Werner Herzog will receive the Donostia Award — the San Sebastián International Film Festival's highest honour — at the opening gala of its 74th edition this September, according to Variety.

The festival runs from 18 to 26 September 2026 in the Basque city. Herzog, who turned 84 this week, will be recognised for a career spanning six decades and roughly 80 films.

The Donostia Award is the festival's career achievement prize, given each year to a filmmaker whose body of work the festival wants to celebrate. Past recipients have included names across world cinema; Herzog joins that roster carrying a CV few can match.

A pioneer of New German Cinema, Herzog's credits include Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Grizzly Man (2005) and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). He has won prizes at the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals and was nominated for a best documentary Oscar in 2008 for Encounters at the End of the World. His filmmaking philosophy, which he calls "Ecstatic Truth," pushes beyond the mere observation of facts to reach a deeper, more poetic layer of reality — a concept that has guided both his fiction and documentary work.

San Sebastián will also screen Herzog's latest film, Bucking Fastard, following its world premiere in the main competition of the 83rd Venice Film Festival (Cineuropa). The film is an Irish-US production with a running time of 109 minutes, according to the Venice Biennale's official listing.

Bucking Fastard stars sisters Rooney and Kate Mara as twins whose extraordinary bond leads them to speak in unison, love the same man and share the same dreams. The cast also includes Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson.

The path from Venice to San Sebastián is a well-travelled one on the autumn festival circuit. Venice, running earlier in September, often serves as the launchpad for films that then screen at San Sebastián, giving titles a second high-profile platform within weeks. For Herzog, the back-to-back appearances mean two of Europe's major festivals will spotlight both his legacy and his newest work in the same month.

The Official Selection at this year's San Sebastián will feature new films by Nicole Garcia, Maha Harada, Pablo Larraín, Mike Leigh, Hans Petter Moland, Benjamín Naishtat and Yeşim Ustaoğlu competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Shell (San Sebastián Festival). Herzog's Bucking Fastard will screen outside the competition as part of the honour surrounding the Donostia Award.

For a filmmaker who has dragged cameras up Amazonian rivers and into prehistoric caves, the autumn of 2026 brings a different kind of journey: two festivals, one prize, and a new story about twins who refuse to be separate. The film and the honour arrive together, and neither seems likely to be the last word.