SONY PICTURES CLASSICS WINS IN VENICE

NEW YORK (September 12, 2021) – Sony Pictures Classics wins at the Venice Film Festival. Their film PARALLEL MOTHERS opened the Italian film festival to a 9-minute standing ovation and much critical acclaim and closed the festival yesterday with leading actress Penélope Cruz winning the Best Actress Award.

Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, PARALLEL MOTHERS follows two women, Janis and Ana, as they coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way.

In addition to Cruz, the film also stars Aitana Sánchez Gijón, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Julieta Serrano and Rossy de Palma.

PARALLEL MOTHERS will have its US premiere as Closing Night Selection at the New York Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film on December 24, 2021.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Michael Barker and Tom Bernard serve as co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics—an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment they founded with Marcie Bloom in January 1992—which distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from around the world. Barker and Bernard have released prestigious films that have won 41 Academy Awards® (37 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 181 Academy Award® nominations (155 at Sony Pictures Classics) including Best Picture nominations for THE FATHER, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, WHIPLASH, AMOUR, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, AND CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition, and distribution; television production, acquisition, and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. SPE’s Motion Picture Group production organizations include Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, 3000 Pictures, Stage 6 Films, AFFIRM Films, and Sony Pictures Classics. For additional information, visit http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/divisions.html.