Pedro Almodóvar's Next Movie ‘Bitter Christmas' Set for Spanish Theaters and Streamer Movistar Plus+
'Bitter Christmas,' or 'Amarga Navidad,' stars a slew of Almodóvar newcomers and staples, including Bárbara Lennie ('Petra'), Leonardo Sbaraglia ('Pain and Glory'), Aitana Sánchez-Gijón ('Parallel Mothers'), Victoria Luengo ('The Room Next Door'), Patrick Criado ('Riot Police'), Milena Smit ('Parallel Mothers'), and Quim Gutiérrez ('Darkbluealmostblack'). The film will be released in Spanish theaters in 2026, with Warner Bros. Pictures Spain distributing. It will then debut exclusively on the Movistar Plus+ platform.
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IndieWire has reached out to Almodóvar's representatives for details about a possible U.S. release, though it can be assumed Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in North America, as it has all of Almodóvar's recent outings. We're told that festival play and a U.S. release will take place before the Movistar+ premiere.
'Bitter Christmas' centers on advertising director Elsa, now mourning the loss of her mother over a December holiday weekend. The official synopsis, as shared by Variety, reads: 'She throws herself into work as a form of escape, not realizing she's denying herself the time to grieve. Her relentless pace is interrupted when a panic attack forces her to take a break. Her partner, Bonifacio, becomes her anchor in this moment of crisis. Elsa decides to travel to the island of Lanzarote with her friend Patricia, who is also looking to get away from Madrid, while Bonifacio stays behind in the city. The story of these three characters, and several others, runs parallel to that of screenwriter and film director Raúl Durán, intertwining fiction and reality. 'Bitter Christmas' explores how life and fiction are inseparably linked, sometimes painfully so.'
The project is currently filming in Madrid and Lanzarote. Almodóvar and his brother, Agustín Almodóvar, produce through their El Deseo banner in collaboration with Movistar Plus+.
Almodóvar won the 2024 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for 'The Room Next Door,' distributed stateside by Sony Pictures Classics. 'I was very concerned about the English,' Almodóvar told IndieWire about his first film in English. 'We wanted an English that should sound American. My films have never been naturalistic. I have never aspired to the mumbling or babbling or pausing or some of those things that happen in regular language. I like my language to be concentrated and precise. In Spanish, it has worked well.'
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