Pedro Almodóvar is the Recipient of the 50th Chaplin Award

With his film The Room Next Door currently playing at the 62nd New York Film Festival, Pedro Almodóvar has had a prestigious honor bestowed upon him. Today, Film at Lincoln Center announced that the director will be the 50th recipient of the Chaplin Award. You can find out more about this prize below.

Here is the press release:

Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) announces that internationally acclaimed Spanish film director, screenwriter, and author Pedro Almodóvar is the recipient of the 50th Chaplin Award. He will be honored at a gala evening at Lincoln Center on April 28, 2025. The announcement was made tonight by FLC President Lesli Klainberg prior to the 62nd New York Film Festival Centerpiece premiere of Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, The Room Next Door, which won the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival and opens at FLC on December 20.

Internationally recognized for his spirited and bold storytelling with a distinctive and colorful visual style, Pedro Almodóvar is one of Spain’s most celebrated filmmakers. His work is characterized by a blend of humor and melodrama and his ability to create resonant, emotional stories often centered around the lives of strong and fearless women. He has directed 23 features, including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), Volver (2006), and Pain and Glory (2019), as well as several short films, including The Human Voice (2020) and Strange Way of Life (2023). Almodóvar has received many accolades, including the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for Best Original Screenplay for Talk to Her (2002) and Best Foreign Language Film for All About My Mother (1999), five BAFTA Awards, a record three wins and 11 nominations for the Goya Award for Best Director, four César Awards, and Best Director at Cannes. 

The Chaplin Award Tribute will feature excerpts from his work; appearances by co-stars, friends, and colleagues; and Almodóvar in person to accept the award.  

The Chaplin Award has been bestowed upon legendary actors and filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, and Jeff Bridges (complete list of honorees below). The Chaplin Award Gala is the major annual fundraiser for Film at Lincoln Center; proceeds support the nonprofit organization’s year-round programs, including film series, student programs, and film festivals such as the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.

“Pedro burst into our lives in 1985 with the premiere of his irreverent and darkly humorous film What Have I Done to Deserve This? at New Directors/New Films. I hosted a suitably spirited party in my apartment that night, and it was then that I fell in love,” said Wendy Keys, Secretary of the Film at Lincoln Center Board of Directors. “Over the years, he has had 15 films in the New York Film Festival and also helped launch the Walter Reade Theater with a raucous screening of High Heels in 1991. We all adore his lively characters, gorgeous palette, and mischievous sense of fun, but his films also affirm his profound love for women and a deep understanding of the human condition. We could not be happier to name Pedro as the recipient of the 50th Chaplin Award.”

“Pedro Almodóvar is a storytelling master whose artistry, creativity, and exceptional talent have captivated audiences and filmmakers alike,” said Lesli Klainberg, President, Film at Lincoln Center. “From his earliest films, he has immersed us in emotionally rich, vibrant, complex, and compassionate worlds. A steadfast believer in cinema’s ability to both entertain and illuminate the human experience, Pedro had touched the hearts of film lovers around the world. Film at Lincoln Center is proud to honor Pedro Almodóvar with the 50th Chaplin Award.”

Almodóvar was born in Calzada de Calatrava, Spain and left his small town for Madrid as a teenager to realize his dreams of becoming a filmmaker. Arriving with few prospects, he secured “proper” employment at the National Telephone Company of Spain, which allowed him to purchase his first Super 8 camera. For the next 12 years, Almodóvar split his time between this serious day job and crazy nights collaborating with theater groups and punk bands, writing for underground magazines, and making short films with his friends. In 1980, after a year and a half of filming on a shoestring budget, Almodóvar made his feature-length debut with Pepi, Luci, Bom. Since then, he has never stopped writing and directing films, which include the Academy Award winners All About My Motherand Talk to Her.

His long-standing relationship with FLC began with New Directors/New Films screenings of What Have I Done to Deserve This? in 1985 and Law of Desire in 1987. The Room Next Door marks his 15th NYFF selection, of which a record-setting nine titles have been gala presentations. He made his NYFF debut in 1988 with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (NYFF26) as the Opening Night selection, and again opened NYFF in 1999 with All About My Mother (NYFF37). Bad Education (NYFF42), Volver (NYFF44), and The Room Next Door (NYFF62) were selected as Centerpieces, and Live Flesh (NYFF35), Talk to Her (NYFF40), Broken Embraces (NYFF47), and Parallel Mothers (NYFF59) were Closing Night selections. Additional NYFF selections include The Flower of My Secret (NYFF33), The Skin I Live In (NYFF49), Julieta (NYFF54), Pain and Glory (NYFF57), The Human Voice (NYFF58), and Strange Way of Life (NYFF61).

You can secure premium seating at the Chaplin Award Gala Tribute with Gala Dinner and Tribute tickets. For information about attending the Gala, please contact galarsvp@filmlinc.org. Tribute-only tickets will go on sale this December. All proceeds from the Chaplin Award Gala benefit Film at Lincoln Center’s programs and activities as a nonprofit organization.

Past Chaplin Award Gala Honorees:
2024 Jeff Bridges
2023 Viola Davis
2022 Cate Blanchett
2021 Spike Lee
2018 Helen Mirren
2017 Robert De Niro
2016 Morgan Freeman
2015 Robert Redford
2014 Rob Reiner
2013 Barbra Streisand
2012 Catherine Deneuve
2011 Sidney Poitier
2010 Michael Douglas
2009 Tom Hanks
2008 Meryl Streep
2007 Diane Keaton
2006 Jessica Lange
2005 Dustin Hoffman
2004 Michael Caine
2003 Susan Sarandon
2002 Francis Ford Coppola
2001 Jane Fonda
2000 Al Pacino
1999 Mike Nichols
1998 Martin Scorsese

1997 Sean Connery
1996 Clint Eastwood
1995 Shirley MacLaine
1994 Robert Altman
1993 Jack Lemmon
1992 Gregory Peck
1991 Audrey Hepburn
1990 James Stewart
1989 Bette Davis
1988 Yves Montand
1987 Alec Guinness
1986 Elizabeth Taylor
1985 Federico Fellini
1984 Claudette Colbert
1983 Laurence Olivier
1982 Billy Wilder
1981 Barbara Stanwyck
1980 John Huston
1979 Bob Hope
1978 George Cukor
1975 Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman
1974 Alfred Hitchcock
1973 Fred Astaire
1972 Charles Chaplin