San Sebastian to give Marion Cotillard lifetime achievement award
Actress Marion Cotillard attends a special screening of the film "Annette" at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, U.S., Aug. 18, 2021. (Reuters Photo)


The highest-profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world, Spain's San Sebastian International Film Festival, will be honoring Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard with the lifetime achievement award next month, organizers revealed Tuesday.

The 45-year-old, who won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role as Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose," will collect the festival's Donostia award during the event's opening ceremony on September 17, they said in a statement.

Cotillard "has shone brightly in European and North American productions, putting equal talent into dramatic, comedy and action roles," the statement added.

The actress has also appeared in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris," and Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."

Past recipients of the Donostia award – the festival's highest honor and which is named after the Basque word for the coastal town of San Sebastian – include actors Meryl Streep, Richard Gere and Robert De Niro.

Meanwhile, the festival has also decided to give the award this year to Hollywood star Johnny Depp, best known as the swaggering Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, in "recognition of his career."

The decision has sparked controversy since Depp recently lost a libel case against a British tabloid newspaper that branded him a "wife-beater" during his tempestuous relationship with his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard.

A judge last year ruled against him – saying the article had been proven to be "substantially true" – and Depp was ordered to pay the newspaper's publishers News Group Newspapers £628,000 ($871,000) in legal costs.

The case, which laid bare the actor's battle with drugs and alcohol, was dubbed "the biggest English libel trial of the 21st century."

In its aftermath, Depp said he was asked to step down from his role in the "Fantastic Beasts" film franchise based on the book by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

The 69th San Sebastian film festival takes place between Sept. 17 and 25.