Two figures very close to Pedro Almodovar, his longtime producer Esther García and repeat star Marisa Paredes, will be honored by Spain’s most prestigious film festival, San Sebastián.
García will receive a Donostia Award for career achievement.
Paredes, who died in December, will feature on this year’s San Sebastian poster.
Working with Agustín Almódovar, García has produced all Almodovar’s films since 1986’s “Matador,” released a year after Pedro and brother Agustín founded El Deseo in Madrid to hone a production model which, often working with contained budgets, realized the potential of Almodovar’s talent.
At El Deseo, García has also produced third-party titles from Guillermo del Toro, Lucrecia Martel, Damián Szifron, Pablo Trapero, Julia Solomonoff, Luis Ortega, Andrés Wood and Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, often in their early careers. García latest release, Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât,” won a Jury Prize at May’s Cannes.
Announcing García’s Donostia Award on Wednesday, the San Sebastián Festival referred to her as “a key figure in bringing Spanish and Latin American cinema into the international arena,” and someone who is “constantly driven by her identifying features of independence, derring-do and excellence.”
The Donostia Award has drawn many of the good and great in the world’s film industry. Last year’s recipients alone took in Pedro Almodóvar, Cate Blanchett and Javier Bardem, the last accepting an Award postponed from 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Instituted in 1986 by then festival co-director Diego Galán to bring to San Sebastián legends of Hollywood – such as Betty Davis in 1989 in her last public appearance – the Donostia Awards have come to focus on still jobbing and far younger figures, such as Penélope Cruz.
García is the ninth Spanish figure to receive the Donostia Award after Fernando Fernán-Gómez, Paco Rabal, Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura, Cruz, Bardem, Victor Erice and Almodóvar.
More to come.
Marisa Paredes, SSIFF Poster 2025
Courtesy of SSIFF
