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It took a while, but Antonio Banderas finally earned his first Oscar nomination for “Pain and Glory.” Where does this deeply personal outing from frequent collaborator Pedro Almodovar fall in with the rest of his filmography? Take a tour through our photo gallery of Banderas’ 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Banderas made his film debut over three decades ago in 1982, in Almodovar’s “Labyrinth of Passion.” The actor would become a frequent leading man for the Spanish auteur, later appearing in such films as “Matador” (1986), “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (1988), “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” (1990), “The Skin I Live In” (2011) and “I’m So Excited!” (2013).

He made his English-language acting debut with “The Mambo Kings” (1992) a decade after his first film with Almodovar. His performances in “Evita” (1996) and “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) brought him Golden Globe nominations for Best Film Comedy/Musical Actor. He reaped a...

It took a while, but Antonio Banderas finally earned his first Oscar nomination for “Pain and Glory.” Where does this deeply personal outing from frequent collaborator Pedro Almodovar fall in with the rest of his filmography? Take a tour through our photo gallery of Banderas’ 15 greatest films, ranked worst to best.

See Pedro Almodovar movies: All 21 films ranked worst to best

Banderas made his film debut over three decades ago in 1982, in Almodovar’s “Labyrinth of Passion.” The actor would become a frequent leading man for the Spanish auteur, later appearing in such films as “Matador” (1986), “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (1988), “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” (1990), “The Skin I Live In” (2011) and “I’m So Excited!” (2013).

He made his English-language acting debut with “The Mambo Kings” (1992) a decade after his first film with Almodovar. His performances in “Evita” (1996) and “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) brought him Golden Globe...

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas has starred in such box office champs as “The Mask of Zorro,” “Evita” and “Spy Kids,” and worked with great directors, including Jonathan Demme, Robert Rodriguez, Steven Soderbergh and Julie Taymor. But he’s best known for his eight films with writer-director Pedro Almodóvar.

Sony Pictures Classics’ “Pain and Glory,” for which Banderas won the best actor prize at Cannes, puts both of them in the fast lane for the Oscar race. In keeping with the film’s themes of creativity, reconciliation and the passage of time, Banderas talked with Variety about his early days in the industry. The actor was first mentioned in Variety on Oct. 6, 1982, when two films — “Labyrinth of Passion” and “False Eyelash” — were reviewed on the same page. Banderas spoke from his hometown of Málaga, where he has created a theater company, Teatro del Soho, which opened with a Banderas-directed “A Chorus Line.

There was a moment in film history when male actors adhered to the traditional expectations of stardom: Masculine swagger, overconfidence, chiseled good lucks that dare not reveal a sensitive side. Based on this year’s greatest performances, that time is gone for good. Many of the best male lead performances of the year revealed fragile, insecure characters grappling with the changing world around them, even if many of them came from movie stars.

This time last year, there were a lot of famous actors in the spotlight. The world was swooning over Bradley Cooper’s tragic rock star Jackson Maine in “A Star Is Born” while Rami Malek overcame the controversies of “Bohemian Rhapsody” to become an Oscar frontrunner. At the same time, cinephiles celebrated one of Ethan Hawke’s greatest performances in “First Reformed” and Steven Yeun’s progression into a major acting talent with Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is honoring Antonio Banderas with its International Star Award for his work in “Pain and Glory.”

The festival will present Banderas with the award on Jan. 2 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The festival runs Jan. 2-13.

Banderas stars in “Pain and Glory” as film director who has seen better days. He won the best actor award in May at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered.

“Throughout his career Antonio Banderas has garnered international acclaim and world recognition from his memorable performances,” said festival chairman Harold Matzner. “In his latest film ‘Pain and Glory,’ Antonio Banderas gives another deeply moving performance as aging film director Salvador Mallo going through a creative crisis as he reflects on the choices he’s made throughout his life.”

Past recipients of the International Star Award include Javier Bardem, Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren, Gary Oldman and Saoirse Ronan.

Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), 56, and Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), 77, aren’t the only auteurs whose current films reflect the gaze of an aging filmmaker whose main characters reflect upon their lives and their chosen careers, be it actor or hitman.

However, Spanish icon Pedro Almovodar, 70, takes his “Pain and Glory” a meta step further by placing a director character — played by his most frequent leading man, Antonio Banderas — in the center of his tale. He also uses his colorful, art-filled home as the one owned by Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker living in Madrid. Meanwhile, another actor, Asier Etxeandia as Alberto, seems to be a substitute for Banderas, who had a similar falling out with Almodovar after the actor started doing Hollywood movies in the early ’90s.

See Pedro Almodovar movies: All 21 films ranked worst to best

“Pain and Glory” is their eighth collaboration together since they...

