It may seem surprising, but it’s only now, 40 years into his career, that an imposing figure in European cinema like Pedro Almodóvar – one of the few who can still be called a household name in an era when very few directors from the old continent enjoy such renown – has won his first ever major European festival award: the Golden Lion at the Venice festival, with his first English-language feature, The Room Next Door. In many places, it was wrongly reported that this was his first American film. However, it follows his Cocteau remake The Human Voice (also starring Tilda Swinton, who appears here) and the queer anti-western Strange Way of Life (starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal as cowboys and former lovers).

Flavia Dima

+ posts

Film critic & journalist. Collaborates with local and international outlets, programs a short film festival - BIEFF, does occasional moderating gigs and is working on a PhD thesis about home movies. At Films in Frame, she writes the monthly editorial - The State of Cinema and is the magazine's main festival reporter.

This author does not have any more posts.