Emotional Almodovar wins lifetime award at San Sebastian festival

Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar received a lifetime achievement award at Spain's San Sebastian film festival Thursday, getting teary-eyed as he was given a prolonged standing ovation.

"Cinema has given me everything. Much more than I could have imagined," said Almodovar, who turned 75 on Wednesday, after he picked up the prize.

The Donostia award for "extraordinary contributions to the world of cinema" was handed to him at a ceremony attended by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez.

Almodovar began his cinema career with kitschy black comedies, such as his first feature ‘Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap; which premiered at San Sebastian in 1980.

He burst onto the international scene with his 1988 Oscar-nominated dark comedy ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’, which tells the story of a woman who had just been dumped by her lover. Her apartment becomes the scene of hostage situations and accidental overdoses.

Over time however, a more serious element of the prolific Spanish director emerged. That is exemplified in films such as 2002’s ‘Talk to Her’ -- which won Almodovar the Oscar for best original screenplay, rare for a non-English film.

In the same vein more recently was ‘Pain and Glory’ from 2019, a reflection on his career as a film-maker, which earned two Oscar nominations.

Ahead of the ceremony, Almodovar told reporters he had been overwhelmed with "just an enormous amount of emotion" as he reflected on his decades-long filmmaking career when he arrived in the northern city of San Sebastian for the festival.

"I couldn't stop crying and had tears running down my cheeks," he said. "It's been much more emotional than I expected -- almost excessively emotional."

His first feature film in English, ‘The Room Next Door’, starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, will screen later on Thursday at the festival.

A meditation on death and friendship set in New England, Swinton plays a war correspondent suffering from terminal cancer. Moore, her friend and a successful novelist, agrees to be at her side in her final moments.

The film won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.

It was Swinton who presented Almodovar with the Donostia award, praising his "unparalleled contribution to world culture and for inspiring in us such a devoted affection.

"Your work is good for the world. We thank you for it from the bottom of our hearts. You will live forever," she added.

"For me, cinema is a blessing or a curse," said Almodovar. "I can't imagine any other kind of life in which I can write and direct non-stop."

He paid tribute too, to many of the actors who have worked with him, including Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Cecilia Roth and Rossy de Palma.

San Sebastian, the highest-profile film festival in the Spanish-speaking world, wraps up on Saturday.