--- title: 'AFI Latin American Film Festival Lines Up Almodóvar and Luna' type: 'blog post' section: 'Industry' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas” will close the Silver Spring festival, while Diego Luna’s “Ashes” sits near the front of a 43-film program built around Latin American cinema during National Hispanic Heritage Month.' author: 'CinePixo' published: '2026-08-27' updated: '2026-08-27' about_people: - 'Pedro Almodóvar' - 'Diego Luna' tags: - 'AFI Latin American Film Festival 2026 lineup' - 'Pedro Almodóvar Bitter Christmas AFI closing night' - 'Diego Luna Ashes film festival' - 'Bitter Christmas Cannes reviews' - 'AFI Silver Theatre Latin American films' - 'Manuela Martelli The Meltdown' - 'National Hispanic Heritage Month film festival' sources: - 'https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/pedro-almod-var-bitter-christmas-170000956.html' - 'https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/pedro-almodovar-bitter-christmas-cannes-premiere-1236601144/' - 'https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/bitter-christmas-movie-review-almodovar-1235194803/' - 'https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/bitter-christmas-review-pedro-almodovar-1236753260/' - 'https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/bitter-christmas-review-pedro-almodovar/' - 'https://deadline.com/2026/05/bitter-christmas-review-pedro-almodovar-1236889804/' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/bitter-christmas-review-pedro-almod%C3%B3var-gives-himself-a-hard-time-and-its-thrilling/ar-AA23Apya' - 'https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2026-05-11/cannes-pedro-almodovar-bitter-christmas-sony-pictures-classics-oscars' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/afi-latin-american-film-festival-lines-up-almodovar-and-luna' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # AFI Latin American Film Festival Lines Up Almodóvar and Luna *Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas” will close the Silver Spring festival, while Diego Luna’s “Ashes” sits near the front of a 43-film program built around Latin American cinema during National Hispanic Heritage Month.* By CinePixo, 2026-08-27 · Industry Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas” and Diego Luna’s “Ashes” are among the major titles in the AFI Latin American Film Festival lineup, Yahoo Entertainment reported on August 26, 2026. The festival runs September 16 through October 7 at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. For film readers, the draw is not only the names. AFI is placing Almodóvar’s new self-reflexive melodrama at closing night, Luna’s fourth feature as director near the start, and Manuela Martelli’s Chilean thriller “The Meltdown” in the same early stretch. That is a real programming statement, not just a famous-name garnish. ## “Bitter Christmas” Gets the Closing Slot According to Yahoo Entertainment, AFI will close the festival with “Bitter Christmas,” Almodóvar’s latest feature. The film reunites him with Argentine actor Leonardo Sbaraglia, who appeared in “Pain and Glory.” Yahoo reported that the movie follows two self-absorbed filmmakers weighing whether inspiration can end a long creative drought. That premise already sounds like late Almodóvar staring straight at the machine that makes late Almodóvar. The Cannes reviews in the reporting point in the same direction. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film premiered in competition at Cannes and received a warm response, with a six-and-a-half-minute ovation at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. THR also reported that it marks Almodóvar’s return to Spanish-language filmmaking after “The Room Next Door,” his English-language feature that won the Golden Lion at Venice. The movie has divided critics in the most useful way: not over whether it is recognizably his, but over how much that recognition gives back. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich called it a “fun and twisty meta-drama” and graded it a B. Variety’s Guy Lodge found it enjoyable and art-directed with the expected precision, but wrote that it does not leave the viewer with as much to hold onto as “Pain and Glory.” Deadline’s Pete Hammond described it as minor Almodóvar, while still calling it a fascinating look inside the filmmaker’s head. For an AFI audience, that is a good closing-night argument. A festival should not only hand you masterpieces already sealed in amber. Sometimes it should send you out arguing over an artist who still knows exactly where to put the knife. ![Diego Luna speaking at an FYC panel for Andor in Santa Monica, California.