Rome Film Festival to honor Javier Bardem with Lifetime Achievement Award

In Rome, Javier Bardem will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award — with Oscar- winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino handing him the honor — and he’s also bringing The Beloved for a “Best of the Fests” screening. Sorogoyen’s film premiered in Competition at Cannes, where Bardem’s turn drew strong attention.

The Rome stop comes on the heels of a buzzy Venice showing for Florian Zeller’s Bunker, in which Bardem and Penélope Cruz play spouses rattled by his character’s decision to design a morally tricky, high-security bunker for a tech billionaire. It ’s one of those icy ethical thrillers that also pokes at a marriage under stress.

Bardem’s Bunker earned roughly a 15 and a half minute standing ovation at Venice.

The Beloved

In Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s drama, Bardem plays Esteban Martínez, a celebrated Spanish filmmaker whose legacy is tangled up with violence, addiction and excess. After years away, he reappears and pulls his estranged daughter, Emilia (Victoria Luengo), into his new film, pitching it as a way to restart her stalled career — and the set quickly turns into a battleground of control, resentment and buried history.

Beyond the fall festival circuit, Bardem’s slate stays busy: he’s back as Stilgar in Denis Villeneuve ’s Dune: Part Three, and he’s set for the Amazon MGM romantic comedy Hello & Paris opposite Kate Hudson.

It’s the latest chapter in a career that’s swung from Spanish arthouse to Hollywood epics. Highlights include:

• Before Night Falls
• No Country for Old Men
• Biutiful
• Skyfall
• Dune

North American rights to The Beloved are with Kino Lorber, which plans a U.S. awards-qualifying run later this year, followed by a wider theatrical release in early 2027.