Spain picks Pedro Almodóvar’s latest movie for consideration at Academy Awards
The choice of ‘Pain and Glory,’ which stars Antonio Banderas as a film director, marks the seventh time the director’s works have been submitted for nomination at the Oscars
The latest film from acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar will be representing Spain at the next Academy Awards as a candidate in the Best International Film category. Pain and Glory, which stars long-time Almodóvar collaborators Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz, beat out Alejandro Amenábar’s historical drama While at War, and Salvador Simó’s animation Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles as Spain’s choice of movie for the 92nd Academy Awards.
‘Pain and Glory’ tells the story of Salvador Maíllo, a film director who is loosely based on Almodóvar himself
This marks the seventh time that the Spanish Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences has chosen an Almodóvar film for consideration at the Academy Awards. He has made it into the nominated movies twice: first for his 1988 breakthrough film Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, and then for All About My Mother, for which he won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1999. He also won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay in 2003 for Talk to Her.
Pain and Glory tells the story of Salvador Maíllo, a film director who is loosely based on Almodóvar himself. In Spain, the movie has sold more than 900,000 tickets and has grossed more than €6 million.
The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on February 9, 2020 in Los Angeles. The nominations will be announced on January 13.
English version by Simon Hunter.