Director Pedro Almodovar bounded onto the Oscar stage for the first time 20 years ago when his “All About My Mother” (1999) won Best Foreign Language Film. Appropriately enough, that prize was presented to him by two of his favorite actors: Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz. Now both Banderas and Cruz headline the Spanish filmmaker’s latest drama, “Pain and Glory,” which could return all three to the Academy Awards. Watch the Oscar flashback video above.

Cruz had a prominent role in “All About My Mother” as a pregnant nun, and she let it be known her preferred nominee won when she opened the envelope and screamed “Pedro!” before Banderas confirmed which film had prevailed. Almodovar gave both actors a giant embrace, asking the audience, “Don’t you think they are one of the most beautiful couples?” As the orchestra played, his frequent leading man and leading lady playfully dragged him off the stage to riotous applause.

Pedro Almodóvar and Antonio Banderas have made eight movies together, and their latest, Pain & Glory, may represent the high point of their collaboration. In perhaps Almodóvar’s most directly autobiographical film to date, Banderas literally wears the auteur director’s clothes to play a Spanish filmmaker named Salvador Mallo. As the character reflects on his youth, and suffers through crippling back pain, he rekindles a friendship with a volatile actor from his past and reconnects with a lost love. Given the rocky road of their own relationship—Almodóvar criticized Banderas for his early-’90s move to Hollywood and it took them years to repair the rift—the parallels are striking. In conversation with Deadline, Almodóvar and Banderas trace their relationship from a whirlwind first encounter through to the effortless sense of catharsis and self-reflection within which Pain & Glory was made.

Deadline: Take me back to the beginning of your journey together.

Hollywood, CA – The Hollywood Film Awards announced today that highly-acclaimed artists Antonio Banderas, Renée Zellweger, Al Pacino and Laura Dern will be honored at the 23rd Annual “Hollywood Film Awards. Banderas will receive the “Hollywood Actor Award” for his poignant turn in Pedro Almodóvar’s 21st film, “Pain and Glory” and Zellweger will receive the “Hollywood Actress Award” for her powerful portrayal of the iconic Judy Garland in Rupert Goold’s “Judy.” Pacino will receive the “Hollywood Supporting Actor Award” for his brilliant depiction of the infamous Jimmy Hoffa in Martin Scorsese’s mob masterpiece “The Irishman,” and Dern will receive the “Hollywood Supporting Actress Award” for her commanding performance as a hard-hitting divorce attorney in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story.” Actor and comedian Rob Riggle will host the ceremony, which will take place on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA. About The Honorees Since his introduction to American cinema,...

How fitting that Antonio Banderas, 59, is delivering the performance of his career in a movie loosely based on the life of the director who gave him his breakthrough role in 1982’s Labyrinth of Passion. In Pain and Glory, the 21st movie for the 69-year-old Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, the actor plays Salvador Mallo, a former cinematic enfant terrible who, once upon a time, took on the country’s repressive attitudes. Now in his autumn years, he is longer the renegade who splashed the screen with color and waved the flag...

Antonio Banderas’ performance as an ailing filmmaker in Pedro Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical Pain and Glory is as intimate as any you’ll see this year.

Since its premiere and hailing appraisal out of the Venice Film Festival earlier this summer, the international star’s name has been tossed about as an early candidate in the Oscar race – though the lasting effects of his involvement stem far beyond material accolades. Here was a chance for Banderas, 59, to explore and enact the inner workings of one of his oldest comrades and collaborators.

“To find somebody who’s developed a very strong personality…and has been absolutely loyal to that personality is very rare,” the Zorro lead said of Almodóvar. “I am actually a very, very lucky person [to have] shared in that universe with him.”

Banderas’ working and friendly relationship with the Spanish auteur stretches across 40 years and eight films, their first being 1982’s sex-crazed melodrama Labyrinth of Passion.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Courtesy of PhotofestAntonio Banderas is one of those screen presences who just seems to know. Preternaturally wised-up, his large liquid eyes are his gift, ever watchful and secretive. It’s like he was born knowing; he’s never not been on the make or aware of his own charms. In his decades-long collaboration with Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, he has been an infatuated stalker, a vengeance-driven plastic surgeon, and an escaped convict. His characters are often driven in equal measure by obsessive love and violent impulse; even as a young man, he rarely portrayed an innocent. With his inky, slicked hair, olive skin, and nobly handsome profile, the young Banderas sometimes looked like a sketch of a 1930s gigolo; you could easily imagine him as a homicidal pool boy or sexually fluid manipulator in a film noir. His good looks were not just fulsome...

