Glenn Close receives Donostia Award 2011

On Sunday night, Glenn Close received the San Sebastian International Film Festival's Donostia Award for 2011 from the hands of Rodrigo García, director of her latest film Albert Nobbs. The ceremony was celebrated at 21:30 in the Kursaal Auditorium.For Glenn Close, this is the first award in recognition to her entire career, "an honor" she was grateful for, claiming the love between human beings. The American star began her speech with "Gabon, pozten nau Donostia egoteak" ("Good night, I am glad be in Donostia", in Basque).

She talked about cinema as the result of joint work, an she included cameramen, hairdressers and makeup artists. She also defended the need for love and connection between people because, she stressed, ''hate is enormously destructive.''

'Albert Nobbs'

During the press conference before the award ceremony in Donostia, Close introduced the European premiere (out-of-competition) of her latest film, Albert Nobbs and pointed out she already performed the same role on the stage 20 years ago.

''This is a story of survival of different people, of single people and there are many people living in the world this way, so that’s why I wanted to do it," she said, adding that Rodrigo García" always offers good roles for women ".The American actress stated that she enjoyed working with Colombian director Rodrigo Garcia again and has described the film Albert Nobbs as "history of survival."

Albert Nobbs is set in 19th Century Ireland, a society dominated by men where women have no opportunities and are condemned to a life of servitude. The star of the film (Close) is a woman who disguises herself as a man to get a job in a hotel and earn the money she needs to fulfill her dream.

Based on a short story by the Irish author George Moore, the screenplay bears the signature of Glenn Close herself, alongside Gabriella Prekop and prestigious novelist John Banville, winner of the Booker Prize in 2005 and the Franz Kafka Award in 2011.

Close, who also produced the film, won an Obie Award in 1982 for playing the character of Albert Nobbs in an avant-garde play adaptation of the short story by Simone Benmussa. In this very different film version, Close headlines a cast that includes Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson, Janet McTeer, Pauline Collins, Brenda Fricker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Brendan Gleeson.

She also has starred in two previous Rodrigo García's films: Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her and Nine Lives.

Glenn Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill's The World According to Garp. Her performance in the film earned her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for her performances in Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill; Barry Levinson's The Natural; Adrian Lyne's smash Fatal Attraction; and Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons (for which she was also a BAFTA Award nominee).

Close's other films include Richard Marquand's Jagged Edge; Barbet Schroeder's Reversal of Fortune; Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet; István Szabó's Meeting Venus; Ron Howard's The Paper; Stephen Herek's 101 Dalmatians; Kevin Lima's 102 Dalmatians; Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One; Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune; Rose Troche's The Safety of Objects; Merchant Ivory's Le Divorce; Chris Terrio's Heights; and Lajos Koltai's Evening.

Donostia Prize

The Donostia Prize was created in 1986 in recognition of the careers of grand figures in the world of cinema:

The first one was awarded to Gregory Peck (1986), followed by award-winners Glenn Ford (1987), Vittorio Gassman (1988), Bette Davis (1989), Claudette Colbert (1990), Anthony Perkins (1991), Lauren Bacall (1992), Robert Mitchum (1993), Lana Turner (1994), Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve (1995), Al Pacino (1996), Michael Douglas, Jeremy Irons and Jeanne Moreau (1997), John Malkovich and Anthony Hopkins (1998), Fernando Fernán-Gómez, Vanessa Redgrave and Anjelica Huston (1999), Michael Caine and Robert de Niro (2000), Julie Andrews, Warren Beatty and Francisco Rabal (2001), Jessica Lange, Bob Hoskins, Dennis Hopper and Francis Ford Coppola (2002), Isabelle Huppert, Sean Penn and Robert Duvall (2003), Woody Allen, Annette Bening and Jeff Bridges (2004), Ben Gazzara, and Willen Dafoe (2005), Max Von Sydow and Matt Dillon (2006), Richard Gere and Liv Ullman (2007), Antonio Banderas and Meryl Streep (2008), Ian McKellen (2009) and Julia Roberts (2010).