Almodóvar is shooting 'Bitter Christmas,' his return to Spanish after winning the Golden Lion for 'The Room Next Door.'

There is something autobiographical and much that is extremely true to himself in the plot of Almodóvar's new film, the shooting of which has just been announced. Under the ranchera title " Bitter Christmas," the director proposes a story of pain, also of death, of oblivion, and, once again, of cinema. As stated in the brief text distributed Tuesday by the production company El Deseo, the film develops "how life and fiction are inextricably linked, even painfully so at times." Once again, as in "La ley del deseo," "Bad Education," "Broken Embraces ," or "Pain and Glory," a film director appears within the film, and like the mirrors that preside over all his films, real stories are duplicated in a fiction where, as one of his classic characters says, "the truth of lies nests."

Bitter Christmas is the 24th feature film in the La Mancha native's filmography and marks his return to Spanish after his three forays into English, first in the medium-length film The Human Voice, then in the short film Strange Form of Life , and finally, in the feature film, which won the Golden Lion at Venice , The Room Next Door . In between, he would film Parallel Mothers in Spanish.

The full synopsis for the film reads: "Elsa is an advertising director whose mother dies during a long weekend in December. She finds refuge in work, although it's more of an escape route. She works nonstop and, without realizing it, doesn't give herself the time she needs to grieve for her mother's absence. Until a panic attack forces her to stop and impose a break. Her partner, Bonifacio, is her lifeline in these moments of crisis. Elsa decides to travel to the island of Lanzarote accompanied by her friend Patricia, who also needs to get away from Madrid, while Bonifacio stays in the city. The story of these three characters, and a few more, is told parallel to that of screenwriter and film director Raúl Durán, interweaving fiction and reality."

Although the actors themselves are not yet assigned to their roles, the cast includes Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, and Quim Gutiérrez. Except for Patrick Criado and Quim Gutiérrez, the others already know what it's like to film with Almodóvar. Filming will take place between Madrid and Lanzarote, and the film is due to hit theaters in 2026.