Werner Herzog picked up the Donostia Award at San Sebastian Film Festival on Friday, and the ceremony turned into a political rally as much as a celebration. The German director was recognized with the festival’s most prestigious honor at the Kursaal Theatre in northern Spain, and he delivered a speech that mixed poetry, mountain travel and a self-deprecating admission about a wrong turn he made decades ago.
The raucous standing ovation from his fellow European creatives was the warm part of the night. The political declarations came later, and they were delivered with conviction.
Herzog’s Trip to the Pyrenees
Herzog was presenting his latest feature, Bucking Fastards, which stars Kate Mara, Rooney Mara, Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson. Bloom himself presented the award to Herzog, prompting the German to joke on stage: “What an honor to receive it from the very hands of Orlando Bloom. He’s a living legend at his young age already. He is a treasure of cinema.”
Herzog then turned to his history with the Basque Country. He recalled his 1972 film Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and explained that he traveled on foot from the Cannes Film Festival up into the Pyrenees mountain range. It was more than 1,000 kilometers, he said.
“But I must confess, I ended up in Biarritz,” he laughed, “not San Sebastian.”
The admission was charming precisely because it was so human. Herzog did not pretend the trip went perfectly, and he did not apologize for the wrong turn. He simply told the story and let the crowd laugh.
He said his experience interacting with Basques has stayed with him. “I met your people. I met Basque people in the mountains, and I was always intrigued,” he said. He added that he follows Spain’s national poetry competition closely: “I feel like as if I belong here. It is a country of poetry. It’s a country of poets, and I receive this here from the poets. Thank you very much.”
The Political Declarations
The ceremony was marked by political statements from its hosts, Fariba Sheikhan and Mariona Terés. They joined the “myriad of voices calling for an end to genocide, like the one happening in Gaza,” they said. They also stood in solidarity with the directors of the film NAZA, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who have been threatened by the Israeli government.
Last year, the San Sebastian Film Festival called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the region as Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and his government subjected the Palestinian people to what the festival called “unimaginable massacres.”
The presenters also emphasized the need to put an end to “unilateral breaking of international law, to colonialist looting, to sexual violence and to the cruel wars that systematically violate human rights.”
The Case of NAZA
NAZA, directed by Abraham and Szor, features testimony from 24 Israeli military officers outlining the systems and protocols they allege Israel uses to target and kill civilians in Gaza. The film was one of the biggest breakout successes of Venice, where it set a new record for the longest standing ovation at its Lido premiere.
Abraham and Szor won the Special Jury Prize at Saturday’s Venice Film Festival awards, but they have faced scrutiny since the debut. That includes threats from Israel’s culture minister Miki Zohar, who has threatened to revoke the pair’s Israeli citizenship.
The San Sebastian ceremony gave the pair additional support, with the hosts explicitly naming them and their film in their thunderous applause.
What the Donostia Award Means
The Donostia Award is San Sebastian’s most prestigious honor. It recognizes lifetime achievement, and it carries weight in the European film community. Herzog’s acceptance of it was a moment of genuine warmth, even as the political context around it made the ceremony unusually pointed.
Bucking Fastards is currently screening at the festival. Herzog’s presence at the opening ceremony gave the festival a marquee draw for its first night.
The Festival Schedule
The 2026 San Sebastian International Film Festival runs Sep. 18-26. It opened Friday with Fatih Akin’s haunting film Ghost Song, a movie heavily influenced by the award-winning director’s relationship with anime and manga. The film follows two students whose love-at-first-sight connection is cut abruptly short when one of them dies.
The festival continues through the week.
Herzog’s Body of Work
Herzog’s credits include Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Grizzly Man (2005) and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). Each of those films carries its own legend.
His work often deals with nature, endurance and the human condition. The Pyrenees trek he described on Friday fits that pattern perfectly — a journey undertaken on foot, across distance, with the destination not quite what was expected.
The Contrast Between Herzog and the Politics
Herzog’s speech was personal and poetic. The ceremony’s political content was blunt and angry. Both were part of the same event, and both were delivered with conviction.
The director spoke of poetry and mountains and the Basque people. The hosts spoke of genocide, war crimes and international law. One was a story about a wrong turn in Biarritz. The other was a call to action.
Key Facts Box
- Award: Donostia Award, San Sebastian Film Festival
- Recipient: Werner Herzog
- Presenter: Orlando Bloom
- Film: Bucking Fastards
- Cast: Kate Mara, Rooney Mara, Orlando Bloom, Domhnall Gleeson
- Distance: More than 1,000 kilometers from Cannes to the Pyrenees
- Wrong turn: Herzog ended up in Biarritz, not San Sebastian
- Festival dates: Sep. 18-26, 2026
- Opening film: Ghost Song, directed by Fatih Akin
The contrast between Herzog’s personal anecdote and the ceremony’s political declarations was visible to anyone watching. Herzog could have used the occasion to make a grand statement about cinema or the industry. Instead, he chose to tell a small story about a wrong turn in the Pyrenees.
That choice made the award warmer than it might otherwise have been. It also made the ceremony’s political content feel sharper, because the human scale of Herzog’s story sat alongside the institutional scale of the festival’s position.
The festival has now made its stance clear. It supports the directors of NAZA, opposes the war in Gaza, and condemns what it calls “unimaginable massacres.”
Source material: “Werner Herzog Picks Up San Sebastian’s Donostia Award at Politically Charged Opening Ceremony,” The Hollywood Reporter.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.