After ‘Parallel Mothers,’ Penelope Cruz Wants to Make a Musical Next With Pedro Almodovar

Best Picture: “Drive My Car” (48 points)Runners-up: “Petit Maman” (25), “The Power of the Dog” (23)Best Actor: Hidetoshi Nishijima, “Drive My Car” (63)Runners-up: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog” (44); Simon Rex, “Red Rocket” (30)Best Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers” (55)Runners-up: Renate Reinsve, “The Worst Person in the World” (42); Alana Haim, “Licorice Pizza” (32)Best Supporting Actor: Anders Danielsen Lie, “The Worst Person in the World” (54)Runners-up: Vincent Lindon, “Titane” (33); Mike Faist, “West Side Story” (26) and Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog” (26)Best Supporting Actress: Ruth Negga, “Passing” (46)Runners-up: Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story” (22); Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter” (21)Best Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” (46)Runners-up: Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog” (36), Celine Sciamma, “Petite Maman” (28)Best Screenplay: Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, “Drive My Car” (46)Runners-up: Pedro Almodovar, “Parallel Mothers” (22); Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza” (20)Best Nonfiction Film:Runners-up:Best Cinematography: Andrew Droz Palermo, “The Green Knight” (52)Runners-up: Ari Wegner, “The Power of the Dog” (40); Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, “Memoria” (35)Special citation for film awaiting U.S. distribution: “Returning to Reims,” Jean-Gabriel PeriotFilm Heritage Award: Bertrand Tavernier and Peter BogdanovichFilm Heritage Award: Maya Cade for the Black Film Archive

Recently seen in two of the biggest films of 2021, Oscar contenders “Nightmare Alley” from director Guillermo del Toro and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” in-demand Oscar-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett has now been selected to lead a new film from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. READ MORE: The Essentials: The Films Of Pedro Almodóvar Variety reveals that Blanchett has joined “A Manual For Cleaning Women,” one of two English-language projects Almodóvar has been developing and talking up in the past few months.

Cate Blanchett (Nightmare Alley, Don’t Look Up) will produce and star in A Manual for Cleaning Women, the first English-language feature from Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Parallel Mothers, Pain and Glory), Deadline has confirmed.

Javier Bardem is having a busy 12 months. Not only has he already shot a live-action version of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” but his Spanish dramedy “The Good Boss” made the shortlist for the Academy Award for International Film (selected over Pedro Almodovar’s critically acclaimed “Parallel Mothers” starring his wife, Penelope Cruz, no less).

United Artists Releasing likely won’t expand Licorice Pizza until next month and Sony Pictures Entertainment is going to take things slow with Jockey as the Omicron variant delays the return of the elusive older demo to cinemas.

Pedro Almodóvar’s  opened to an estimated $41,076 this weekend on three screens for a PSA of $13,692 over three days. Distributor Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker calls that cume conservative, anticipating $42-$43K for the Penelope Cruz-starrer that he said has been attracting a diverse new audience to Almodóvar, including younger moviegoers.

Two women meet in a maternity ward and their lives become inextricably linked in Pedro Almodóvar’s gentle but penetrating “ Parallel Mothers.”It’s a film that on one level plays like a melodrama, with wild twists and turns fitting of soap opera cliffhangers. But there is something deeper going on too, underneath the beautiful surface and base pleasures of plot and simply watching Penélope Cruz through Almodóvar’s loving lens.

Few performers boast a resume of such wide breadth as the intrepid, versatile Tilda Swinton, whose eclectic array of roles and collaborators run the full gamut of what acting can be.

Lorene Scafaria Guest ColumnistFor Variety‘s Writers on Writers, Lorene Scafaria pens a tribute to “Parallel Mothers” (screenplay by Pedro Almodóvar). Pedro Almodóvar is in control.From the opening image of “Parallel Mothers,” Almodóvar calls attention to the artifice of filmmaking. On the set of a photo shoot, the props and lights and craft service and crew are all in view as Penélope Cruz’s Janis gives her subject precise direction.

Over the past year, The Playlist has covered hundreds of prestige films and TV series. We’ve even gone ahead and broke them down and ranked them in our various Best of 2021 lists.

NEW YORK -- Pedro Almodóvar has a theory that his films with male protagonists, like his autobiographical 2019 film “Pain and Glory,” are darker and more somber.“I look inside myself when I talk about male characters,” says Almodóvar.“Parallel Mothers,” which Sony Pictures Classics begins releasing in theaters Friday, returns Almodóvar to more melodramatic territory.

Penelope Cruz is opening up about her family life with husband Javier Bardem and their two children, 8-year-old Lena and 10-year-old Leo, including a very strict rule about social media.The 47-year-old star revealed she has “a strange relationship with social media,” admitting she uses “very little of it in a very careful way,” as she feels too much usage doesn’t make sense “and it is especially affecting younger generations.”The actress says she doesn’t allow her kids to have social media

Penelope Cruz is opening up about why her children with husband Javier Bardem will not be on social media.

Mark Keizer “Holy Beasts” doesn’t work on every level, but it hits the bullseye where it matters most: as a cinematic reclamation project in honor of the late Dominican director Jean-Louis Jorge.

Clayton Davis In Variety‘s Up Next, we asked four Oscar winners to pick the one person who represents the future of Hollywood.Pedro Almodóvar describes his scripts as making a dish. “They need a lot of cooking time in the oven,” he says.