Although his illustrious career has been ongoing for decades, this year marks quite a major milestone for Pedro Almodóvar. He premiered his very first English-language feature The Room Next Door, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, at Venice Film Festival where he was feted with his first top festival prize: the Golden Lion. While much of the next few months will be dedicated to the awards season, the Spanish auteur is already planning a shoot early next year for his follow-up.
Earlier this month he revealed he’ll be returning to Spain to shoot Bitter Christmas. “It will be a tragic comedy about gender,” he told IndieWire. “There are moments of comedy and moments of tragedy.” Now, he’s noted to The Times that he plans to kick off production early next year, added that it will be “something small,” perhaps in relation to his latest film. “Mortality does not exist during my time working,” he says. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that my relationship with cinema is almost vampiristic, that of an addict. It really is all-consuming.”
Digging deeper, Bitter Christmas is also the title of a short story from the director-writer’s recent short story collection “The Last Dream.” As 4Columns notes, Bitter Christmas is “a caper that follows an adman’s quest for anti-anxiety meds, culminating in an elegiac ‘thesis’ on the Mexican chanteuse Chavela Vargas, Almodóvar’s real-life muse,” and recalls the “occasional manic stamina of Almodóvar’s early films, as well as their earthy wit.”
While it’s not confirmed it’s the same story he’s adapting to the big screen, it would be quite a coincidence if there wasn’t a connection. Considering how quickly the director also turns around his projects after completing production, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this one pop up on the 2025 fall festival circuit.
Rory O’Connor said in his review of The Room Next Door, “Speaking as someone who strayed from the Almodóvar flock some films ago, The Room Next Door presents a welcome surprise. His recent output of shorts and medium-length films (Strange Way of Life and The Human Voice) pointed towards a director paring down in all the wrong ways. The Room Next Door is the other kind, the closest he’s come to an exercise in late style: it’s succinct, light on its feet, totally earnest, and––in spite of some indulgent conversations on art and writing––never feels like it’s trying too hard. Would an artist who felt they still had something to prove write a scene like the one in which Martha stares out the window of her hospital room, quoting Joyce while pink snowflakes gently fall over the Manhattan skyline? That the sequence works is as much a testament to the strength of the performances (watch out for Moore’s close-up in the scene, a real classic of the genre) as it is to the director’s conviction.”
Ahead of The Room Next Door opening December 20, watch the director and cast discuss the project below, as well as two new clips.