Bitter Christmas

IFF Cannes 2026 - nomination: Participation in the main competition (Pedro Almodóvar)

Pedro Almodóvar's first Spanish-language production in 5 years - contains everything that viewers love his cinema for: passion, intense colors, perverse humor and full-blooded characters that escape simple schemes.

The heroine of the film Bitter Christmas is forty-year-old Elza, who, after the death of her mother, throws herself into the whirlpool of work, not allowing herself to mourn. Only a panic attack forces her to stop and go on a journey that will become a confrontation with the past, lost relationships and unfulfilled desires. From chance encounters, emotional phrases and intertwining biographies, Almodóvar weaves a story about how memory, fiction and desire constantly rewrite our lives.

Actors and actresses known from the director's previous films appear on the screen: Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Victoria Luengo, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Milena Smit and one of Almodóvar's most important muses — Rossy de Palma.

Bitter Christmas is a special gift for those who grew up with the cinema of the Spanish master — from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, through All About My Mother and Talk to Her, to Volver, Interrupted Embraces and Pain and Radiance. It is also a film that goes one step further: it shows even more strongly that each of us not only lives our own story, but also tells it endlessly to ourselves. Almodóvar makes a moving confession of faith in the power of cinema, memory and narrative.

Also presented as part of: Student Night Club Film Baranki w Dieluchach, Bitter Christmas - English friendly.

Previously under: Mature Cinema, Bitter Christmas - pre-release screening, Cinemino.