Following his English-language feature The Room Next Door, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar is returning to Spain for his next feature Amarga Navidad ("Bitter Christmas"), which is backed by Spanish streaming platform Movistar Plus+ in collaboration with El Deseo, the production house of Pedro Almodovar and his brother Augustin Almodovar. Warner Bros. Pictures Spain is handling distribution, with a theatrical release plan slated for 2026.
As with many of his projects, the cast of Bitter Christmas is dominated by a talented group of female actors, some of whom have previously worked with Almodovar, such as 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”).
Here's the official synopsis posted on Variety: “Elsa is an advertising director whose mother dies during a long December holiday weekend. 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.”
