Bitter Christmas

Director: Pedro Almodóvar Run Time: 111 min. Release Year: 2026 Language: Spanish Starring: Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Patrick Criado, Victoria Luengo In 2004, advertising director Elsa Rosado faces a turbulent Christmas weekend. In 2026, filmmaker Raúl Durán turns her story into a screenplay, blurring the lines between reality, fiction, and those closest to him. “Rather than move towards a conventional climax, this is a sombre, tactile drama focusing on the ethics of storytelling that slowly peels back its dense layers until, eventually, Almodóvar decides to give himself an excoriating (and breathtaking!) dressing-down. It operates as a partner piece to 2019’s ‘Pain and Glory’, again directly addressing the idea that if you’re not seriously pissing off at least a few people, then the art you’re making is probably not massively worthwhile.” ~ David Jenkins, Little White Lies