Penélope Cruz will receive a Donostia Award at the 67th edition of the San Sebastian Festival

The Spanish actress, winner of one Oscar and three Goyas, star of the Festival poster

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.

"We are delighted that Penélope Cruz, a marvellous actress we admire and whose footsteps we have also followed since the start of her career, has accepted to be the image of the San Sebastian Festival and to receive the Donostia Award"

San Sebastian Festival Director, José Luis Rebordinos

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). 

"I receive the news of this Donostia Award full of emotion and gratitude to the San Sebastián Festival for granting me this immense honour. San Sebastian is not only an internationally renowned Festival but also the most important in our country and a very special place to me because I have had the pleasure of visiting it since I was very young and have lived very touching moments there. Thank you very much, from the bottom of my heart".

Penélope Cruz

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.

EARLY TICKET SALES FOR THE FESTIVAL GALAS

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.

sponsors and contributors

The Festival is possible thanks to the contributions and enthusiasm of many people and companies, including:

• RTVE and MOVISTAR +, Official Festival Sponsors.
• AUDI, Official Collaborator and Official Vehicle.
• KUTXABANK, Official Collaborator and Sponsor of the Kutxabank-New Directors Award.
• AMENABAR, Official Collaborator y Sponsor of the Films for the Kids.
• AECID-SPANISH AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Official Sponsor of the Spanish Cooperation Award.
• ARRI, Sponsor of the Industry Cocktail.
• ASOCIACIÓN INTERPROFESIONAL DEL CERDO IBÉRICO, Official ham and Festival Official Cocktails.
• BASQUE CULINARY CENTER, Co-organiser of the Culinary Zinema.
• CABREIROÁ, Festival Official Water.
• CHANEL, Festival Official Makeup.
• CULINARY CINEMA of the Berlin Festival, Collaborator with the Culinary Zinema.
• BASQUE FILM ARCHIVE, Collaborator of the cycle Roberto Gavaldón and Collaborator of the Zinemaldia 70 project.
• BASQUE GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE POLICY AND CULTURE, for its collaboration with Glocal in Progress.
• BASQUE GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE, Sponsor of the Industry Department, promoter of Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum and promoter of Zinemaldia Startup Challenge.
• DYSON, Festival Official Hairstyling Tool.
• EITB, Collaborator with the Festival and with the Basque Film Gala.
• EL DIARIO VASCO, which will be present at the screenings in the Velodrome.
• ELIAS QUEREJETA ZINE ESKOLA, Co-organiser of Ikusmira Berriak and Collaborator of Zinemaldia 70 project.
• EPE-APV, Collaborator of the Zinemira.
• ¡HOLA!, Festival Collaborator.
• IBAIA, Collaborator of the Zinemira.
• IBERMEDIA PROGRAMME, for its collaboration with Films in Progress.
• IRIZAR, Sponsor of the Irizar Basque Film Award.
• KELER, Official Festival Beer.
• LUMIÈRE FESTIVAL IN LYON, Collaborator with the Klasikoak Section.
• MAR DE FRADES, Opening Party Sponsor.
• MUSEO SAN TELMO, Collaborator of the cycle Roberto Gavaldón.
• NESPRESSO, Official Festival Coffee and Sponsor of the Culinary Zinema.
• PERRIER JOUËT, Official Festival Champagne.
• PETRONOR, Co-organiser of the Zinemaldia & Technology.
• ORONA FOUNDATION, Collaborator of the Festival and Sponsor of the Nest Film Students.
• RAMIRO MATA, Festival Collaborator.
• SADE, Festival Collaborator.
• SGAE FOUNDATION, Festival Collaborator.
• SPANISH FILM ARCHIVE, Co-organiser of the cycle Roberto Gavaldón.
• TABAKALERA-INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURE, Co-organiser of the Nest. Film Students, of Ikusmira Berriak, of Zinemaldia & Technology, of Zabaltegi-Tabakalera and of the Zinemaldia 70 project.
• TECNALIA, Co-organiser of the Zinemaldia & Technology.
• THE EUROPEAN UNION CREATIVE EUROPE MEDIA, Industry Department Sponsor.
• VICOMTECH, Collaborator of the Zinemaldia & Technology.

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.