Bitter Christmas

Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest

Competition, Cannes 2026

Original language: Spanish Subtitles: Romanian, English

Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar Country: Spain Year of production: 2026 Length: 112 minutes Genre: Comedy, Drama

Bitter Christmas tells two alternating stories, one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December. The second takes place in 2026 and stars Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio, and her friends Patricia and Natalia. Mixed with fiction, Elsa is, in a way, Raúl’s alter ego, who resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought. He looks inside himself, and he can’t help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant.

The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, raising the debate about the limits of autofiction.

Credits Pedro Almodóvar – Director Pedro Almodóvar – Script Casting Bárbara Lennie Leonardo Sbaraglia Aitana Sánchez-Gijón Victoria Luengo Patrick Criado Milena Smit Quim Gutiérrez

BITTER CHRISTMAS | Directed by Pedro Almodóvar | Official US Trailer (2026) - YouTube

Click here to watch: BITTER CHRISTMAS | Directed by Pedro Almodóvar | Official US Trailer (2026)