Spanish filmmakers have spoken out against the decision of the San Sebastián Film Festival management to give this year’s Donostia Award to Johnny Depp.
Following the festival’s announcement on Monday that it will felicitate Depp with the highest honorary award in recognition of his work, in a statement, CIMA, the Association of Women Filmmakers of Audiovisual Media of Spain that has over 700 members, said “Unfortunately, Johnny Depp is immersed in several judicial processes that have their origin in the accusations of mistreatment of his ex-wife Amber Heard. That a film festival as important as San Sebastián is on your side when justice has not yet done it, is at least inopportune and unjustifiable.”
Felicitating someone with this honour is equal to declaring to the world, “These are our role models, the people who represent the best of our profession,” the statement read.
The actor, who has films like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Finding Neverland to his credit, has been embroiled in a prolonged legal battle with his estranged wife, actor Amber Heard, who has levelled domestic abuse allegations against him.
Heard first spoke about the abuse in 2016 when she filed for divorce and a legal tug-of-war followed between the two.
In April 2018, The Sun, a UK tabloid, called Depp a “wife-beater” in an article and Depp filed a libel claim against the publication, which was rejected by the British High Court’s Justice Andrew Nicol in 2020. Justice Nicol also found that 12 of the 14 alleged domestic violence incidents did occur. The judge had ruled that Depp had assaulted Heard on these occasions and put her in “fear for her life” three times.
Following Justice Nicol’s ruling, in November 2020, Depp released a statement announcing his exit from the Fantastic Beasts film franchise.
In a bid to overturn the order, Depp asked the court of appeal to allow him to challenge the ruling, but he was denied permission to do so. Depp also sued Heard for defamation in 2019 after she discussed being a victim of domestic violence in a 2018 op-ed piece for The Washington Post.
Terming the decision to award Depp as an ‘error from the ethical point of view’, CIMA said in its statement “We hope that those responsible for the festival are consistent with the fact that the commitment to women’s equality is not achieved with a signature but with those ethical decisions that define us every day.”
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The festival’s director Jose Luis Rebordinos told Screen in a statement on Monday “The Donostia Award to Johnny Depp is our recognition of a great actor, a man of cinema with a great career, who visited us last year as producer of the film Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan, by Julien Temple, which won the Special Jury Prize.”
Cristina Andreu, the President of CIMA, on Tuesday, told the Associated Press, “This speaks very badly of the festival and its leadership, and transmits a terrible message to the public: ‘It doesn’t matter if you are an abuser as long as you are a good actor’.”
Depp will also be honoured at the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival scheduled to be held later this month.