Mubi's retrospective, The Art of Transgression: The Cinema of Almodóvar, is showing August 18 – October 19, 2019 in the United Kingdom.“Cinephilia is not only a love for cinema. It’s a relation to the world through cinema.”—Serge DaneyThe impulse to divide filmmaking careers into identifiable stages continues to be an attractive one for critics, particularly those of a more auteurist bent. So-called “early” works might demonstrate identifiable talent cut with too-conspicuous borrowings, stylistic excesses, or sophomoric tendencies, while those of a “late period” might exhibit a more casual mastery of form, and a general sense of introspectiveness, the director having taken previous successes as license to express their personality through more self-consciously pared-down works. Of course, actual careers aren’t quite so easily narrativized, and such demarcations, while useful, threaten to smooth out the anomalies present in most any artistic progression. But on the surface at least, the career of...

The Spanish auteur’s finest film in years, Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” is also his most personal, a colorful vivisection of the director’s life and work, his regrets and achievements. No doubt playing a version of the Academy Award-winning director himself, Antonio Banderas stars as Salvador Mallo, a film director in creative crisis who begins experimenting with drugs in the lead-up to a local career retrospective of his work. Banderas won the 2019 Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal, which is the Spanish actor’s most sensitive performance in many years. With the Cannes prize under his belt, Banderas has a strong shot at his first Oscar nomination ever, especially since this is one of Almodóvar’s more accessible efforts.

“Pain and Glory” features several breakouts in the cast, including Asier Etxeandia as Alberto, Salvador’s former onscreen muse who’s now a high-functioning heroin addict.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas will receive this year's CineMerit award for lifetime achievement at the Munich International Film Festival.

Banderas began his film career in the 1980s together with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and films such as Labyrinth of Passion (1982), Matador (1986) and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989).

He went to Hollywood in the 1990s, starring in such features as Philadelphia (1993), Interview With the Vampire (1994) and Roberto Rodriguez‘s Desperado (1995), which made him a bona fide action star.

The 58-year-old actor is arguably best known for his role as the hero in Martin Campbell's The Mask of Zorro ...

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas will receive this year's CineMerit award for lifetime achievement at the Munich International Film Festival.

Banderas began his film career in the 1980s together with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and films such as Labyrinth of Passion (1982), Matador (1986) and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989).

He went to Hollywood in the 1990s, starring in such features as Philadelphia (1993), Interview With the Vampire (1994) and Roberto Rodriguez‘s Desperado (1995), which made him a bona fide action star.

The 58-year-old actor is arguably best known for his role as the hero in Martin Campbell's The Mask of Zorro ...

Pedro Almodóvar can be an exacting taskmaster, but even he broke down during a pivotal scene in his autobiographical drama “Pain and Glory.” The Oscar-winning Spanish auteur likes to read with his actors on their close-ups. But when he tried to speak the lines of his mother, he couldn’t do it. For Antonio Banderas, who won Best Actor at Cannes for this role modeled on the director, that was red meat. “Ok, you cannot give better information to an actor,” he said. “Fucking give me ‘action,’ because I have it.”

Banderas struggled with his return to acting with his mentor after 22 years with 2011 psychothriller “The Skin I Live In.” Nonetheless he eagerly took on “Pain and Glory,” playing the aging auteur who gave him a career launchpad with films like “Labyrinth of Passion” (1982) and, most famously, “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” (1989).

In “Pain and Glory,” which could score Banderas his first Oscar nomination,...

Pedro Almodóvar can be an exacting taskmaster, but even he broke down during a pivotal scene in his autobiographical drama “Pain and Glory.” The Oscar-winning Spanish auteur likes to read with his actors on their close-ups. But when he tried to speak the lines of his mother, he couldn’t do it. For Antonio Banderas, who won Best Actor at Cannes for this role modeled on the director, that was red meat. “Ok, you cannot give better information to an actor,” he said. “Fucking give me ‘action,’ because I have it.”

Banderas struggled with his return to acting with his mentor after 22 years with 2011 psychothriller “The Skin I Live In.” Nonetheless he eagerly took on “Pain and Glory,” playing the aging auteur who gave him a career launchpad with films like “Labyrinth of Passion” (1982) and, most famously, “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” (1989).

In “Pain and Glory,” which could score Banderas his first Oscar nomination,...

It’s a process that happens to nearly all punks eventually. Except for the spiky crest of hair, which still suggests the defiant look of a strutting dooryard rooster, there’s little about Pedro Almodóvar’s appearance today that reflects the bad-boy director’s anti-establishment roots. In “Pain and Glory,” it is frequent collaborator Antonio Banderas who rocks that coif, which instantly signals to audiences that the tormented filmmaker he plays was inspired, at least in part, by the man who launched his career with “Labyrinth of Passion” and “Law of Desire” more than three decades earlier.

