Pedro Almodovar
© AFP/File Valery HacheLondon, Sep 23: With Oscar buzz already surrounding the Penelope Cruz starrer Volver, director Pedro Almodovar has been awarded the critics’ prize at 54th San Sebastian film festival in the northern Basque city.
350 film critics from all over the world voted to award Almodovar the Fipresci best film of the year at the film festival, reports the BBC.
This was the Spanish director’s second Fipresci prize, the first one coming in 1999 for All About My Mother.
And the awards have kept rolling in, with Volver bagging the best screenplay and the best actress award for all six actresses in the cast at this year's Cannes film festival in May.
Volver has reached such accolades at film festivals that Almodovar’s movie is already a front-runner to pick up an Academy Award next year.
An Oscar win will take Almodovar’s tally up to three, for he has already been honored twice, bagging the Best Foreign film award for All About My Mother in 2000, and Best Original Screenplay award for Talk To Her in 2003. (ANI)