British star Naomi Watts will receive the San Sebastián Film Festival’s prestigious Donostia Award during its 74th edition in September.
She joins legendary German director Werner Herzog whose Donostia Award was announced early August.
“Watts combines independent films with big productions on both the big and the small screen,” the San Sebastián Film Festival said in a statement, calling her “one of her generation’s most talented and award-winning actresses.
Born in England, but achieving a career in the U.S. and beyond, Watts broke out in David Lynch’s “Mullholland Drive, where her performance is “ranked among the finest in contemporary cinema,” said the San Sebastián Festival.
Watts has also worked with filmmakers including Peter Jackson, David Cronenberg, Clint Eastwood, Michael Haneke, Audrey Diwan, Noah Baumbach and Rodrigo García, with whom she came to San Sebastián in 2009 to close the Official Selection out of competition with “Mother & Child.”
She earned a first Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Babe Paley in Ryan Murphy’s “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.”
“The Housewife,” the Donostia Award Screening, stars Naomi Watts, Tye Sheridan, Luke Evans, Michael Imperioli and Lena Olin. Set in 1964 and based on a true story, the film tells the tale of a young journalist who tracks down a potential Nazi officer living secretly in New York and befriends the suspect’s charming wife
The San Sebastián Film Festival runs Sept. 18 to 26.
