Cate Blanchett to receive Donostia Award

Australian star to get lifetime achievement gong in San Sebastian

by Amber Wilkinson

The San Sebastian Film Festival has announced Cate Blancett will receive the Donostia Award for lifetime achievement at its 72nd edition.

The Australian star also features on this year's official poster for the festival, created by graphic designer José Luis Lanzagorta based on a photograph by Gustavo Papaleo.

The double Oscar winner has more than 100 films to her name in a career spanning more than three decades. She has also won four Baftas and four Golden Globes as well as receiving further international recognition with an honorary French César and Spanish Goya for lifetime achievement. Her Academy Awards came for her supporting role in The Aviator and her lead turn in Blue Jasmine. She has been Oscar-nominated a further six times for films including Carol and Tár.

Blanchett, who also has 17 producer credits, including Warwick Thornton's The New Boy, has worked with filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter, Wes Anderson, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Woody Allen, Gillian Armstrong, Taika Waititi, Peter Jackson, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, Guillermo del Toro, Adam McKay and Todd Field.

While this will be Blanchett’s first visit to San Sebastian, the Festival has already screened a number of her films, with Babel screening in 2007 and Veronica Guerin competing for the Golden Shell in 2003.

Cate Blanchett is the second Australian actor to receive the festival’s highest honorary award after Hugh Jackman in 2013.

Lanzagorta has also created the poster for the other sections. Joining photographer José Luis López de Zubiria, the pair have decided to combine illustration and photography.

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