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/53fffa6b-f341-443d-814b-686a056d42c3.webp) *Photo: Kevin Paul · [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diego_Luna_-_Andor.jpg)* ## Diego Luna’s “Ashes” Moves Early in the Program Yahoo Entertainment reported that Diego Luna’s “Ashes” will screen after Martelli’s “The Meltdown.” It is Luna’s fourth directorial feature, described in the report as an unconventional immigration drama about a young Mexican woman who travels to Spain with her brother to join the mother who left them behind as children. That description has weight because it refuses the clean line that festival synopses can sometimes impose on migration stories. A mother has already left. Two siblings follow. Spain is not a fantasy destination; it is where the family wound has been waiting. Luna’s presence also widens the meaning of “lineup leader.” Almodóvar supplies the closing-night thunder and the auteur history. Luna brings a different kind of attention: an actor-director with a public profile, working here on material that seems smaller in scale but potentially sharper in pain. The festival’s top shelf is not being built from one model of prestige. ![Pedro Almodóvar at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival 2026](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/0743b973-6e9a-48ed-abab-1c6b5b250641.webp) ![Diego Luna (49619205091)](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/22ea65f4-fa83-4d5d-afcd-adbef3cc9ee8.webp) *Photos: Elyot Boudart · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pedro_Almod%C3%B3var_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival_2026_in_France_TV_studios.jpg); Secretaría de Cultura Ciudad de México from México · [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diego_Luna_(49619205091).jpg)* ## AFI Opens With Football, Then Turns to Chile and Mexico The festival opens with “The Match,” Yahoo Entertainment reported. The documentary uses archival footage, narration by Gary Lineker and Jorge Valdano, and new player testimonials to tell the story of the 1986 World Cup match between Argentina and England. That opener is a smart door into a film festival because the match is not only sports history. It is memory, national feeling, television image, mythmaking. A documentary about that game can bring in viewers who might not start with a formally adventurous drama but still care deeply about how history gets replayed. After “The Match,” AFI turns to Manuela Martelli’s “The Meltdown.” Yahoo described it as a coming-of-age thriller set in Chile after the Pinochet era. The same report says the festival then moves to Luna’s “Ashes.” Put together, the opening run suggests a program interested in public memory and private aftermath: a World Cup match, post-dictatorship Chile, and a family split across Mexico and Spain. ![Pedro Almodóvar with his Golden Lion at the 81st Venice International Film Festival 2024](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/80eb32e5-e6be-4f68-b42e-96a561a97f17.webp) ![Diego Luna (49618686988)](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/e21d7411-8504-4a8e-bc67-f6993542f36e.webp) *Photos: Harald Krichel · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pedro_Almod%C3%B3var-69676.jpg); Secretaría de Cultura Ciudad de México from México · [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diego_Luna_(49618686988).jpg)* ## The 43-Film Lineup Has Premiere Muscle Yahoo Entertainment reported that this year’s AFI Latin American Film Festival includes 43 films from 21 countries. The selection includes international festival favorites, award winners, local box-office hits, and debuts from a new generation of Latin American filmmakers. The report also says the program includes 12 U.S. and North American premieres. The festival is dedicated to presenting Latin American talent during National Hispanic Heritage Month, according to Yahoo. That timing can sound ceremonial if the films are treated like a checklist. This lineup, at least from the titles named, has more bite than that. It puts a soccer documentary beside political memory, migration drama, and Almodóvar’s latest argument with his own imagination. The Almodóvar slot will pull attention first. It should. “Bitter Christmas” arrives with Cannes noise, a Chavela Vargas song at its emotional center according to the Los Angeles Times and THR, and critics already sorting out whether its self-portraiture cuts deep enough. But the better reason to look at AFI’s lineup is the pressure created by the company it keeps: Luna’s “Ashes,” Martelli’s “The Meltdown,” and a 1986 World Cup documentary sharing one Silver Spring calendar from September 16 to October 7. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Pedro Almodóvar](https://cinepixo.com/people/pedro-almodovar) - [Diego Luna](https://cinepixo.com/people/diego-luna) ## Sources - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/pedro-almod-var-bitter-christmas-170000956.html - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/pedro-almodovar-bitter-christmas-cannes-premiere-1236601144/ - https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/bitter-christmas-movie-review-almodovar-1235194803/ - https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/bitter-christmas-review-pedro-almodovar-1236753260/ - https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/bitter-christmas-review-pedro-almodovar/ - https://deadline.com/2026/05/bitter-christmas-review-pedro-almodovar-1236889804/ - https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/bitter-christmas-review-pedro-almod%C3%B3var-gives-himself-a-hard-time-and-its-thrilling/ar-AA23Apya - https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2026-05-11/cannes-pedro-almodovar-bitter-christmas-sony-pictures-classics-oscars Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/afi-latin-american-film-festival-lines-up-almodovar-and-luna Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.