David Cronenberg will receive the honorary Donostia Award at the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival. The gala ceremony will be followed by the presentation of Cronenberg’s latest film, “Crimes of the Future,” a daring science fiction movie starring Viggo Mortensen (“A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises”), Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux. The movie world premiered in competition at Cannes.
The celebrated Canadian filmmaker has so far directed 20 features including works considered today to be the classics of genres like sci-fi, horror, psychological drama and thriller.
San Sebastian previously welcomed Cronenberg in 2004 for the screening of “Crash” as part of the Incorrect@s retrospective, as well as in 2007 for the premiere of “Eastern Promises” on opening night.
Cronenberg joins the list of moviemakers to have received the Donostia Award, alongside Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Agnès Varda, Hirokazu Koreeda and Costa-Gavras, among others.
Besides “The Fly” and “eXistenZ,” some of Cronenberg’s most iconic films include “Crash” which won Cannes’ Special Jury Prize for audacity, daring and originality. Adapted from J. G. Ballard’s novel of the 1970s, the film starred James Spader as a death-obsessed commercial producer, along with Holly Hunter and Deborah Kara Unger.
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“Crimes of the Future” reunites Cronenberg with Mortensen for the fourth time, following “A History of Violence,” a thriller set around a man with a dark past; “Eastern Promises,” an immersion within London’s Russian mafia, and “A Dangerous Method” (2011), in which Mortensen portrays Sigmund Freud.
Pior to “Crimes of the Future,” Cronenberg directed “Cosmopolis,” an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel, and “Maps to the Stars,” a reflection on fame which marked the first Cronenberg film shot on location in the U.S..
Cronenberg has also starred in several movies, including “Falling,” directed by Mortensen. The filmmaker is also the recipient of the Order of Canada and Officer of the Order of the Arts and the Letters and Knight of the Legion of Honour in France.
