Ben Pawlowski
OSCAR-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has been given a life-time achievement award at the age of just 35 at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
She called it ‘an incredible honour’ as she became the youngest-ever recipient of the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd edition of one of the most famous events in the cinematic calendar on Friday.
Wearing an olive backless dress and sporting a straight fringe, Lawrence was greeted by thunderous applause from the crowd at the Kursaal Theatre as she received the prestigious honour from J.A. Bayona, the Spanish filmmaker whose hits include The Impossible and Goya Award-winning survival drama Society of the Snow.
In an emotional speech, the 35-year-old American thanked the panel for handing her the gong – before revealing her love for Basque cuisine.
“Thank you to the San Sebastian Film Festival for thinking of me for this incredible honour,” Lawrence said.
“I’m so happy to be here – not just for the food, which is reason enough to visit!”
San Sebastian, located on Spain’s northern coast, is famed for its mouth-watering Basque gastronomy including delicious bite-sized ‘pintxos’ – and boasts the second most Michelin stars per capita of any city in the world after Kyoto, Japan.
Lawrence, whose films have grossed over €5 billion worldwide, also praised the San Sebastian Film Festival, saying ‘there’s something really special about being at a festival like this where people genuinely love cinema and storytelling and the art and soul of movies’.
The movie gala, which attracts dozens of Hollywood A-listers every year, is ‘a place where every corner of the globe can teach us about each other, bring us together for shared emotional experience and sometimes remind us, at just the right moment, that maybe we are all more connected than it may seem at times’, she added.
The star’s speech skirted around political themes, though at a press conference earlier in the day Lawrence denounced Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, saying: “What’s happening is no less than a genocide and it’s terrible.”
Offering a scathing critique of politics in her native US, Lawrence added: “What makes me so sad is the disrespect in the discourse of American politics right now and how that is going to be normalised to the kids right now. It’s going to be normal to them that politicians lie.”
She urged attendees at the festival to ‘stay focused on who is responsible’ rather than directing anger at actors and other artists.
Lawrence was in San Sebastian to present her latest flick, Die, My Love, which also stars Robert Pattinson.
She plays Grace, a young mother whose mental state rapidly deteriorates as suspicions grow over her husband’s infidelity.
Lawrence’s accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA, three Golden Globes and a Peabody Award – although she is perhaps known for playing lead character Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games film series.
The Donostia Award was created in 1986 and is given to a number of actors and filmmakers every year at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
It is named after Donostia, the Basque name for San Sebastian, the coastal city where the ceremony is held.
Previous recipients of the accolade include Gregory Peck, Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Caine, Robert de Niro, Francis Ford Coppola, Antonio Banderas, Benicio del Toro and Johnny Depp.
This year’s recipients include Lawrence and Esther Garcia, a Spanish film producer with close links to renowned director Pedro Almodovar.
Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.
