Podcast

Cannes 2026 #6: Happy Hours

Isabel Stevens and Neta Alexander share their responses to Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, and more

Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodóvar, 2026)

Cannes 2026 is in full swing and the Film Comment crew is on the ground, cutting through the noise with dispatches, interviews, Podcasts, a special Cannes Critics’ Grid, and much more. This year’s edition is packed with highly anticipated premieres from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Valeska Grisebach, James Gray, Paweł Pawlikowski, and many more acclaimed filmmakers.

For our sixth Podcast from the sun-dappled shores of the French Riviera, Sight and Sound’s Isabel Stevens and scholar Neta Alexander join FC Editor Devika Girish to share their responses to two Competition titles that are sure to generate lots of chatter: Cristian Mungiu’s legal thriller Fjord (3:15) and Pedro Almodóvar’s self-reflexive drama Bitter Christmas (19:25). Next, they turn to two highlights from the festival’s other sections: Austrian director Sandra Wollner’s Everytime (26:00), which premiered as part of Un Certain Regard, and Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor’s La perra (32:50), a selection in the Directors’ Fortnight program.

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This story is part of the Summer 2026 issue of Film Comment.

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