Both the character and his creator have mellowed in that time, during which Spanish society has relaxed its stance toward the counterculture to whom he gave voice. (The film opened in Spain two months before its premiere in competition at Cannes. Sony Pictures Classics will release it on Oct. 4 in the U.S.

This story on Antonio Banderas first appeared in TheWrap’s Cannes magazine.

Salvador Mallo, the main character in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory,” is not Almodóvar himself. Sure, he’s a film director from Spain who dresses like Almodóvar, lives in a house that looks like Almodóvar’s house, makes movies with the same obsessions as Almodóvar, family and sexuality foremost among them, and even has spiky hair reminiscent of Almodóvar’s.

But there’s a difference, said Antonio Banderas, who ought to know. The two have been close collaborators since they began making movies together in 1981, when Almodóvar was launching a transgressive career that would help Spain shake off the repressive 36-year reign of dictator Francisco Franco. Their eight films together include “Labyrinth of Passion,” “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” and “The Skin I Live In.”

Also Read: '...

Yes, it’s way too early to do this. Blame my editorial overlords. But, believe it or not, awards planning for Oscars 2020 has already begun. The first salvo was Sundance, which yielded slim Oscar pickings, mostly on the documentary side. The first week of April, studio presentations at CinemaCon will throw out some tentative Oscar bait. May brings Cannes, which is unlikely to show Netflix’s best stuff in Competition due to French theaters’ archaic three-year exclusive theatrical window.

Depending on what new Oscar rules emerge in April, Amazon and Netflix are in the Oscar hunt. On the acting side, Meryl Streep is back, along with Timothée Chalamet, Antonio Banderas, and Adam Driver, in multiple movies.

Here’s a list of 17 potential 2020 awards auteurs, in alphabetical order.



Pedro Almodóvar, “Pain & Glory”

In the semi-autobiographical “Pain & Glory”, Antonio Banderas portrays Salvador Mallo, an aging filmmaker in declining health looking back on his life,...

Yes, it’s way too early to do this. Blame my editorial overlords. But, believe it or not, awards planning for Oscars 2020 has already begun. The first salvo was Sundance, which yielded slim Oscar pickings, mostly on the documentary side. The first week of April, studio presentations at CinemaCon will throw out some tentative Oscar bait. May brings Cannes, which is unlikely to show Netflix’s best stuff in Competition due to French theaters’ archaic three-year exclusive theatrical window.

Depending on what new Oscar rules emerge in April, Amazon and Netflix are in the Oscar hunt. On the acting side, Meryl Streep is back, along with Timothée Chalamet, Antonio Banderas, and Adam Driver, in multiple movies.

Here’s a list of 17 potential 2020 awards auteurs, in alphabetical order.



Pedro Almodóvar, “Pain & Glory”

In the semi-autobiographical “Pain & Glory”, Antonio Banderas portrays Salvador Mallo, an aging filmmaker in declining health looking back on his life,...

This year Antonio Banderas could win his first Emmy for “Genius: Picasso.” He stars in the second season of NatGeo’s anthology series as famed Spanish surrealist painter Pablo Picasso. Banderas previously competed for Best Movie/Mini Actor for “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself” in 2004. But of course, most of Banderas’ best known work has been in film, not television. In honor of his latest small-screen achievement, let’s take a look back at some of his best big-screen performances. Tour through our photo gallery above of Banderas’ 12 greatest films, ranked from worst to best.

Banderas made his film debut over three decades ago in 1982, in Pedro Almodovar‘s “Labyrinth of Passion.” The actor would become a frequent leading man for the Spanish auteur, later appearing in such films as “Matador” (1986), “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (1988), “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” (1990), “The Skin I Live In...

Pedro Almodóvar is getting the band back together. The Spanish filmmaker will reunite with two of his biggest former stars, Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, for his next feature, “Dolor y Gloria.” The movie is Almodóvar’s first since 2016’s “Julieta” and marks his 21st feature overall. Unlike many of Almodóvar’s most famous works, “Dolor y Gloria” will center around a male protagonist.

The film stars Banderas as a movie director looking back on his iconic career. According to Almodóvar (via Variety), the movie recounts “a series of meetings, some physical, others remembered decades later, of a film director now in his twilight years.” Some of the people the director encounters are his first loves, his mother, and actors with whom he worked with from the 1960s through the 1980s.

The plot details confirmed for “Dolor y Gloria” make it seem like Almodóvar will be making his own version...

Pedro Almodovar will team with Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz on the veteran Spanish director’s next film, “Dolor y Gloria,” which is set to shoot from the first half of July.

“Dolor y Gloria” is set up at El Deseo, the Madrid-based production house created by Almodovar and his brother Agustín to produce “The Law of Desire” in 1987.

Described by Almodovar as a film with male protagonists – in contrast to his last outing, “Julieta” – “Dolor y Gloria” (literally “Pain and Glory”) stars Banderas and Asier Etxeandía (“Velvet”) in the leading roles. Cruz and Julieta Serrano – “two actresses I adore,” Almodovar said Tuesday in a press statement – will play secondary roles.

“Dolor y Gloria” turns on “creation, both cinematographic and theatrical, and the difficulty of separating creation from one’s own life,” Almodovar said.

The film recounts “a series of meetings, some physical, others remembered decades later, of a film...

Author: Jon Lyus

Antonio Banderas is one of the more recognisable faces (and certainly one of the most recognisable voices) in Hollywood. His presence in front of the camera is tangible, and the variety of roles he enjoys now is testament to a versatility few could have expected of the man who came to Tinsel Town barely speaking a word of English.

He has been a masked legend (twice, one furry – the other not so), played with another kind of mask (horrifcally so – see the final note), appeared opposite the likes of Sir Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie and Spongebob Squarepants. He’s done it all, and now a new film of his arrives on DVD this week.

Security sees the actor as an ex-Special Forces vet taking a job as a security guard. On his first night he rescues a young girl fleeing from a hijacked convey,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Always Shine (Sophia Takal)

With the excess of low-budget, retreat-in-the-woods dramas often finding characters hashing out their insecurities through a meta-narrative, a certain initial resistance can occur when presented with such a derivative scenario at virtually every film festival. While Sophia Takal‘s psychological drama Always Shine ultimately stumbles, the chemistry of its leads and a sense of foreboding dread in its formal execution ensures its heightened view of...

To celebrate the imminent release of “Julieta,” Pedro Almodóvar’s 20th feature film, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing “The Complete Pedro Almodóvar Collection” on iTunes today. All 19 of the renowned Spanish auteur’s previous films are now available together, marking a first. Watch a video preview below, and find the collection here.

Read More: Pedro Almodóvar ‘Julieta’ Selected as Spain’s Foreign Language Oscar Submission

The collection features new high-definition transfers of 15 of these films, while nine of them are available in HD for the first time in America; “Pepi, Luci, Bom” and “Labyrinth of Passion” have never been released domestically at all. iTunes is also offering extras on a bundle of the filmmaker’s more recent releases, namely “All About My Mother,” “Talk to Her,” “Bad Education,” “Volver” and “Broken Embraces,” for “The Pedro Almodóvar Iconic Collection.”

Read More: Pedro Almodóvar on the Version of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ He Wanted to Direct: ‘More Sex,...

Above: Spanish poster for Pepi, Luci, Bom (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 1980). Artist: Ceesepe.Is there a contemporary filmmaker with a more vivid graphic sensibility than Pedro Almodóvar? His always distinctive films, with their bold colors, deliberate blocking and impeccable set design, often look like cartoons or magazine spreads come to life. Following suit, the posters for his films have always been a testament to his aesthetic, whether in his scrappy underground days or his far more polished later years. With his 20th feature film, Julieta, opening December 21, and a Museum of Modern Art retrospective beginning in New York next Tuesday, I thought it was high time I featured the best artwork of Almodóvar’s 40 year career.Any cinephile in their twenties might be forgiven for thinking that Almodóvar is the most establishment of arthouse directors: perennially fêted by Cannes and the New York Film Festival, winner of two Oscars, and, since the late 1990s,...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Sony Pictures Classics have announced they have acquired the rest of Pedro Almodóvar’s full library of films, including “Pepi, Luci, Bom”; “Labyrinth of Passion”; “Dark Habits”; “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”; “High Heels” and “Kika.” Spc will release his latest, “Julieta,” in theaters on December 21.

Based on short stories by Nobel laureate Alice Munro, “Julieta” is “about a mother’s struggle to survive uncertainty. It is also about fate, guilt complexes and that unfathomable mystery that leads us to abandon the people we love, erasing them from our lives as if they had never meant anything, as if they had never existed. The cast includes Adriana Ugarte, Emma Suárez and Rossy de Palma. It...

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up North America, Benelux, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia excluding South Korea to Richard Gere starrer Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer.

Separately, the company said on Monday it had acquired the rest of the Pedro Almodovar library and has dated the Spanish master’s upcoming Julieta for December 21.

Joseph Cedar wrote and directed Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer, which was previously known as Oppenheimer Strategies and marks his follow-up to Footnote, the Oscar nominee that Spc also distributed.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Josh Charles, Michael Sheen, Lior Ashkenazi, Dan Stevens, Steve Buscemi and Hank Azaria star in the drama about a small-time fixer who gets in over his head in Middle East politics.

Gideon Tadmor and Cold Iron Pictures financed the project in association with The Rabinovich Foundation, The Jerusalem Film Fund and Keshet International.

