Spanish director and screenwriter Pedro Almodovar did not hold back his opinion about Donald Trump when he accepted the 50th annual Chaplin Award from Film at Lincoln Center, which was presented to him on Monday evening in Manhattan, as reported by Variety magazine.
„I had doubts that it was appropriate for me to come to a country led by a narcissistic authority who does not respect human rights. Trump and his friends, millionaires and oligarchs, cannot convince us that the reality we see with our own eyes is the opposite of what we experience, no matter how much they twist words, claiming that they mean the opposite of what they do. Immigrants are not criminals. It was Russia that invaded Ukraine,” said the renowned Spanish filmmaker when he took the stage after receiving the award at the Alice Tully Hall theater.
„Donald Trump, I am speaking to you now and I hope you will hear what I have to say,” Pedro Almodovar continued. „You will go down in history as the greatest mistake of our times. Your naivety is only comparable to your violence. You will go down in history as one of the greatest harms to humanity… You will go down in history as a catastrophe.”
Pedro Almodovar also spoke about the rights of transgender individuals threatened by the Trump administration and discussed the events in the early part of his life that helped shape him as a director.
Growing up during Francisco Franco's fascism, Almodovar said that films provided him with a form of escape. As his native country, Spain, embraced democratic ideals in the late '70s and early '80s, he had the chance to assert himself as a director.
"It is impossible to explain what that sense of absolute freedom meant for a young man who wanted to make films," the Spanish filmmaker said.
For Almodovar, Monday evening's gala also represented a good opportunity to return to the space that marked many of his greatest artistic triumphs. Some of his best films, including "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "All About My Mother," were screened at the New York Film Festival, organized by Film at Lincoln Center.
He even chose to film a key scene from his latest film, "The Room Next Door," in the lobby in front of the Alice Tully Hall theater, where he accepted the Chaplin award.
"The people here have appreciated my work and have appreciated me as a person," the Spanish filmmaker stated.
Dua Lipa, John Turturro, John Waters, Rossy de Palma, and Mikhail Baryshnikov (who danced flamenco instead of the classical ballet that made him famous) were among the presenters of the award given on Monday evening, which in past years has been awarded to prominent figures such as Bette Davis and Cate Blanchett.
Martin Scorsese, Tilda Swinton, and Antonio Banderas delivered pre-recorded tributes.