FOR the first time ever, an actor with Down’s Syndrome has received an international film award.

Pablo Pineda, 35 – who is also the first-ever person with Down’s Syndrome to have attained a university degree – won the Silver Shell prize at the recent San Sebastián film festival.

He played a lead role in the film Yo, también, alongside Best-Actress-winning Lola Dueñas.

Directed by novice filmmakers Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro, the film shows how a woman who lives in solitude finds shelter and comfort with a young man who has Down’s Syndrome.

The press has heavily criticised Pineda’s award, calling it ‘politically correct’, but very few disabled actors and actresses achieve international film prizes.

This year, Juan Manuel Montilla ‘Langui’, singer with the band La Excepción, who suffers from a cerebral paralysis that affects his physical movements, won a Goya award for best actor with his film El truco del manco (‘the trick of the one-armed man’) directed by Santiago A. Zannou.

Also in 1986, the deaf and dumb actress Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for her role in Randa Haines’ Hijos de un Dios menor (‘children of a lesser God’).

As for Pablo Pineda (pictured), he is said to be pleased with his award, but claims to be more interested in following a career in teaching, in accordance with his university studies, rather than acting.

The Golden Shell award at the San Sebastián film festival went to the director of the Chinese film The city of life and death, Lu Chan.

This epic is based upon the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and has achieved critical acclaim.