Oren Moverman, [link...

Sony Pictures Classics has set a Dec. 21 theater release for Pedro Almodóvar’s 20th film “Julieta,” and acquired the remainder of his film library. The new acquisitions include “Pepi, Luci, Bom;” “Labyrinth of Passion;” “Dark Habits;” “What Have I Done to Deserve This?;” “High Heels” and “Kika.” The full library also includes “Matador,” “Law of Desire,” “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” “The Flower of My Secret,” “Live Flesh,” “All About My Mother,” “Talk to Her,” “Bad Education,” “Volver,” “Broken Embraces,” “I’m So Excited!” and “The Skin I Live In.” “Julieta” premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today they have acquired the rest of Pedro Almodóvar's full library of films including Pepi, Luci, Bom, Labyrinth of Passion, Dark Habits, What Have I Done To Deserve This?, High Heels and Kika. Additionally, Almodóvar's new film (his 20) Julieta, will be released in theaters on December 21. It debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May. With this acquisition, Spc now has the full library of films which also includes Matador, Talk to Her…...

The tension between science and religion rages on far into the 21st century, but the two have been in conflict with each other since the beginning. The new film “Finding Altamira,” directed by Hugh Hudson (“Chariots of Fire”), places that conflict at its center. Antonio Banderas stars as Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola y de la Pedrueca, an archaeologist who in 1878 accidentally discovers a cave filled with ancient paintings. When it turns out that the art is over 10,000 years old, it inspires wrath and condemnation from religious and scientific communities who refuse to accept their conception of human history has been flawed. Now, Marcelino must choose to do what’s right, even though it might put his family and reputation in jeopardy. The film also stars Golshifteh Farahani (“About Elly”), Rupert Everett (“Shakespeare In Love”), Pierre Niney (“Yves Saint Laurent”), and more. Watch a trailer for the film below.

Antonio Banderas...

Almodóvar aficionados, like you and I, have been dreading this day. But every great movie face eventually only still flickers on screens and in our memories. The great Chus Lampreave, so memorable in so many Pedro Almodóvar movies, has died at 85 years of age. She had been home bound recently in Almería.

Her film career began when Pedro was just a pre-teen. She was given her first acting job by the director Jaime de Armiñán. Like many directors after him, he worked with her repeatedly, including in the Oscar nominated film My Dearest Senorita (1972). She came to international fame via her relationship with Pedro Almodóvar though. She joined his troupe early on as one of his subversive nuns in Dark Habits (1983). She was always easy to spot with those coke bottle glasses, that tiny frame and inimitable voice. Dark Habits was the first of eight collaborations with Pedro over the...

The biggest deals of this year’s Cannes Marché du Film and how the Competition titles sold throughout the festival.

Behind the glamour of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, business was booming at the Marché du Film (May 13-22), with representatives from 120 countries in attendance - up four on 2014.

A total 3,300 films were on offer this year, around 1,000 at the project stage, with an estimated 11,000 film professionals in attendance, in line with last year.

In the opening days, Marché chief Jérôme Paillard told Screen: “Acquisition agents are telling me that it’s the first time in a number of years that there are so many big projects. I’ve been told there are around 50 high profile projects on offer.”

North AmericaHOT Projects

Universal Pictures and Focus Features took worldwide rights to Tom Ford’s upcoming thriller Nocturnal Animals, starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal, in a deal reportedly worth $20m. [Story]

Open Road paid...

Exclusive: Kevin Williams Associates has closed some eye-catching deals on its remastered Pedro Almodovar film, Labyrinth Of Passion.

The 1982 film has now gone to Arte (France), Shochiku (Japan) and Lucky Red (Italy) with a Us deal in negotiation.

The Spanish screwball comedy, written and directed by Almodóvar, stars Cecilia Roth and Imanol Arias as well as Antonio Banderas in a small role, marking his film debut.

Almodóvar’s second film follows a nymphomaniac pop star who falls in love with a gay Middle-Eastern prince.

Out Oscar-winning filmmaker Pedro Almodovar has been one of the great unique voices in cinema for over thirty years, and has inspired countless other writer/directors, both real and … imagined.

From his early cult films (Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap), (Labyrinth Of Passion ), to his first taste of worldwide acclaim (Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown), to his later arthouse award-winners (All About My Mother, Talk To Her), Pedro has always marched to his own drummer. Even rare misfires, such as last year’s I’m So Excited, are still more interesting than most of the dreck that comes out of Hollywood.

And if there’s one thing Pedro knows, it’s how to fill his films with hot guys. He’s never shied away from male nudity and sex scenes, be it gay or straight, and because two of Pedro’s strongest visual assets are pop and gloss,...

