Bárbara Lennie, Victoria Luengo, and Patrick Criado star in ‘Bitter Christmas,’ the latest film by Pedro Almodóvar.

Filming has begun for Pedro Almodóvar’s new movie (Calzada de Calatrava, 75 years), the 24th feature, titled Bitter Christmas. Beyond the official synopsis and cast, not much information is available about this drama, as Almodóvar will be filming during July and August. It has been announced that the main characters are played by Bárbara Lennie, Victoria Luengo, and Patrick Criado.

According to the press release provided by El Deseo, the production company of the Almodóvar brothers, Bitter Christmas stars Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), “an advertising director whose mother dies during a long December weekend. She finds refuge in work, although it’s more of an escape forward. She works non-stop and, without realizing it, fails to allow herself the time needed to mourn her mother’s absence. Until a panic attack forces her to stop and impose a break on herself. Her partner, Bonifacio, is her lifeline during 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.”

Additionally, this main plot intertwines with another storyline related to film: “The story of these three characters, along with others, runs parallel to that of screenwriter and film director Raúl Durán [Leonardo Sbaraglia], interweaving fiction and reality. Because Bitter Christmas explores how life and fiction are indissolubly linked, even painfully at times.”

In addition to the main trio, and Sbaraglia, the cast includes Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Milena Smit, and Quim Gutiérrez. Lennie (The Skin I Live In), Luengo(The Room Next Door), Sánchez-Gijón (was a Goya nominee with Parallel Mothers), Smit(Parallel Mothers) and Sbaraglia (Pain and Glory) have previously worked with the filmmaker. Bitter Christmas will be filmed between Madrid and Lanzarote, distributed in 2026 by Warner Bros. Pictures Spain, and in partnership with El Deseo, it includes the participation of Movistar Plus+.

This isn’t Almodóvar’s first time filming in Lanzarote (he previously did so in Broken Embraces) nor is it the first time he discusses film or includes filmmakers in his plots: Pain and Glory, Bad Education, The Law of Desire, Broken Embraces or Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.