Pedro Almodovar movie to kick off Venice Film Festival

ROME • Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's latest movie Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers), starring his muses Penelope Cruz and Rossy de Palma, will open the 78th Venice Film Festival in September, organisers said on Monday.

The film - which follows two single women in different stages of life preparing to give birth in a maternity ward - will compete for the prestigious competition's top prize, the Golden Lion.

"I was really born as a director in Venice in 1983... 38 years later, I am called to open the festival," Almodovar, 71, said in a statement. "I am truly grateful to the festival for this recognition and hope to live up to it."

Festival director Alberto Barbera called Almodovar's film an "intense and sensitive portrait of two women facing pregnancy with unpredictable implications, of female solidarity, of a sexuality lived in full freedom and without hypocrisy".

The Oscar-winning film-maker was awarded a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement by the festival in 2019. He debuted at Venice in 1983 with his black comedy, Entre Tinieblas (Dark Habits).

The Venice Film Festival will be held from Sept 1 to 11.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE