Free Almodóvar Retrospective: 20 Films in São Paulo

Brazil’s Cinemateca screens 20 Pedro Almodóvar films for free, March 4–15, including rare 35mm prints and open-air outdoor screenings.

Four decades on the big screen

The Pedro Almodóvar Retrospective arrives at the Cinemateca Brasileira from March 4 to 15, 2026, bringing together approximately 20 films by the Spanish filmmaker. Organized in partnership with the Embassy of Spain in Brazil and the Instituto Cervantes, the program spans more than four decades of one of contemporary cinema’s most distinctive bodies of work.

Almodóvar’s irreverence, bold use of color, references to popular culture, and layered narratives have redefined the melodrama. Along the way, he created female characters so singular they inspired a word of their own: “almodovarian.”

From Madrid’s underground to quiet reflection

His earliest films emerged from the energy of the Movida Madrileña, the countercultural movement that swept Madrid in the late 1970s as Spain transitioned to democracy after Franco’s dictatorship. Anarchic, provocative, and independently made, those works embraced explicit sexuality, gender fluidity, and transgressive humor as tools of liberation.

By the late 1980s, Almodóvar had found a new balance. Without abandoning excess, he brought greater narrative and visual rigor to his work. The classic melodrama was filtered through camp aesthetics, saturated palettes, and powerful female protagonists — the foundation of his international reputation.

The 1990s and early 2000s brought a more introspective Almodóvar. Themes of grief, motherhood, memory, and guilt moved to the foreground in films that critics widely regard as his finest. Later, his 21st-century work grew colder and more unsettling, incorporating psychological suspense and confronting the darker corners of his imagination.

His most recent films are deeply personal. Aging, illness, memory, and artistic legacy shape restrained narratives where silence carries as much weight as image. It is a phase of quiet self-examination — a filmmaker looking back at his own work with clarity and melancholy.

35mm prints and outdoor screenings

Among the program’s technical highlights, the Cinemateca will screen preserved 35mm prints of three titles: Law of Desire, High Heels, and Kika. Ten additional films will be shown on the outdoor screen, which seats 300 people: The Room Next Door, The Skin I Live In, Talk to Her, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Volver, and Dark Habits.

All screenings are free of charge. Tickets are distributed one hour before each session at the venue’s box office.

Full screening schedule

March 4 (Wed) — 7:30 PM: The Room Next Door*

March 5 (Thu) — 5:30 PM: Pain and Glory | 8 PM: The Skin I Live In*

March 6 (Fri) — 5:30 PM: Broken Embraces | 8 PM: Talk to Her*

March 7 (Sat) — 3 PM: Law of Desire (35mm) | 5:30 PM: Matador | 8 PM: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown*

March 8 (Sun) — 3 PM: High Heels (35mm) | 5:30 PM: Bad Education | 8 PM: All About My Mother*

March 11 (Wed) — 8 PM: Volver*

March 12 (Thu) — 8 PM: Dark Habits*

March 13 (Fri) — 5:30 PM: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! | 8 PM: Live Flesh

March 14 (Sat) — 5:30 PM: Kika (35mm) | 8 PM: The Flower of My Secret

March 15 (Sun) — 3 PM: What Have I Done to Deserve This? | 5:30 PM: Labyrinth of Passion | 8 PM: Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap

* Outdoor screen

Event Info

Event: Pedro Almodóvar Retrospective

Dates: March 4–15, 2026

Venue: Cinemateca Brasileira — Largo Senador Raul Cardoso, 207, Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brazil

Admission: Free; tickets distributed one hour before each screening

Screening rooms: Sala Grande Otelo (210 seats + 4 wheelchair), Sala Oscarito (104 seats), Outdoor Area (300 seats)

Hours: Public spaces: daily, 8 AM–6 PM | Library: Mon–Fri, 10 AM–5 PM (closed holidays)

Website: https://www.cinemateca.org.br/

Photo: Divulgação