Penélope Cruz will receive the Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Festival's 67th edition.The Spanish actress will be the protagonist on two occasions: she will receive its most important accolade, which has been recognising the career and contribution of great figures to the world of cinema since 1986, and her image will feature on the Festival poster.

Penélope Cruz (Madrid, 1974) is the Spanish actress to enjoy greatest international recognition: she received best supporting actress Academy Award and Bafta for her part in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, Zabaltegi-Pearls 2008), three Goyas for her work in La niña de tus ojos (The Girl of Your Dreams, Fernando Trueba, 1998), Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, Fipresci Grand Prix 2005) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the best actress award with the other women in the cast at the Cannes Festival (Volver), the honorary César and the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts (2018), among many other awards.

Cruz, who works in Spanish, English, Italian and French, has starred in films including Belle Époque (Fernando Trueba, 1992, Academy Award for best foreign language film), Jamón, jamón (Bigas Luna, 1992), Abre los ojos (Open your Eyes, Alejandro Aménabar, 1997), La niña de tus ojos (The Girl of Your Dreams, Fernando Trueba, 1998), Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar, 1999, Academy Award for best foreign language film), Sin noticias de Dios (Don't Tempt Me,Agustín Díaz Yanes, 2001), Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001), Elegy (Isabel Coixet, 2008), Nine (Rob Marshall, 2009), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Rob Marshall, 2011), To Rome With Love (Woody Allen, 2013), Ma ma (Julio Medem, 2015), Todos lo saben (Everybody Knows, Asghar Farhadi, 2018), Dolor y gloria (Pain and Glory,Pedro Almodóvar, 2019) and Wasp Network, directed by Olivier Assayas, not yet released. An announcement has also been made regarding her participation in two new international productions: 355, by Simon Kinberg, and Love Child, by Todd Solondz.

In San Sebastian she has competed three times in the Festival's Official Selection: Todo es mentira (Álvaro Fernández Armero, 1994), Volavérunt (Bigas Luna, 1999) and Venuto al mondo (Twice Born, Sergio Castellito, 2012). The last time she visited San Sebastian was to present Loving Pablo (2017) with Javier Bardem in the closing gala of the Pearls section, screened to a packed audience in the Velodrome.

Penélope Cruz is the fifth Spanish actor to receive the Festival's most important honorary award, preceded by Fernando Fernán Gómez (1999), Paco Rabal (2001), Antonio Banderas (2008) and Carmen Maura (2013).