MoMA Announces Pedro Almodóvar Film Retrospective

Pedro Almodóvar will be honored with a major career retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art. Opening on November 29 with a special screening of Almódovar's latest work and 20th feature film, Julieta (2016), to be released nationally on December 21, the retrospective will include all 20 of the director's feature films, beginning with his first film Pepi, Luci, Bom, y otras chicas del montón (Pepi, Luci, Bom) from 1980.

Almodóvar (Spanish, b. 1949) made his exuberant entry onto the film scene in 1980, riding a post-Franco countercultural wave in Spain, and established himself as one of the most distinctive voices in cinema. His work contributed to the creation of a new Spanish cultural and social order, and through his Production Company El Deseo (founded in 1986 with his brother Agustín) he has made some of the most globally influential films of the past 30 years. His genre-defying films mix camp, melodrama, and humor to explore themes of transgression, desire, and identity. Almodóvar has constructed a colorful universe inhabited by offbeat characters, fluid sexual and gender identities, and complex and singular women. His all-inclusive, anything-goes spirit, which celebrates all beings, emotions, and reasons, appeals to a worldwide audience, allowing him to be at once a countercultural provocateur and the Oscar-winning writer/director of All About My Mother and Talk to Her.

Pedro Almodóvar is organized by Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, and La Frances Hui, Associate Curator, Department of Film, MoMA.