Judi Dench to receive Donostia Award

Veteran actress honoured for lifetime achievement.

by Amber Wilkinson

Judi Dench will receive a Donostia Award
Judi Dench will receive a Donostia Award Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival

Judi Dench will receive a Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival next month - ahead of a screening of Red Joan.

Dench stars in the film, directed by Trevor Nunn, as a woman whose peaceful life is shattered when she is arrested by MI5 and accused of being a spy for Communist Russia.

It will be the first time the seven-time Oscar nominee has attended the Spanish festival, which runs from September 21 to 29.

Dench - who has enjoyed a career spanning stage, film and small screen - made her cinema debut in 1964 and has gone on to work with directors including Stephen Frears, James Ivory, Kenneth Branagh, Franco Zeffirelli, Sally Potter, Clint Eastwood and Sam Mendes. She has collected a raft of

The 83-year-old has garnered dozens of accolades for roles including Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown and Victoria & Abdul; the eccentric Armande Voizin in Chocolat; the novelist Iris Murdoch in Iris; a theatre impresario in Mrs Henderson presents; a conflicted teacher in Notes On A Scandal; and a mother searching for her stolen son in Philomena (2013). She has simultaneously become an audience favourite, playing everything from a retiree in The Best Exoctic Marigold Hotel to M in seven James Bond films.

Next year, Dench will star in Kenneth Branagh’s Artemis Fowl and Andy Goddard’s Six Minutes To Midnight.

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