Pedro Almodóvar recently spoke to the Los Angeles Times ahead of his latest movie, “Bitter Christmas,” competing at the Cannes Film Festival and called out the Oscars for being blatantly apolitical this year.
“You know, I’m not really blaming anyone in particular, but it was quite notable watching the Oscar telecast where there were not many protests against the war or against Trump,” Almodóvar observed. “Maybe he wasn’t the only one, but the only real example I can remember came from a European, a friend of mine, Javier Bardem, who did directly say, “Free Palestine.’”
“People are obviously very frightened,” the director continued. “The U.S. is not a democracy right now. Some people say it’s maybe an imperfect democracy, but I really don’t think the U.S. is a democracy right now. The heartbreaking and ironic thing is that democracy has given rise, through the proper, right voting mechanism, to this kind of totalitarian regime. And it’s both a paradox and it’s also incredibly sad.”
Almodóvar has come out swinging against Trump before, notably in 2025 while receiving the Chaplin Award at Lincoln Center in New York City. The filmmaker referred to Trump at the time by saying America was “ruled by a narcissistic authority, who doesn’t respect human rights.” He later said Trump would be remembered as a “catastrophe.”
When asked by the Los Angeles Times if he fears what speaking out could do to his career, Almodóvar answered, “Not at all.”
“I don’t have many fears. In a generalized Spanish sense, here we’re not afraid to call things for what they are. We have a government that has called Gaza a genocide and the Spanish people in general are not afraid to call these wars out for what they are,” he explained, adding that “it’s easier for me to be clear” with his beliefs because he’s a foreigner and works outside of Hollywood.
Many members of the film press criticized the Oscars this year being “overly safe” when it came to addressing political issues. The apolitical bent of the ceremony was even more notable due to the fact Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically-charged “One Battle After Another” took home best picture and several other trophies.
As Variety’s Owen Gleiberman noted in his show review: “‘One Battle’ is a movie that has the politics of America today at the very core of its cinematic DNA… It was a piece of cathartic political art. In an evening where it took home six Oscars, that reality should have been at the forefront of the celebration of its triumph. Instead, if you tuned into the Oscars but hadn’t seen the movie they saluted most ardently, you might never have had the slightest idea what the movie was about.”
variety.com
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