Following Pedro Almodovar’s starry English-language debut, The Room Next Door, the acclaimed Spanish filmmaker is returning to wheelhouse. Bitter Christmas is a holiday domestic drama shot very much in the vein of his earlier works such as Talk to Her, Pain & Glory, and All About My Mother.
Bitter Christmas stars Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Milena Smit, Carmen Machi, Bárbara Lennie, Rossy de Palma, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, Quim Gutiérrez, and Gloria Muñoz.
SYNOPSIS: After her mother dies in December, advertising director Elsa immerses herself in work to cope. When a panic attack forces her to take a break, she decides to travel to Lanzarote with her friend Patricia while her partner Bonifacio stays in Madrid.
Sony Pictures Classics, which has distributed Almodovar’s last four films, has the U.S. rights to Bitter Christmas, as well. It will hit theaters in Spain on March 20th 2026 via Warner Bros., but it could still show up at Cannes before arriving in the U.S.
