Sony Pictures Classics has taken North American rights to Pedro Almodóvar‘s Bitter Christmas, continuing their long run with the Oscar winner.
The movie follows Elsa, an advertising director 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.
The pic, which just wrapped production, is produced by Almodóvar’s longtime producer, Agustín Almodóvar.
Sony Pictures Classics released Almodóvar’s first English-language feature film last year, The Room Next Door, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival; the short film Strange Way of Life; and Oscar-nominated features Parallel Mothers and Pain and Glory.
Bitter Christmas stars Bárbara Lennie (Petra), Leonardo Sbaraglia (Pain and Glory), Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (Parallel Mothers), Victoria Luengo (The Room Next Door), Patrick Criado (Riot Police), Milena Smit (Parallel Mothers), Quim Gutiérrez (Darkblueamostblack) and Rossy de Palma (Parallel Mothers). Several of these actors have appeared in previous Almodóvar/Sony Pictures Classics collaborations, including Luengo in The Room Next Door; Sánchez-Gijón, Smit and de Palma in Parallel Mothers; Sbaraglia in Pain and Glory and Wild Tales; and Lennie in The Skin I Live In.
The deal was negotiated between Sony Pictures Classics and Almodóvar’s production company, El Deseo, on behalf of the filmmaker.