Written by Vanessa Erazo originally posted on huffingtonpost Latino Voices 

I am pretty sure the first time I saw one of Pedro Almodóvar's movies was in my high school Spanish class. I was completely entranced, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was unlike anything I had ever seen before. And hence began my long love affair with his films.

I am not ashamed to admit that I spent a good part of my twenties scouring eBay for hard-to-find copies of his early films like Pepi, Luci, and Bom or The Labyrinth of Passion. One of my favorites, What Have I Done to Deserve This, I could only find on Vcd (yeah Video CD, it exists) in Taiwan. Gracias a Dios por eBay!

A full decade (and more) into my Almodóvar love affair I am past the giddy butterflies-in-your-stomach phase. Now, it feels like a long-term relationship. Since the late nineties I have seen all of his new releases in a theater: All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Bad Education, Volver, Broken Embraces, and The Skin I Live In. Some I absolutely adored and others were kinda meh. Pedro and I have been through good times and bad. But sitting in a dark theater, sinking into a plush chair, and awaiting the start of a new Almodóvar movie feels just like going home for Christmas or like a hug from my mom -- it's comforting and blissful.

A few weeks ago I got to preview his newest film I'm So Excited and I fell in love all over again.

The title in Spanish, Los amantes pasajeros, hints at the storyline -- a group of travelers aboard a plane flying to Mexico City that seems likely to crash, terrified and fearing for their lives, begin to confess their spicy life secrets.

The cast brings together old Almodóvar favorites with newcomers and well-known actors. The movie stars Javier Camara (Talk to Her), Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother) and Lola Dueñas (Volver). Spanish comedians Carlos Areces, Raúl Arévalo and Mexican actor José María Yazpik round out the cast along with cameos by Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas.

Almodóvar was present at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater along with some of his actors. The ruckus affair came complete with champagne, popcorn, and many Almodóvarisms. While introducing the film he explained, "there is lots of sex" and the passengers on the plane, "have an incredible orgy." He then told the audience, "to which you are also invited after the movie." And before the lights dimmed Almodóvar told everyone he hoped they enjoyed the film but gave the caveat, "If you don't find it entertaining, blame the subtitles."

I'm So Excited is a return to what Almodóvar does best; it's an absurd sex-filled comedy. It's an orgy in the sky complete with jazz hands, flamboyant flight attendants, binge drinking, drugs, a porn actress, a psychic (who also happens to be a virgin), and a pilot who is exploring his sexual identity. It's a story that only Almodóvar could tell and that's exactly why I fell in love with his films in the first place.

I'm So Excited opened on Friday, June 28 in New York and Los Angeles with other cities to follow in the coming weeks.

Check out the website for a list of theaters and like the Facebook page for updates.

The Antonio Banderas you know and love strides across red carpets from Cannes to Toronto in perfectly cut tuxedos generating cheers and whistles at every premiere. It’s what one expects from a world leader among leading men. But the Spanish native and Hollywood veteran insists he wants movie audiences to consider more than his comic talents and good looks. The 51-year- old Spanish actor has conquered Hollywood via multiple blockbusters including his Zorro movies, the Shrek franchise and its hit spin-off Puss in Boots, featuring Banderas as the voice of the swashbuckling cartoon cat. Banderas refocuses attention on his more dramatic side by reuniting with Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar, who cast him at age 22 in his first movie, Labyrinth of Passion, some 19 years ago.

The Antonio Banderas you know and love strides across red carpets from Cannes to Toronto in perfectly cut tuxedos generating cheers and whistles at every premiere. It’s what one expects from a world leader among leading men. But the Spanish native and Hollywood veteran insists he wants movie audiences to consider more than his comic talents and good looks. The 51-year- old Spanish actor has conquered Hollywood via multiple blockbusters including his Zorro movies, the Shrek franchise and its hit spin-off Puss in Boots, featuring Banderas as the voice of the swashbuckling cartoon cat. Banderas refocuses attention on his more dramatic side by reuniting with Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar, who cast him at age 22 in his first movie, Labyrinth of Passion, some 19 years ago.

The Antonio Banderas you know and love strides across red carpets from Cannes to Toronto in perfectly cut tuxedos generating cheers and whistles at every premiere. It’s what one expects from a world leader among leading men. But the Spanish native and Hollywood veteran insists he wants movie audiences to consider more than his comic talents and good looks. The 51-year- old Spanish actor has conquered Hollywood via multiple blockbusters including his Zorro movies, the Shrek franchise and its hit spin-off Puss in Boots, featuring Banderas as the voice of the swashbuckling cartoon cat. Banderas refocuses attention on his more dramatic side by reuniting with Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar, who cast him at age 22 in his first movie, Labyrinth of Passion, some 19 years ago.

