Naomi Watts to Receive San Sebastián's Donostia Award, Bringing New Film to the Festival
Naomi Watts will collect the San Sebastián Film Festival's Donostia Award on Saturday, 19 September, during the festival's 74th edition, which runs 18–26 September in the Spanish coastal city. The Donostia is the festival's highest honour, given for lifetime contribution to cinema. Watts picks up the prize one week before she receives a separate accolade, the Golden Eye Award, at the Zurich Film Festival on 26 September (Deadline).
Watts broke through in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001), a film that turned her from a working actress into an international name. She went on to earn two Academy Award nominations for best actress — one for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 21 Grams (2003) and another for J.A. Bayona's The Impossible (2012). More recently, she landed her first Emmy nomination for playing Babe Paley in Ryan Murphy's Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (Variety).
She will not arrive in San Sebastián empty-handed. Watts is set to screen The Housewife, the directorial debut of Canadian filmmaker Ben Shirinian. The film is set in 1964 and based on a true story: a young journalist tracks down a suspected Nazi officer living secretly in New York. The cast alongside Watts includes Tye Sheridan, Luke Evans, Michael Imperioli and Lena Olin (Variety).
Watts shares the Donostia spotlight this year with Werner Herzog, whose own award was announced in early August. The German director, known for films such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Grizzly Man, joins Watts as a 2026 honouree (Variety).
For audiences, the festival offers a chance to see a new Watts performance on the big screen while the industry recognises a career that has now spanned more than two decades. The San Sebastián Film Festival, held in the city's Kursaal auditorium, is one of Europe's oldest and most respected film festivals, having run since 1953.
