said.

His image will also feature on the poster of this year’s festival.

The organisers praised Bardem for his “ability to slip into another’s skin as he morphs into his characters”, and a career that has gone from “strength to strength”.

Bardem won the best supporting actor award in 2008 for his chilling portrait of a psychopathic killer with a strange haircut in “No Country For Old Men”.

He also protrayed gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in the 2000 biopic “Before Night Falls”, and played the villain in the 2012 James Bond movie “Skyfall”.

Past recipients of the Donostia award — the festival’s highest honour — include Meryl Streep, Richard Gere and Robert De Niro.

The festival was originally intended to honour Spanish language films but has established itself as one of the world’s top movie festivals.

It hosted the world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s spy thriller North by Northwest in 1959 and Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda in 2004.

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CULTURE

Author of graphic novel ‘Persepolis’ wins top Spanish prize

French-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi, whose graphic novel "Persepolis" tells the story of a girl growing up in post-revolutionary Iran, was Tuesday awarded Spain's prestigious Princess of Asturias communications and humanities prize.

Published: 30 April 2024 14:07 CEST
Author of graphic novel 'Persepolis' wins top Spanish prize

The prize jury praised the 54-year-old for her ‘essential’ role in “the defence of human rights and freedoms”.

“Satrapi is a symbol of women’s civic commitment. Thanks to her audacity and her artistic production, she is considered one of the most influential people in the dialogue between cultures and generations,” it added.

Born in Iran, Satrapi recounts in “Persepolis” her years as an outspoken teenager chafing at the Islamic revolution and its restrictions imposed on women, especially for one from a progressive family like hers. It also told of the hardships of the Iran-Iraq war.

At 14, her parents sent her to school in Vienna to avoid arrest over her defiance of the regime. She later returned to Tehran but left for France in 1994, embarking on her career as an author, film director and painter.

Her animated film adaptation of “Persepolis” won her a nomination at Academy Awards in 2008.

The €50,000 ($54,000) award is one of eight Asturias prizes covering the arts, science and other areas handed out yearly by a foundation named for Spanish Crown Princess Leonor.

Past winners of the communications and humanities prize include US feminist icon Gloria Steinem, Italian novelist Umberto Eco and Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of “Super Mario Bros”.

The awards will be handed out at a ceremony hosted by Spain’s King Felipe VI in October.

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