Filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer Werner Herzog was honored with the Donostia Award at the opening ceremony of the San Sebastián International Film Festival. The award is the highest honor a filmmaker can receive at the film festival. Herzog was there screening his latest film, Bucking Fasterd, which stars sisters Rooney and Kate Mara, as well as Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson. The award was presented to Herzog by one of the actors of Bucking Fasterd, Orlando Bloom. Herzog then took to the stage, saying,

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 continued, reflecting on one of his early films.

I’m here standing in front of you, not as a foreigner…I’ve had a connection to you, the Basque people, through an early film of mine — [1972’s] Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

Herzog then went on to speak about how he traveled on foot “many, many years ago” from the Cannes Film Festival up into the Pyrenees mountain range before laughing and saying,

But I must confess, I ended up in Biarritz not San Sebastian.

The 2026 San Sebastián International Film Festival will be running from September 18-26.