The 71st San Sebastian Film Festival in northern Spain will honor Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who will receive an honorary award, the organizers announced Friday.
The festival organizers said in a statement that the Oscar-winning actor and the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, “will receive the highest honorary award” at the festival “during the opening ceremony on September 22.”
Also, Javier Bardem, who came to the San Sebastian Festival for the first time 30 years ago to screen the movie “Macho”, will see his face “on the official poster” of the 71st session of the event. According to the organizers, Bardem will be the sixth Spanish actor to receive this honorary award, especially after Antonio Banderas in 2008, Carmen Moura in 2013, and Penelope Cruz – his wife – in 2019.
Born in the Canary Islands in 1969, Bardem is considered one of the most award-winning Spanish actors of his generation, but he is also one of the most active actors, having participated in more than 50 films, mainly in Hollywood.
The actor, who has been married since 2010 to Penelope Croth, won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 2008 for “No Country for Old Men” and the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 for “Beautiful.”
In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Bardem confirmed in 2019 that he “does not receive projects” for cinematic works in Spain, because “people always think that I live abroad, and this is not the reality.”
He has since returned to presenting Spanish works, including the movie “El buen patron” directed by Fernando Leon de Arano, for which he won the “Goya” Award for Best Actor in February 2022.
