Ethan Hawke to receive San Sebastián Film Festival’s Donostia Prize

US movie star Ethan Hawke will receive the Donostia Prize at the 64th San Sebastián Film Festival for his “illustrious career,” according to a statement released on Wednesday by the festival. The actor will accept the award on September 17, while the other recipient, actress Sigourney Weaver, will accept hers on the 21st, as was announced in July.

In both cases, the ceremony will be held just before a screening of each actor’s latest film: for Hawke, a remake of The Magnificent Seven, directed by Antoine Fuqua, and for Weaver, the European premiere of A Monster Calls, from J. A. Bayona.

“Hawke’s career, spanning 30 years and four Academy Award nominations, has solidified his reputation as a truly multifaceted artist, challenging himself as a screenwriter, director, novelist, and actor of the stage and screen,” says the festival in the same statement. The actor was aiming for the prize for his work in Training Day with Fuqua and Boyhood, as well as for the scripts of Before Sunset and Before Midnight. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Richard Linklater, who directed Boyhood as well as the Before trilogy. Last year, Hawke made an appearance at the festival to present Regression, a film by Alejandro Amenábar in which he starred.

The San Sebastián Film Festival has recognized other films of Hawke’s as well, as mentioned in the statement announcing Hawke’s selection:

“Earlier this year marked one of the actor’s most celebrated and critically acclaimed roles as the late Chet Baker in Robert Budreu’s Born to Be Blue, a performance that, according to Rolling Stone, contained ‘everything that makes Ethan Hawke an extraordinary actor – his energy, his empathy, his fearlessness, [and] vanity-free eagerness to explore the deeper recesses of a character,” and which Variety called “one of the best performances of his career.’” The festival cites some of his other movies that made it to the big screen this year, such as The Phenom, Maggie’s Plan, and In a Valley of Violence.

Opening Night

The festival has announced that the opening night will feature the French film La fille de Brest / 150 Milligrams from director Emmanuelle Bercot, also making its European premiere. Bercot’s fifth feature film will be competing for the Golden Shell (the festival’s highest prize), and stars Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen and French actor Benoît Magimel.

English version by Allison Light.