Cate Blanchett to Receive Donostia Award at the 72nd San Sebastian Festival

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The 72nd edition of the San Sebastian Festival is set to honor Australian actress and producer Cate Blanchett with the prestigious Donostia Award, the festival’s highest honorary accolade. Alongside this recognition, Blanchett will also feature on the official festival poster, created by graphic designer José Luis Lanzagorta and based on a photograph by Gustavo Papaleo.

Blanchett, a towering figure in contemporary cinema, has enjoyed an illustrious career spanning over three decades, amassing more than 200 awards and accolades. These include two Academy Awards, six additional Oscar nominations, two Volpi Cups from the Venice Film Festival, four BAFTAs, and four Golden Globes, among many others. Her extraordinary contributions to the film industry have also been recognized with an honorary César and an International Goya for lifetime achievement.

Throughout her career, Blanchett has seamlessly navigated between critically acclaimed arthouse films and major blockbusters, working with a roster of esteemed directors such as Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter, Wes Anderson, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Woody Allen, and Guillermo del Toro, among others.

While this marks Blanchett’s first visit to the San Sebastian Festival, her films have previously graced the festival's screens, including Alejandro G. Iñárritu's *Babel* (2007) and Joel Schumacher's *Veronica Guerin* (2003).

Blanchett becomes the second Australian actor to receive the Donostia Award, following Hugh Jackman in 2013. The festival has revamped its posters since 2018 to feature contemporary cinema icons, with Blanchett joining the ranks of Isabelle Huppert, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Sigourney Weaver, Juliette Binoche, and Javier Bardem as the face of the festival.

In addition to the main poster featuring Blanchett, Lanzagorta has also designed posters for other festival sections, collaborating with photographer José Luis López de Zubiria. Their creative efforts combine illustration and photography, offering visually striking representations for sections like New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, Perlak, Nest, Culinary