Javier Bardem Announces He Will Star in ‘El Ser Querido’ From ‘The Beasts’ Director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Lambasts Israeli Government’s Gaza Attacks

SAN SEBASTIAN —  Javier Bardem, at San Sebastián to pick up his 2023 Donostia Award for career achievement, announced he will star in “El Ser Querido,” the next film from Rodrigo Sorogoyen. The director’s “The Beasts” won a best foreign film Cesar Award in 2023, beating out four Cannes Festival winners. 

Bardem will play opposite Vicky Luengo, star of Sorogoyen’s hugely popular TV series “Riot Police” in a story written by Sorogoyen and his longtime co-scribe Isabel Peña, which Bardem described at a Donostia Award press conference as a “father-daughter drama” who re-meet after many years.”

According to the film’s synopsis, “El Ser Querido” turns on an acclaimed film director and his daughter, an unsuccessful actress, who shoot a film together after years of estrangement and a difficult past that none of them want to talk about. 

“El Ser Querido” is one from a first slate of six auteur event features announced by top Spanish pay TV-SVOD operator Movistar Plus+, whose backing will ensure that this is one of the highest-profile Spanish movies shooting in 2025. It will shoot from January on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura. Sorogoyen was last seen at the Venice Film Festival where he presented his latest series, “The New Years.”

Film’s co-producers are Caballo Films, El Ser Querido AIE, and France’s Le Pacte (France), financed by ICAA with the support of the Creative Europe Media Program. A Contracorriente Films will distribute in Spain. Movistar Plus+ has first TV window rights. Goodfellas handles international sales.

During the Donostia Award press conference, Bardem lambasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for its Gaza attacks. The government, he clarified, however, “is not representative of the Jewish community,” and, as Hamas leaders, should be brought to international courts of justice. 

Having dedicated his 2008 Best Supporting Actor Oscar to his mother, actress and activist Pilar Bardem, Javier Bardem told the San Sebastián press conference that he still saw himself as “the son of Pilar.” “I don’t want to be anything else,” he added.

More to come.

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