Spain’s most iconic modern arthouse filmmaker, Pedro Almodóvar, will be honored by the country’s most prestigious festival, San Sebastian, with the Donostia Award for career achievement on Sept. 26.

Always a bridesmaid and only now a bride, Almodóvar has handed out his share of Donostia Awards in the past to the likes of Antonio Banderas, Al Pacino and Woody Allen. Now, the iconic director will receive his own Donostia Award, joining fellow 2024 recipient Cate Blanchett.

In addition to receiving the award, Almodovar will present his latest film, “The Room Next Door” which will play as a Donostia Award screening after world premiering at Venice on Sept. 2.

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Almodóvar’s relationship with San Sebastian started in 1980 with “Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón,” which broke out at that year’s festival, championed by Diego Galán, a critic of Spanish newspaper El Pais and San Sebastian artistic director over 1986-89 and 1995-2000. Almodóvar’s second film, “Labyrinth of Passions,” also screened in competition at San Sebastian.

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“My career began in San Sebastian in the year 1980, and since then, I have returned to the festival often, with or without a film. And I have always immensely enjoyed myself,” Almodóvar said of today’s announcement. “I have given the Donostia Award to Al Pacino, Woody Allen and Antonio Banderas. This year, they are giving it to me, and I am delighted and grateful. I mean it, it’s an honor. San Sebastian is one of the cities where the cinema is celebrated with enormous enthusiasm. More than ever, at these times, we need the complicity of the spectators and their presence in the film theatres. It is a dream to attend a festival like this, where the cinemas are always full.”

Along with today’s announcement, San Sebastian published an array of fantastic photos of the director’s early years at the festival, which can be seen here, several with long-time collaborators such as Spanish icon Rossy de Palma.

Other Almodóvar films which have screened at San Sebastian, many out of competition having already premiered at earlier events such as Cannes or Venice, include but are certainly not limited to “F— … F— … Fuck Me, Tim!”, as well as “The Flower of My Secret,” “Live Flesh,” “All About My Mother,” “Talk to Her,” “Bad Education,” “Volver,” “Broken Embraces,” “I’m So Excited,” “Julieta” and “Pain and Glory.”

Films produced by Almodóvar and his brother Agustín’s label El Deseo, frequently from Latin American filmmakers and in co-production with companies from the region, have also appeared in the San Sebastian lineup. Among them are Julia Solomonoff’s “The Last Summer of La Boyita,” Damián Szifron’s “Wild Tales,” Pablo Trapero’s “The Clan” and Luis Ortega’s “El Angel.” This year, Salvador del Solar’s El Deseo-produced “Ramón y Ramón” will screen in the Horizontes Latinos section.

Global accolades for Almodovar’s films have come regularly through the years, including a best foreign language film Oscar for “All About My Mother,” a best writing, original screenplay Oscar for “Talk to Her,” and Academy nominations for his films “Woman in the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” “Volver,” “Parallel Mothers” and “Pain and Glory.”

In 2004, his film “Bad Education” opened the Cannes Film Festival where, two years later, “Volver” won best screenplay and best actress, granted to the ensemble cast of Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo and Chus Lampreave. Other Cannes competition players include “Broken Embraces” and “The Skin I Live In,” the latter of which won the foreign language BAFTA.

Almodóvar has been the subject of an homage at the Museum of Modern Art, won the Jean Renoir Award, was selected for the David Lean Lecture and received honorary doctorates at Harvard and Oxford. He is also a recipient of the National Medal of Arts in the U.S., the Spanish Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, the Prince of Asturias Medal of the Fine Arts and the French Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

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