Almodóvar, Sorogoyen and the Javis, in Cannes 2026

'The loved one' by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 'The black ball' by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, and 'Bitter Christmas' by Pedro Almodóvar are part of the Official Section of the Cannes Film Festival 2026, a milestone for Spanish cinema and for Movistar Plus+, which sees its commitment to its original films and authorial freedom reinforced.

The loved one, the new original movie Movistar Plus+ of Rodrigo Sorogoyen with co-production of Horse Films y The Pact, has been selected to participate in the Official Competition Section of the Cannes Festival, where it will have its world premiere. The film, written by Isabel Peña and Sorogoyen himself and starring Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo, will compete for the Palme d'Or in the next edition of the contest.

In this feature film, "acclaimed film director Esteban Martínez (Bardem) is a legend both for his films and for his past of violence and excess. For his new project he offers a role to his daughter Emilia (Luengo) under the pretext of helping her in her stalled acting career. The coexistence of filming will give rise to an intimacy that they have not had for years, but it will also rekindle old pains that were never healed." Its theatrical release will take place on August 26 and will be produced by A Contracorriente Films.

Sorogoyen He confesses that his imminent participation in Cannes “is like a circle has closed.” “In 2022 Isabel Peña and I were there with The Beasts (precious memories of those days) and we wanted to propose the actor that we admired most at that time, and admire even more now, to participate in our next project. It was Javier Bardem. We explained to him that we only had a few lines written, a topic that interested us and a specific universe. But, above all, we also had Victoria Luengo, the other actress for whom we wrote 'The loved one'. Javier received us at the Martínez Hotel and the journey that has taken us here began there. We can only say that we are equally grateful and excited to close the circle four years later in the same place where everything was born,” he explains.

The second original Movistar Plus+ film in Cannes 2026 it will be The black ball of Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, Penélope Cruz, Lola Dueñas and Glenn Close lead the cast of this film that takes its title from an unfinished work by Federico García Lorca, murdered before being able to finish it, and which takes place in three periods throughout the years 1932, 1937 and 2017.

“The black ball tells the interconnected lives of three men in three different eras. Three existences closely linked by sexuality and desire, pain and inheritance; and one of the last, unfinished works of Federico García Lorca”, reads the synopsis of a short film produced by Movistar Plus+ and Suma Content Films in co-production with The Desire y The Pact, and with the participation of Atresmedia.

The Spanish representation is completed with Bitter Christmas of Pedro Almodovar, a film that, on this occasion, although it is not an original film Movistar Plus+, has a notable participation of Movistar Plus+. Produced by El Deseo, the film hit theaters March 20 the hand of  Warner Bros. Pictures Spain starring Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit and Quim Gutiérrez and with the special collaboration of Rossy de Palma, Carmen Machi and Gloria Muñoz.

Bitter Christmas narrates the alternation of two stories, one starring Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), advertising director, in 2004, during the long December Constitution weekend. The second takes place in 2025, starring Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we will soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio (Patrick Criado) and her friends Patricia (Victoria Luengo) and Natalia (Milena Smit). Mixed with fiction, Elsa, in some way, is Raúl's alter ego, who turns to autofiction as a solution to a long season of creative drought. “He looks inside himself, and he can't help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe, his partner (Quim Gutiérrez) and his assistant (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón),” comments the description of the film.