‘Spirit of the Beehive’ Spanish Master Victor Erice to Receive a San Sebastian Donostia Award
variety.comJohn Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Victor Erice, one of the greatest of Spanish filmmakers, will receive a prestigious Donostia Award, given for career achievement, granted by the San Sebastian Film Festival.
The award will coincide with screening of Erice’s latest film, “Close Your Eyes” (Cerrar los Ojos), which world premiered at the Cannes Festival this May.
Few awards seem more appropriate. The statuette will be presented to Erice by Ana Torrent, on the 50th anniversary of “The Spirit of the Beehive,” Erice’s multi-levelled masterpiece, which starred the six-year-old Torrent and went on to win San Sebastian’s Gold Shell, its highest award.
It was Erice’s first feature, “Los Desafios,” a triptych anthology produced by Elías Querejeta and which a youthful Erice presented at San Sebastián in 1969, helped bring down the flag on a cinema which – compounded by “The Spirit of the Beehive” and José Luis Borau’s 1975 “Poachers,” also a Gold Shell winner – helped give San Sebastian a social issue edge as a festival which it has never abandoned.
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