Banderas to Receive Honorary Goya Award for His “Stellar Career”

Antonio Banderas has earned an extra special prize…

The Spanish Film Academy will honor the 54-year-old Spanish actor with an honorary Goya Award for the organization calls a “stellar career on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Antonio Banderas

The academy’s board of directors unanimously voted to honor Banderas for having “developed a versatile trajectory as an actor, have shown his own point of view as a director and having immersed himself in the role of producer to support national values.”

Calling him a hometown-Malaga boy “without borders,” the academy applauded his career punctuated by “risks and commitment.”

Banderas rose to acclaim in some of the most exemplary roles in Pedro Almodovar’s earlier works like Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, Labyrinth of Passion, Matador, Law of Desire and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

But he also forged a successful career in Hollywood with films like Zorro, Shrek, Philadelphia, Desperados and Interview with a Vampire.

Banderas, who has directed the films Crazy in Alabama and Summer Rain, recently returned to Spain with his latest Spanish project, the apocalyptic science fiction Automata, which he presented at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Banderas is currently filming Hugh Hudson’s The Master of Altamira alongside Rupert Everett and Golshifteh Farahani.

Banderas’ special presentation will take place next February at Spain’s premiere film gala in Madrid.

Banderas to Direct Wife Melanie Griffith in “Akil”…

Antonio Banderas didn’t have to look too far to find his leading lady…

The 52-year-old Spanish actor and director has cast his wife Melanie Griffith in his upcoming film Akil.

Antonio Banderas & Melanie Griffith

Banderas will self-finance the film, his third as a director, which is based on a screenplay he recently completed.

“My country, Spain, is in tremendous financial crisis. It’s very difficult to obtain funds to make a movie. I have conceived Akil so as not to depend on third-party funding,” Banderas told Variety.

The film tells the story of a young African boy who illegally migrates to Spain, evades the authorities and takes refuge in an American woman’s home.

“This is a love story between two completely different people – in age, attitude, religion, wealth – who end up being essential to each other,” said Banderas, who previously directed Griffith in the 1999 comedy-drama Crazy in Alabama.

Banderas also helmed El camino de los ingleses, which premiered in 2006.

He and Griffith became romantically involved after co-starring in Two Much, a 1995 screwball rom-com directed by Fernando Trueba, and they wed a year later.

Shooting dates have yet been set for Akil because Banderas still needs to accommodate this new project into his busy schedule.

Banderas has signed on to play Pablo Picasso in Carlos Saura’s upcoming film 33 Dias and may also take a role in The 33, a film to be directed by Patricia Riggen that tells of a group of Chilean miners who survived for two months underground in 2010 after a cave-in.