'Bitter Christmas', directed by Pedro Almodóvar and featuring the prominent participation of Movistar Plus, celebrated its world premiere yesterday in the. The film, which was released in Spain on March 20 and will arrive exclusively in Spain on Movistar Plus on July 10, was met with great enthusiasm and a standing ovation from the audience.

Director Pedro Almodóvar attended the red carpet alongside the film’s full cast: Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, Quim Gutiérrez and Rossy de Palma.

Movistar Plus is having a historic moment at the Cannes Film Festival, as 'Bitter Christmas' is one of the platform’s three titles in the Official Competition section. The other two titles are Movistar Plus original films: 'The Beloved' (‘El ser querido’), premiered last weekend and directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and 'La bola negra', directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, will have its presentation this Thursday.

During the press conference for 'Bitter Christmas', held this morning, the team shared the following comments:

Pedro Almodóvar: “Bitter Christmas’ and ‘Pain and Glory’ form a diptych in which I dared to speak about myself. In ‘Pain and Glory’, the pain was physical; in this film, it is an agonising pain. It is the pain of going through a creative crisis, which forces me to look inward and turn to autofiction [...] Stealing things from other people’s lives involves responsibility, but also guilt. When I draw inspiration from something around me, I try to mix it with a great deal of fiction, so that the people surrounding the real person would never identify them. Creation is something very mysterious and very powerful [...] I’ve already written the script for my next film, but the day I can no longer come to Cannes for whatever reason, I will miss it deeply and feel great nostalgia for the festival [...] I discovered Victoria Luengo in Sorogoyen’s series ‘Riot Police’. The actors I work with eventually become my family [...] Awards at Cannes are the result of a very heterogeneous mix; I have never come here feeling like a winner. Not having received a Palme d’Or is not a frustration for me. I like competing because it’s more exciting, more fun”.

Bárbara Lennie: “Pedro’s films are always emotionally demanding. He is a director with a very strong inner pulse in all of his films because he is extremely clear and precise about what he wants [...] My character suffers from migraines, and we placed great emphasis on conveying that pain — a pain I have never personally experienced, but Pedro endured for many years. That pain is tied to the grief running through the film, which is also connected to her mother. When she realises that the pain is linked to the grief she never processed over her mother’s death, she is finally able to overcome it and write again [...] Pedro works in a different way than any other director”.

Aitana Sánchez-Gijón: “Filming the final scene was very intense. We shot it over four days and even rehearsed physically in a park. Leo and I are both theatre actors as well, and that sequence is highly theatrical — we rehearsed it as if it were a stage play [...] It is very difficult to find exactly what Pedro wants to convey. It’s wonderful when you feel you are finding the right path, but also very frustrating when you sense the opposite. They are two sides of the same coin”.

Leonardo Sbaraglia: “As actors, we try to understand what Pedro needs. We are not concerned with the debate over whether we are vampirising other people’s lives, but rather with understanding what Pedro wants to express”.

Victoria Luengo: “In my case, I worked with Pedro around the emotions of shame and anger. In recent days, I’ve had conversations about how anxiety can even generate fear of anxiety itself. I was fortunate to be part of a shoot that was very kind and demanding at the same time, but where, thankfully, there was no anxiety”.

Quim Gutiérrez: “I feel honoured to have taken part in the film and to portray a homosexual relationship differently from how it has been depicted in previous films. Here, it is a subdued relationship, but there is deep love and a mutually beneficial understanding between both characters. It portrays what happens in a couple with profound love, where both people bring peace to one another. It was very beautiful”.

Milena Smit: “Watching Pedro on set is truly moving. It’s like watching a child play in a park — he spreads his passion and joy to the entire crew”.