Portugal Colonial - Javier Bardem to get lifetime achievement award at San Sebastian

The 54-year-old, the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar, will collect the Donostia award at the opening gala on September 22, a statement said.

His image will also feature on the poster of this year’s festival.

The organisers praised Bardem for his "ability to slip into another's skin as he morphs into his characters", and a career that has gone from "strength to strength".

Bardem won the best supporting actor award in 2008 for his chilling portrait of a psychopathic killer with a strange haircut in "No Country For Old Men".

He also protrayed gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in the 2000 biopic "Before Night Falls", and played the villain in the 2012 James Bond movie "Skyfall".

Past recipients of the Donostia award -- the festival's highest honour -- include Meryl Streep, Richard Gere and Robert De Niro.

The festival was originally intended to honour Spanish language films but has established itself as one of the world's top movie festivals.

It hosted the world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's spy thriller North by Northwest in 1959 and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda in 2004.

P.Cavaco--PC