The actor will present his latest film, “Savages” in the Zabaltegi Pearls Section.
MADRID – The 60th edition of the San Sebastian Festival will bestow one of its Donostia Awards on the actor John Travolta, alongside the other two already announced for Ewan McGregor and Tommy Lee Jones and the Special 60th Anniversary Donostia Award going to director Oliver Stone.
Iconic film, Saturday Night Fever (1977), origin of the disco phenomenon in the 70s, earned Travolta 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; and, Broken Arrow (1996) and Face/Off (1997), directed by John Woo.
Travolta has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, one of which was for his portrayal of a philosophizing 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). 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.
Other of his more recent films are the comedy and box-office hit Wild Hogs (2007); the action thriller Ladder 49(2004); the film adaptation of the comic The Punisher (2004); the drama Basic (2003); the psychological thriller Domestic Disturbance (2001); the action hit Swordfish (2001); the sci-fi movie Battlefield Earth (2000) and the detective film Lonely Hearts (2006). We also saw him in the remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) by Tony Scott, with Denzel Washington, and he lent his voice to the hero of the animated film, Bolt (2008).
He recently completed the filming of Mark Steven Johnson’s Killing Season, with Robert De Niro.
San Sebastian runs from Sept. 21-29, with this Donostia Award presentation ceremony taking place on Sept. 23 at Kursaal Auditorium.
–The Hollywood Reporter 10:45 AM PDT 9/3/2012 by Pamela Rolfe