Oscar Winner Sets New Christmas Movie, and It Sounds Heartbreaking

An Oscar winner has set a new and heartbreaking Christmas movie.

Deadline reports that Sony Pictures Classics has secured the North American rights to Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas.

The film follows advertising director Elsa, “whose mother dies during a long December holiday. She works non-stop and, without realizing, doesn’t give herself time to mourn her mother’s absence. After a moment of crisis, Elsa decides to travel to the island of Lanzarote, accompanied by her friend Patricia. The story of these characters run parallel to that of a screenwriter and film director, exploring how life and fiction are inseparably linked, sometimes painfully so.”

Production recently wrapped on the film, which is produced by Agustín Almodóvar. Bitter Christmas stars Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, Quim Gutiérrez, and Rossy de Palma. Almodóvar, a Spanish director, has received numerous accolades throughout his career. He has an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, two Emmys, and five BAFTAs under his belt, among many, many others.

Almodóvar’s most recent film, 2024’s The Room Next Door, marks his English-language feature debut. Based on Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through, the movie stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore and follows the relationship between two close friends as the former faces the prospect of ending her life due to terminal illness. The Room Next Door was released by Warner Bros. in Spain and Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S. and won three Goya Awards, which are Spain’s main national annual film awards.

It’s unknown when Bitter Christmas is set to release, but fans should want to prepare themselves. Heartbreaking holiday films are the perfect tearjerkers, and there’s no telling how it will turn out. Considering Almodóvar is a pretty prolific filmmaker, Bitter Christmas will more than likely be a pretty great one.

The deal for Bitter Christmas was negotiated between Sony Pictures Classics and Almodóvar’s production company, El Deseo, on behalf of the filmmaker. Some of Pedro Almodóvar’s most notable films include Law of Desire, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, High Heels, and Live Flesh. He’s collaborated with actors Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz. He’s remained busy over the last several decades, and that doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon, especially since he’s been branching out into the English-language genre.