Tommy Lee Jones Among Donostia Award Honorees at San Sebastian Festival

The 60th edition of the San Sebastian Festival will this year bestow its Donostia Awards on actors John Travolta, Ewan McGregor and Tommy Lee Jones and the Special 60th Anniversary Donostia Award going to director Oliver Stone.

Born in San Saba, Texas, Tommy Lee Jones made his feature film debut in Love Story (1970) the beginning of a brilliant career spanning four decades.

In 1969, Jones made his Broadway debut in John Osborne's A Patriot for Me. His other Broadway appearances include Four on a Garden and Ulysses in Nighttown.

Jones has starred in such films as Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) - for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination - Stormy Monday (1988), The Package (1989), JFK (1991), Under Siege (1992), The Fugitive (1993), Heaven and Earth (1993), The Client (1994), Natural Born Killers (1994), Batman Forever (1995), Men In Black (1997), U.S. Marshalls (1998), Double Jeopardy (1999), Rules of Engagement (2000), Space Cowboys (2000), Men in Black 2 (2002), The Hunted (2003), The Missing (2003), In the Electric Mist (2009), The Company Men (2010) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).

He was awarded the Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for his portrayal of the uncompromising U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard in the box office hit The Fugitive in 1994. For this performance, he also received a Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actor. Three years earlier, Jones received his first Oscar® nomination for his portrayal of Clay Shaw in Oliver Stone's JFK. In 2007 Jones starred in the critically acclaimed film In the Valley of Elah for which he received an Oscar® nomination for Best Actor and in the same year he starred in the Academy Award® winning film No Country for Old Men written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and based on the Cormac McCarthy novel.

Jones most recently reprised his role as Agent K in Men in Black 3. He will next co-star in Lincoln for director Steven Spielberg, which opens in December. He has also completed filming The Emperor on location in New Zealand for director Peter Webber. Jones portrays General Douglas MacArthur. Next year, he will play a role in the film Malavita opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro for director Luc Besson.

In 1995, Jones made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed telefilm adaptation of the Elmer Kelton novel The Good Old Boys for TNT. Jones also starred in the telefilm with Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Frances McDormand and Matt Damon. In 2005, Jones starred in the critically acclaimed film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which he also directed and produced. The film debuted in competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and garnerEd Jones the award for Best Actor. Most recently, Jones directed The Sunset Limited for HBO, based on the play of the same name by Cormac McCarthy and starrEd Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. He is also set to write, direct, produce, and star in The Homesman.

Jones has also had success on the small screen. In 1983, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special for his portrayal of Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song, and, in 1989, he was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for Lonesome Dove. His numerous network and cable credits include the title role in The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977), The Rainmaker (1982) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984).

His most recent film is Hope Springs, in which he co-stars with Meryl Steep. The film will be screened in Zabaltegi Pearls section in San Sebastian Film Festival.

John Travolta has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, one of which was for his brilliant portrayal of a philosophising hit-man in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994). The part also earned him a BAFTA nomination, a Golden Globe, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor.

He was highly acclaimed once again for his part of mob member turned film producer in Get Shorty (1996), for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical). In 1998, he received the BAFTA Britannia Award for Excellence in Film and the Chicago Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award. He also won the prestigious Alan J. Pakula Award granted by the Critics Broadcast Association for his role in Steven Zaillian's A Civil Action (1998). He landed a Golden Globe nomination for Mike Nichols' Primary Colors (1998), and yet again for the sixth time in 2008 for his hit role in Hairspray.

From his long list of films we would highlight Saturday Night Fever (1977), origin of the disco phenomenon in the 70s, which earned him his first Academy Award and his first Golden Globe. He went on to star in Grease (1978), the film version of the famous musical, and the huge success Urban Cowboy (1980), also influential on popular culture. Other of his films are the two thrillers by Brian De Palma, Carrie (1976) and Blow Out (1981); the comedies Look Who's Talking (1989) by Amy Heckerling and Michael (1996), by Nora Ephron; Phenomenon (1996), by Jon Turteltaub; Broken Arrow (1996) by John Woo; Face/Off (1997), also by John Woo and with Nicolas Cage, and The General's Daughter (1999), with Madeleine Stowe. In 2005 he once again climbed into the skin of the ex-mob member Chili Palmer in the sequel Be Cool. We also saw him in the acclaimed A Song for Bobby Long (2004) with Scarlett Johansson.

Ewan McGregor's career has been highlighted by a continuous string of bold and daring performances, from his breakthrough role as the heroin-addicted Mark Renton in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, to the legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars saga, to starring opposite Nicole Kidman in the musical Moulin Rouge. His diverse film credits include: Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, opposite Pierce Brosnan; Ron Howard's Angels and Demons with Tom Hanks; the comedy I Love You Phillip Morris opposite Jim Carrey; Deception, also starring Michelle Williams and Hugh Jackman; Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream; Amelia, starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere; Michael Bay's The Island with Scarlett Johansson; Tim Burton's Big Fish alongside Albert Finney, Jessica Lange and Danny DeVito; Young Adam with Peter Mullan and Tilda Swinton, for which he received a London Film Critics Circle Awards nomination; Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down; Little Voice, alongside Michael Caine; and the glam rock film by Todd Haynes, Velvet Goldmine.

The actor was most recently seen starring in Beginners, opposite Christopher Plummer, a film which won for Best Ensemble Cast at the 2011 Gotham Film Awards. McGregor also garnered terrific acclaim for his recent performance in Lasse Hallström's moving film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen alongside Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas.

McGregor received critical acclaim for his role in Danny Boyle's A Life Less Ordinary, in which he won the Best British Actor Award at the Empire Movie Awards. For his role in Shallow Grave, McGregor was honored with the Hitchcock D'Argent Best Actor Award. He was also lauded by critics with an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Guest Actor for his episodic role in the CBS television series ER titled, "The Long Way Round."

McGregor stars opposite Naomi Watts in The Impossible, a drama based on a true story of one family's terrifying account of the 2004 tsunami and the compelling events as they fought to survive in the face of disaster. Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, McGregor will bring to life the emotional journey of a husband and father vacationing with his family in Thailand when one of the most devastating catastrophes of our time took thousands of lives. The film, produced by Telecinco Cinema and Apaches and distributed by Warner Bros., is set for release in Spain in 11th October and worldwide in December/January distributed by Summit. Following The Impossible, McGregor will star in Universal's Jack the Giant Killer, a modern take on the popular fable, "Jack and the Beanstalk," directed by Bryan Singer. The film is set for release in March 2013.

The Donostia Award presentation ceremony will take place on 27th September at Kursaal Auditorium. The ceremony will be followed by the European premiere of The Impossible.

To post a comment, you must register and login.