Julia Roberts honoured at San Sebastian film festival

Oscar-winning US actress Julia Roberts was on Monday honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the San Sebastian film festival in Spain.

The 42-year-old received the festival’s Donostia Award from Spanish actor Javier Bardem, her co-star in her latest movie “Eat Pray Love”, who called her an “extraordinary” and “versatile” actress.

“She touches all genres without any effort. She has the capacity to transmit all types of emotions,” he said.

A video shown of highlights from Roberts’ career included scenes from her breakout role as a high-class prostitute in “Pretty Woman” 20 years ago and her turn as an environmental crusader in “Erin Brockovich” for which she won the Academy Award in 2001 for Best Actress.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she said. “I watch all that and I just think what a lucky girl, what a very fortunate woman I have been in my life for such a variety of reasons.”

“Eat Pray Love,” based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir of her globe-trotting quest for meaning after divorce, follows Roberts’ character Liz to Italy, India and Indonesia.

It is being screened out of competition at the festival, the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind in the Spanish-speaking world.

“‘Eat Pray Love’ was truly an experience that changed my life, I worked harder than I worked in a decade, I made friends for a lifetime,” said Roberts.

The Donostia Award has been given out each year at the festival since 1986 to “a great film personality in recognition for their work and career.”

Past recipients of the award include Gregory Peck, Bette Davis, Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, Richard Gere and Woody Allen.