Johnny Depp
Women filmmakers protest against honorary awards
Johnny Depp in April 2021 in Barcelona
© imago images / Lagencia
Johnny Depp is slated to receive an honorary award for his life’s work in September. But the protest is not long in coming.
The organizers of the San Sebastian International Film Festival want to present Johnny Depp (58) with the Donostia Award in September 2021 for his cinematic life’s work. But now there is resistance to the decision. Finally, Depp is accused of having repeatedly injured his ex-wife Amber Heard (35) physically and mentally.
Like among other things the British Guardian reports an organization of female Spanish filmmakers has spoken out. The president of CIMA, the association of women filmmakers and women working in the audiovisual media, Cristina Andreu (61), told the Associated Press: “That throws a bad light on the festival and its management and conveys a fatal message: ‘You can be an abuser as long as you are a good actor ‘”. According to director Andreu, the CIMA, which is closely linked to the festival, is now examining further steps.
The court saw allegations of violence as proven
The organization’s statement relates to allegations of physical and psychological violence that Amber Heard brought against Johnny Depp during her divorce. Depp denied the allegations. In November 2020, Depp lost a defamation suit against the British newspaper “The Sun”, which had called him a “woman thug”. The court found 12 of the 14 points that Heard Depp charged as proven. Depp then lost his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the “Fantastic Beasts” series. His next film “Minamata” does not have an American distributor yet.
Questionable decision as early as 2020
Last year, the San Sebastian Film Festival surprised many observers with a controversial decision. Woody Allen’s (85) latest film “Rifkin’s Festival” not only premiered here, the director was allowed to shoot his film here last year. Allen is accused by his former partner Mia Farrow (76) of having sexually abused his then seven-year-old adopted daughter Dylan Farrow (36).