This year, FILMFEST MÜNCHEN will present the festival’s special award, the CineMerit Award, to two outstanding actors. Joining English actor Ralph Fiennes will be Spanish actor Antonio Banderas. In Munich, Banderas will personally present Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, PAIN AND GLORY, for which he’s just received the award for best actor at the Cannes Film Festival.

With PAIN AND GLORY (in German cinemas starting July 25, 2019, distributed by Studiocanal), director Pedro Almodóvar presents a fascinating game of deception somewhere between fiction and autobiographical truth. Three different timelines depict the dazzling life of Salvador Mallo, a film director who unexpectedly finds himself at the end of his career. With fiery passion, Antonio Banderas portrays this man who was once brimming with creativity and a zest for life.

Antonio Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain in 1960. He started out as a theater actor, soon found his way to the film industry and, after shooting numerous films with director Pedro Almodóvar, moved to the United States in the 1990s. In addition to Banderas’s latest film, FILMFEST MÜNCHEN will be presenting four landmark performances of his acting career.

The selection starts out with what is probably one of Banderas’s best-known collaborations with Almodóvar: The melodramatic comedy TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! sees Banderas as young ex-con named Ricky who captures a former porn actress he used to date in a desperate attempt to win her back. This was the film that helped launch Banderas’s international career and that paved the way for his success in Hollywood.

In 1995, he was cast in the role of singer El Mariachi in Robert Rodriguez’s action film DESPERADO. Along the dusty border between the US and Mexico, the gunslinger hunts down Bucho, a drug lord who killed El Mariachi’s sweetheart. In Alan Parker’s EVITA, Banderas tells the story of Argentina’s iconic first lady from the perspective of revolutionary Che Guevara. The biggest milestone of Banderas’s career might well be the lead role in Martin Campbell’s THE MASK OF ZORRO. Banderas stars as heir to Don Diego de la Vega, the masked hero who seeks to avenge his people. He never took himself too seriously: Playing with his image as loveable rogue the actor took on the role of the Puss in Boots in SHREK 2. 

The award ceremony honoring Antonio Banderas will take place on Saturday, June 29, 2019. He will also be answering questions in a Filmmakers Live! Talk.