San Sabastian International Film Festival in Spain, Set to Award Johnny Depp its Highest Honor (Source: Sipa USA via AP) 

Johnny Depp is to be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sabastian International Film Festival in Spain in September this year. The festival announced its decision to bestow on Depp the Donostia Award, an honor that recognizes a lifetime contribution to films.   

However, controversies surrounding the Pirates of the Caribbean actor have come back in focus, with Spain’s women filmmakers' association protesting the honor going to Depp, bearing in mind allegations of domestic abuse made against the actor.   

While the Golden Globe Award-winning actor has always been in the news, his personal life came into sharp focus when he married Amber Heard in 2015 and the Aquaman actor filed for divorce in 2016, even obtaining a restraining order against Depp alleging physical and verbal abuse.  

The legal back and forth between the two actors have been constant and is ongoing. While a settlement was reached between two parties in August 2016 and the divorce was finalized in January 2017, both parties have been embroiled in legal battles against each other since then.  

Depp paid Heard $7 million in settlements, which Heard had pledged to donate to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the ACLU. In August 2021, responding to Depp’s lawyer's claims that Heard had not met the conditions of her pledge, a judge ordered the ACLU to disclose documents related to the Aquaman star’s $7 million donations to the organization.  

Depp and Heard were married from August 2016 to January 2017 (Image Source: www.guestofaguest.com) 

While the court in the US sided with Heard in its ruling, in the UK, Depp’s lawsuit against the Sun in June 2018, which in an article in April 2018, had termed the actor a ‘wife beater’ based on Amber Heard’s allegations, fared no better. A court in the UK ruled favoring the Sun, and lending credence to Amber Heard’s accusations. The UK Court ruled that 12 out of 14 accusations made by the Aquaman star against Depp were ‘substantially true’ and dismissed Depp’s claims that Heard’s accusations were a ‘hoax’.  

With Heard vindicated in court, Depp faced repercussions stemming from the accusations of domestic violence, including being asked by Warner Brothers to resign from his role as Gilbert Grindelwald in the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ franchise. Johnny’s appeal against the verdict by the UK court was rejected in March 2021. Depp also sued Heard for libel in 2019 for an op-ed she authored in the Washington Post, detailing verbal and physical abuse by Depp. The case is scheduled for hearing in the US in 2022.  

Johnny has been largely missing from the limelight, and his reputation has clearly taken a beating, especially in the wake of the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements. The decision by the San Sabastian International Film Festival to award Depp the Lifetime Achievement Award has been met with protest by Spanish female filmmakers. Past recipients of the Donostia Award, recognizing a lifetime of contributions to cinema, include Glenn Ford, Anthony Hopkins, and Viggo Mortenson. Spain’s leading female filmmakers have come together under the banner of the Association of Female Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media and have condemned the festival’s decision to award the Pirates of the Caribbean star with its highest honour.