At the Cannes press conference for his new film “Bitter Christmas,” director Pedro Almodovar declared, “Europe must never give in to President Trump,” which drew thunderous applause from the international press in attendance. The director was responding to questions about censorship concerns in light of what’s going on in the US under the Trump administration and the Canal+ controversy in France. The head of Canal+ had threatened to blacklist artists who signed an open letter against the company’s major shareholders.
“This affects us a lot,” Almodovar said of censorship concerns, calling on artists not to give in to such fears.
“I don’t want to criticize anyone, but I think artists have to speak out about the situation they find themselves in in modern society. It’s a moral obligation,” the director said. “Silence and fear are signs that things are getting worse. They are serious signs that our democracy is crumbling. On the contrary, creators must speak out…The worst that can happen is to remain silent or be censored. We have a moral obligation to speak out.”
Almodovar urged fellow artists to “act as a shield against this madness.” Ahead of the festival, the director criticized this year’s Oscars for not being overtly political.
“I’m not blaming anyone in particular, but I was watching the Oscar telecast and it was very remarkable that there wasn’t a lot of protest against the war and against Trump,” Almodovar told the Los Angeles Times. “Maybe he wasn’t the only one, but the only example I remember is a European friend of mine, Javier Bardem, who directly said, ‘Liberate Palestine.’
“People are obviously very scared,” the director continued. “The United States is not a democracy right now. Some say maybe it’s an imperfect democracy, but I really don’t think the United States is a democracy right now. The heartbreaking irony is that a democracy, through a proper and correct voting mechanism, has created this kind of totalitarian regime. And that’s a paradox, and it’s also incredibly sad.”
Mr. Almodovar is no stranger to publicly bashing Mr. Trump. In 2025, while accepting the Chaplin Prize at New York City’s Lincoln Center, he referred to the US president and said America was “ruled by a narcissistic authority with no respect for human rights.” He later said Trump would be remembered as a “disaster.”
Asked by the Los Angeles Times whether speaking out could affect his career, Almodóvar said: “Absolutely not.”
“I’m not really afraid. In a general Spanish sense, here we’re not afraid to call things what they are. We had a government that called Gaza a genocide, and the Spanish people in general are not afraid to call these wars what they are,” he explained, adding that because he is a foreigner and works outside of Hollywood, it is “easy for him to articulate” his beliefs.
Almodóvar’s latest film, “Bitter Christmas,” premiered at Cannes to a six-and-a-half minute standing ovation, making it the eighth film to be screened in competition at Cannes. He won Best Director in 1999 for “All About My Mother” and Best Original Screenplay in 2006 for “Volver.”
