Spanish thesp Javier Bardem had some news to announce on Friday last week at the 72nd San Sebastián Film Festival, the same day on which he picked up the Donosti Award that he was unable to collect one year ago owing to the actors’ strike: in January, on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, he will shoot El ser querido (lit. “The Loved One”), which is set to be directed by Madrilenian helmer Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Thus, Bardem, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2008 for the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men, and who was also nominated for an Academy Award three additional times and has picked up six Goya Awards as an actor, will put his proven talent to good use with Sorogoyen. The director, a fellow Goya winner for The Beasts [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rodrigo Sorogoyen et Isabe…
fiche film] (a film that was premiered at Cannes and was a hit at the French box office), has just been showered with critical praise for his latest series, The New Years [+lire aussi :
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fiche série], which took part in the Venice Film Festival and will soon get an airing at the Seminci in Valladolid.

The cast of the project also includes Victoria Luengo, who previously worked with Sorogoyen on Riot Police [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rodrigo Sorogoyen
fiche série], was seen recently in the series Red Queen and will soon hit screens in a supporting role in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. As is customary, the team will also include screenwriter (penning the script together with Sorogoyen himself) Isabel Peña, the filmmaker’s regular writing partner (together, they wrote the scripts for the Venice-screened Madre [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rodrigo Sorogoyen
fiche film] as well as The Realm [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rodrigo Sorogoyen
interview : Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Isabel …
fiche film] and May God Save Us [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rodrigo Sorogoyen
fiche film], among others). As it happens, Peña is presenting The Wailing [+lire aussi :
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interview : Pedro Martín-Calero et Isa…
fiche film], directed by Pedro Martín-Calero and boasting a screenplay that they co-wrote, at the San Sebastián Film Festival this week.

El ser querido tells of how an acclaimed film director (played by Bardem) and his daughter (Luengo), an unsuccessful actress, team up to shoot a movie after years of estrangement and a difficult past that neither of them wants to talk about.

El ser querido is a Movistar Plus+ original film being co-produced by Caballo Films and El ser querido AIE, and being made in conjunction with Le Pacte (France). It has secured funding from the ICAA and the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme. Its international sales will be handled by Goodfellas, while its Spanish distribution will fall to A Contracorriente Films.