Naomi Watts to Be Honored at San Sebastián Film Festival

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 will pick up her Award on Saturday, Sept. 19 and screen “The Housewife, the directorial debut of Canadian Ben Shirinian.” 

Related Stories

The Asian American Foundation and Sundance Institute Announce 2026 Cohort Fellows and Scholars

“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.

She scored Academy Award nominations for best actress for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “21 Grams,” and an Academy Award nomination for J.A. Bayona’s “The Impossible.”

Watts has also worked with 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.”

Many of her roles play off Watts’ demure appearance to reveal depths of desire and envy (“Mulholland Drive”) or unexpected courage (“The Impossible”) in a career which has paid tribute to the multiplicity of human potential, and characters’ complexity.

“The Housewife,” the Donostia Award Screening, stars 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.