Five years ago, the Academy Awards witnessed the reunion on its red carpet of two generations of revolutionary filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodóvar when they were both nominated in different categories for his 2019 acclaimed films “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and “Pain and glory.”.
This year, while two-time Academy Award winner Tarantino is on hold for its supposedly final projects as a director, Almodóvar landed in Hollywood once again doing press and festival screenings of his latest film, his acclaimed first English language work “The Room Next Door”, starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. Pedro is getting big Oscar buzz for a second nod for Best Director for the Spanish filmmaker (his first one was for 2003 “Talk to Her”).
The occasion was perfect for Tarantino to meet up with a filmmaker he learned of while still working on a video store in the 80s when Almodovar’s film started to make buzz worldwide since his film debut with “Pepi, Luci, Bom” (1980) to his first Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language of 1988 for “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”, which also featured Almodóvar´s frequent lead man Antonio Banderas.
Almodóvar finally won his first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 1999 for “All About My Mother”, starring her frequent leading lady Penelope Cruz and for Best Original Screenplay of 2002 for “Talk to Her”, winning over Allfonso and Carlos Cuarón for the one for “Y tu mamá también”.