Naomi Watts to Receive Donostia Award at San Sebastián Festival
The San Sebastián Film Festival will present Naomi Watts with its Donostia Award on September 19. The two-time Oscar nominee will introduce her latest film, 'The Housewife,' at the ceremony. The film, directed by Ben Shirinian, is based on a true story and will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival earlier that month.
Watts’s career spans independent dramas and blockbusters, with Oscar recognition for her performances in “21 Grams” and “The Impossible.” Her San Sebastián appearance marks a return to the festival, where she previously presented the closing-night film “Mother & Child” in 2009. The Donostia Award is the festival’s highest honor for career achievement.
“The Housewife,” set in 1964, follows a journalist who befriends the spouse of a suspected Nazi officer living in New York. The film’s ensemble includes Tye Sheridan, Luke Evans, Michael Imperioli, and Lena Olin. It premieres at Toronto days before the San Sebastián screening, giving Watts a prominent platform for awards-season visibility.
This honor could reinforce Watts’s standing as a versatile actress while drawing attention to a historical drama with timely themes of complicity and moral reckoning. The festival’s international platform may boost the film’s distribution prospects and spark conversations about how past atrocities are revisited on screen. For audiences, the award and premiere together signal a continued appetite for star-driven, true-story narratives in the prestige festival circuit.