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar helped put Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz on the map, and has since worked with them several times. Banderas and Cruz aren't the only actors the Academy Award-winning director has worked with numerous times. CineMovie breaks down Pedro Almodovar's many muses.

Antonio Banderas first appeared in a small role in Almodovar's Labyrinth of Passion in 1982 and went on to appear in four films.  Pedro Almodovar reunites with Antonio for a sixth time for his current film The Skin I Live In. The Puss In Boots star hadn't worked with Almodovar since 1990 on Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down! Perhaps he needed a bit of a career revival as Penelope Cruz experienced when she reunited with Almodovar after her American

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In The Skin I Live In, Antonio Banderas is a doctor whose methods borderline on the unethical, but are all engrossing for the movie audience. Banderas, the international superstar, sat down with Movie Fanatic for an exclusive video interview about what it was about The Skin I Live In that made him game for the gnarly and deeply disturbing in a good way film.

Antonio Banderas Exclusive Video Interview

Banderas, who we will speak to next week for Puss in Boots, shared how it was The Skin I Live In director, his old friend Pedro Almodovar, which had him regardless of the film’s subject matter. The fact that the film is a mind messer was all the better!

The Skin I Live In is Banderas’ fifth film with Almodovar, after Labyrinth of Passion (the star’s very first film), Matador, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Tie Me Up!

With The Skin I Live In out today in the UK, here’s a handy guide to the films of director Pedro Almodóvar, and what to say if you’ve never seen one of his films…

We’ve all been there. You’re out with some friends eating tapas and drinking sangria, and someone mentions The Skin I Live In, the excellent new film from Pedro Almodóvar. But what if you don’t know the director’s work? Never fear. Here are ten things to say if you’ve never seen an Almodóvar film.

1. On women: “It's all about his mother...”

If you’re watching an Almodóvar film, you can bet that women are involved. Most evident, perhaps, in 2006’s Volver and 1999’s All About My Mother (both five star films), is that he’s a director keen to emphasise female identity, repeatedly highlighting their solidarity and resilience in the...

Pedro Almodóvar made him a star. But then Hollywood beckoned and actor abandoned mentor. Twenty years on, they're back together – and boy does it feel good...

Three decades ago, an impoverished young actor named Antonio Banderas was sitting with friends outside Madrid's National theatre when a curious figure happened by. The new arrival sported a backcombed goth bouffant and brandished a bright red briefcase that could only contain documents of national importance. He ordered a drink, cracked some jokes then turned abruptly towards Banderas. "You have a very romantic face," he said. "You should do movies. Bye-bye!" And with that he was off, swinging his briefcase through the crowds on the Calle del Principe.

Nonplussed, Banderas turned to his friends. "Oh, that's Pedro Almodóvar," they told him. "He made a movie once. But he won't make any more."

Banderas and Almodóvar went on to make five films together. These were wild,...

Drew loved "Four Lions" when he saw it at Sundance this year. It still resides in his top ten for the year. He will be interviewing director Chris Morris when he gets back form traveling, in fact, and by sheer coincidence today, we received an email from the publicist containing the the poster and the trailer. The Film will be opening November 5th, and although this is the first I'm hearing about it, everything about it strikes me as funny. Almodovar cast Antonio Banderas as a bumbling terrorist in "Labyrinth of Passion" back in 1982 who could track down a lover...

Twenty years on from their last collaboration, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (which followed Labyrinth of Passion, Matador, Law of Desire, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), Pedro Almodovar and Antonio Banderas are set to work together again on La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I Live In).The story of a surgeon out for revenge on the man who raped his daughter and put her in a mental institution, Almodovar describes the film as "the harshest I've ever written". It's loosely based on the thoroughly twisted French novel Mygale by Thierry Jonquet (who's also known for his books for children), which plays with ideas of captivity, revenge and sexual humiliation, tied up in a twisty-turny mystery narrative. On the surface it's more obviously David Lynch territory than something we'd expect from Almodovar, but the director seems enthused by the idea of a film that's "close to the terror genre,...

MADRID -- Actor Antonio Banderas has won the Gold Medal 2004 awarded annually by the Spanish Film Academy, the academy announced Friday. Banderas, who began his film career with director Pedro Almodovar in the 1982 Labyrinth of Passions, will receive the award at a ceremony in Madrid in July. The academy said it had chosen homegrown hero Banderas "to recognize the actor's work in spreading Spanish culture throughout his prolific international career." Banderas is currently appearing in Imagining Argentina and provides the voice for Puss-in-Boots in Shrek 2. The sequel to Mask of Zorro is due in 2005. Others to have won the award since its establishment in 1986 include Elias Querejeta, Carlos Saura and Fernando Fernan Gomez.