Pedro Almodovar honoured by Museum of Modern Art

Spanish writer and director Pedro Almodovar has been honoured by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) at a benefit in New York.

Stars including Drew Barrymore and Emma Stone attended the event, while Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas sent tributes via video message.

Almodovar is the fourth filmmaker to be honoured at the annual event.

Previous honourees include Baz Luhrmann, Tim Burton and last year's recipient, Kathryn Bigelow.

In her video message, Cruz told Almodovar he was "one of the funniest people in the world for sure," adding she was "hoping that we share many, many more" special moments together.

While Banderas praised the director for walking in the "difficult, sometimes painful, always exciting territories of artistic creation," saying he "broke all the laws of cinematic gravity".

Almodovar is the fourth filmmaker to be honoured at the annual event

Almodovar won an Oscar for his 2003 film, Talk To her. The film also picked up a Bafta for best film not in the English language.

After the tributes, Almodovar recalled how MoMa showed one of his films, for the first time 27 years ago, which he said helped him get started in the US.

"My baptism was here - that was the beginning of almost everything," he said.

The annual MoMa benefit raises funds to ensure works of cinema continue to join the museum's collection.

Chief curator Raj Roy said, this year, the event had raised more than $1 million (£634,000).