Actor and filmmaker Viggo Mortensen will receive a Donostia Award in recognition of his career at the 68th edition of the San Sebastian Festival, where he will present the film Falling, his directorial debut.

The movie, which closed the Sundance Festival and is one of those selected for the Festival de Cannes, will have its European premiere at San Sebastian. Falling stars the veteran Lance Henriksen and Mortensen himself, who also penned the screenplay. The two embody a father and son whose different worlds collide in this family drama produced by the actor’s label, Perceval Pictures, together with Ingenious, Hanway Films, Scythia Films and Zephyr Films. Its release is scheduled for October 2 in Spain.

In the last 35 years, Viggo Mortensen has participated in around fifty films by filmmakers including David Cronenberg, Peter Weir, Jane Campion, Peter Jackson, Gus Van Sant, Brian de Palma, Agustín Díaz Yanes, Ana Piterbarg, Lisandro Alonso, David Oelhoffen, Peter Farrelly and Matt Ross. He has left his stamp on all of them, no matter what the genre. Not only was he part of the cast of the fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings, where he played the immortal Aragorn, but he has also landed three Academy Award nominations for Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007), Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross, 2016) and Green Book (Peter Farrelly, 2018).

FALLING
Director: Viggo Mortensen (Canada – UK)

Cast: Lance Henriksen, Viggo Mortensen, Terry Chen, Sverrir Gudnason, Hannah Gross, Laura Linney

John Petersen lives with his partner, Eric, and their adopted daughter, Monica, in California. John’s father, Willis, a headstrong farmer from a bygone era, decides to travel to Los Angeles and stay with John while looking for the ideal place to retire. During his stay at the house, the worlds of father and son clash strongly, reopening old wounds and creating new ones on the mutual journey to acceptance and forgiveness.