Javier Bardem at the Rome Film Fest 2026: Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented by Paolo Sorrentino

Javier Bardem will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Rome Film Fest 2026, taking place from 13 to 25 October at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone. The award will be presented by Paolo Sorrentino, Academy Award-winning director, on the occasion of the screening of El ser querido by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, which will be shown in the Best of 2026 section.

The announcement was made by Salvatore Nastasi, President of Fondazione Cinema per Roma, following a proposal by Artistic Director Paola Malanga. Bardem’s appearance is one of the most prominent events announced so far for the twenty-first edition of the festival.

The Spanish actor will accompany El ser querido, previously presented at the Cannes Film Festival and among its most warmly received titles. Bardem plays Esteban Martínez, a legendary filmmaker whose past is marked by violence and excess.

El ser querido and Javier Bardem’s international career

Bardem won the Academy Award for his performance in Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men, and has also received Oscar nominations for Before Night Falls, Biutiful, and Being the Ricardos.

His filmography includes collaborations with directors such as Woody Allen, Sam Mendes, Denis Villeneuve, Julian Schnabel, Aaron Sorkin, and Alejandro Amenábar, as well as major roles in The Sea Inside, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Skyfall, and Dune.

More recently, Bardem appeared in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, earning Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. He is also the executive producer and lead actor, opposite Amy Adams, in the Apple TV+ miniseries Cape Fear, which is executive-produced by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.

He also appeared alongside Brad Pitt in F1: The Movie. Among his latest projects are Florian Zeller’s Bunker, co-starring Penélope Cruz and presented at the Venice Film Festival, and Sorogoyen’s El ser querido, presented at Cannes.

In December, Bardem will return as Stilgar in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three. He has also recently completed filming on Amazon MGM Studios’ Hello & Paris, alongside Kate Hudson.

Paolo Sorrentino to present Bardem’s Lifetime Achievement Award

The award will be presented by Paolo Sorrentino, one of the leading figures in contemporary Italian cinema and the Academy Award winner for The Great Beauty.

The choice creates a particularly significant encounter between two internationally established careers, bringing together Bardem’s work as an actor across European and American cinema and Sorrentino’s own trajectory as one of Italy’s most recognisable filmmakers abroad.

The ceremony will take place in conjunction with the screening of El ser querido, linking the tribute to Bardem’s career with the presentation of one of his most recent films.

Rome Film Fest 2026 will begin on 13 October

The twenty-first edition of the festival will also include one additional day of programming compared with the originally announced dates. The opening has been moved forward to Tuesday, 13 October, instead of 14 October.

Nastasi and Malanga said the decision was made in response to the increase in the number of films submitted during the year and to requests received from independent producers and distributors. The festival will still close on Sunday, 25 October.

The opening film will be Il rumore delle cose nuove by Paolo Genovese, presented in the Grand Public section during the opening ceremony, which will be hosted by DJ, television and radio presenter Ema Stokholma.

Il rumore delle cose nuove to open Rome 2026

Genovese’s new ensemble film stars Emanuela Fanelli, Claudia Pandolfi, Vittoria Puccini, Stefano Accorsi, Lino Musella and Edoardo Pesce, with Claudio Santamaria also appearing.

The story follows three different couples who do not know one another but share a similar condition: each has built a protective structure around their life and relationships. An unexpected event brings them into the same orbit and forces them to reconsider the emotional balance on which their lives have been built.

Il rumore delle cose nuove is produced by Lotus Production, a Leone Film Group company, with Rai Cinema, in collaboration with Disney+ and in association with Vice Pictures. The producers are Raffaella Leone and Andrea Leone, with Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio serving as associate producer for Vice Pictures.

The film will be released in Italian cinemas on 12 November 2026 by 01 Distribution, with international sales handled by Rai Cinema International Distribution.

Full Rome Film Fest 2026 programme to be unveiled on 21 September

With Genovese’s opening film and the tribute to Bardem already confirmed, the Rome Film Fest 2026 is beginning to define some of the key events of its twenty-first edition.

The complete programme will be presented on Monday 21 September 2026, during the official press conference for the Rome Film Fest 2026. The event will unveil the full selection, festival sections, guests and further programme highlights ahead of the festival, which will run from 13 to 25 October at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone.