Bitter Christmas is a 2026 Spanish tragi-comedy film, written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. It was released theatrically in Spain on 20 March, had its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and was released in the UK on Friday 28 August.

There are two distinct strands in play here: one, set in 2025, is the story of a writer trying to perfect his latest screenplay (called Bitter Christmas) and struggling to find the right ending; the second, set in 2004, is his screenplay, which is about a writer trying to perfect her latest screenplay and struggling to find the right ending. Confused? I suspect many in the audience were, however, that is the fun of a film like this –unravelling the complexities of the plot as it plays out.

The screenwriter in 2025, Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia) uses events in the lives of his boyfriend, Santi (Quim Gutiérrez) and his devoted assistant, Mónica (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). He has set the film-within-a-film in 2004 because he suffered his first panic attack that year, while trying to write a screenplay. Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), the screenwriter in 2004, is clearly his alter-ego: she similarly has a panic attack and uses events in the lives of her lover and her friends.

This is a film about autofiction, however as to the extent to which it is itself autofiction, I am not qualified to say – I know little about Almodóvar’s life, only his films. This does feel a natural step following on from his 2019 film Pain and Glory, which continued a path that had begun with The Flower of My Secret (1995) and Broken Embraces (2009), all of which I loved; but then I do love films about writing, as I am sure is apparent from previous posts.

Almodóvar gets the best from his actors, and they are all just right for their roles. I felt the level of confusion was pitched perfectly and when I left the cinema I had it all neatly worked out in my head – I think! I do intend to revisit the film again in a couple of weeks’ time to watch it with the advantage of knowing the plot in advance, partly to see if I have it right and partly because I feel films as good as this deserve a second viewing; I am sure there will be many things I missed first time around.

Bitter Christmas is unashamedly a cinephile’s film. If you like films about film, you will like this. If you find that a bit self-indulgent, or if you like less complex plotting, it may not be for you. However, at the risk of repetition: I loved it!