Donostia Award for DeVito

San Sebastian to celebrate comic actor, director and producer's lifetime in film.

by Amber Wilkinson

Danny DeVito will be presented with Donostia Award on September 22
Danny DeVito will be presented with Donostia Award on September 22 Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival

American actor, director and producer Danny DeVito is to be honoured with a Donostia Award for lifetime achievement at San Sebastian Film Festival

The Get Shorty and Batman Returns star - who will play the ringmaster in Tim Burton's upcoming live-action remake of Dumbo - will receive his accolade on September 22 and present animated film Smallfoot - about a Yeti who becomes convinced that mysterious creatures called 'humans' really exist - at the Velodrome the next day.

The award recognises his five-decade career in theatre, film and TV. The Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner is known for his roles in television series Taxi and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and movies including One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment, Romancing The Stone, Twins, Ruthless People, and Tin Men.

In addition to high-profile roles in mainstream cinema, including The Penguin, he has worked with directors as varied as Milos Forman, Brian de Palma, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson, Francis Ford Coppola and Todd Solondz.

He has also directed – and starred in – films including The War of the Roses (1989), Hoffa (1992), Death to Smoochy (2002), Throw Momma From The Train (1987), Curmudgeons (2016), Duplex (2003), The Ratings Game (1984),and The World’s Greatest Lover (1977) as well as producing films by Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh and Forman.

A principal of Jersey Film’s 2nd Avenue, the successor company of Jersey Films which produced Erin Brockovich (2000) which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, Pulp Fiction (1994), Out of Sight (1998), Freedom Writers (2007), Garden State (2004), Along Came Polly (2004), Living Out Loud (1998) and others. DeVito served as a producer and co-starred in Get Shorty (1995) Man on the Moon (1999), Be Cool (2005), Even Money (2006) and Drowning Mona (2000).

One of his first roles in the seventh art was One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). He earned fame for his part in the TV series Taxi (1978-1983), he was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Emmy every year the show was on and took home one of each.

The 66th edition of the Spanish festival will run from September 21 to 29.

Share this with others on...
News

Desert dogs Zeshaan Younus and Renee Gagner on I’ve Seen All I Need To See

Inviting curiosity Ildikó Enyedi on the value of science, perception, discovery and Silent Friend

Streaming Spotlight: the rites of Spring We shine our Beltane spotlight on films in which the old ways linger

Fighting fit for a debut feature Valéry Carnoy talks toxic masculinity, memory, confidence and Belgian 'soft-power'

Collective power We look ahead at the programme of this year's Folk Film Gathering

First wave of titles announced for Fantasia 2026 Sensory strangeness, queer vampires, sinister shopping and more lined up for Montreal.

More news and features

We're bringing you news and reviews from the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and Queer East.



We're looking forward to Cannes.



We've recently brought you coverage of Visions du Réel, Fantaspoa, Overlook, BFI Flare and SXSW, the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, the NY Rendezvous with French Cinema, the Glasgow Film Festival, the Berlinale, Sundance and Palm Springs.



Read our full for more.


Visit our festivals section.

Interact

Don't forget that you can follow us on YouTube for trailers of festival films and more. You can also find us on Mastodon and Bluesky.


It's a busy time for festivals and here's the latest from the spring events:


Cannes 16 titles added to line-up


Cannes Announces full jury


Cannes Directors' Fortnight selection


Cannes Payal Kapadia heads Critics' Week jury