The display of stars at the Cannes Film Festival 2026 has a markedly Spanish accent. In the coming days, Pedro Almodóvar and directing duo Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo—known as The Javis—will also present their latest films in competition, but the spotlight today has been focused on the team of The Beloved. The official, in-competition debut of director Rodrigo Sorogoyen is a drama that follows Esteban Martínez (Javier Bardem), a film director with a difficult past who tries to build a bond with his estranged daughter (Victoria Luengo) by casting her in a film that’s sure to reopen old wounds.
The excitement of the film’s cast and crew was palpable on the steps of the Palacio de Festivales Saturday, and for Luengo, the event is doubly historic: This year she is doing double duty in the official competition as she is also part of the cast of Almodovar’s Bitter Christmas. The premiere is also a bit of a homecoming for Sorogoyen and Bardem, as it was just four years ago the director and creative partner Isabel Peña offered the role to Bardem during the Cannes 2022 presentation of The Beasts
“We explained to him that we only had a few lines written, a theme that interested us and a specific universe,” Sorogoyen explained in a statement after receiving the news of his film’s Cannes selection in April.
“But, above all, we also had Victoria Luengo, the other actress for whom we wrote [The Beloved]. Javier received us at the Hotel Martinez and there began the journey that has led us here. We can only say that we are as grateful as we are excited to close the circle four years later in the same place where it all began. We are going to enjoy every minute that the festival gives us because we understand that this is our duty.”
Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Marina Foïs, Javier Bardem, Isabel Peña, Victoria Luengo, Raúl Arévalo, Eduardo Villaneuva and Guillermo Farré at the world premiere of The Beloved
Aurore Marechal/Getty Images
