In 2009, Penélope Cruz won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. “I grew up in a place called Alcobendas, where this wasn’t a very realistic dream,” she said during that iconic speech as she dedicated the statuette to our country and to her origins. Now, 17 years later, the Spanish star has not lost an ounce of shine. A global celebrity, she combines her film career with her human rights activism or with serving as Chanel’s ambassador.
This 2026, the only Spanish actress to have won an Oscar, a BAFTA and an Honorary César is living her most prolific year in more than a decade. Her schedule for the coming months blends one of the most anticipated films in our cinema, with prestige horror movies, ensemble comedies and big action hits. After the critical success of The Bride, by Maggie Gyllenhaal, released last March, Penélope Cruz has reclaimed her throne as Hollywood’s most versatile international star.
The Madrid-born actress’s most immediate project is The Invite, a drama with hints of comedy directed and starring Olivia Wilde, with two heavyweights such as Seth Rogen and Edward Norton completing the cast. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, will hit cinemas on June 26 under the banner of A24, a production company that has achieved a unique status in Hollywood and that solidifies Penélope Cruz’s position as a cult actress in the mecca of cinema.
After almost eight years without working together, for the ninth time Penélope Cruz will again share a film with her husband, Javier Bardem. It will be in Bunker, the new feature film by French filmmaker Florian Zeller. The title centers on an architect and his wife, played by Bardem and Cruz respectively. To this project adds the possibility, still unconfirmed, that the Spanish actress could be part of the next film that Woody Allen will shoot in Madrid this autumn and which carries the provisional title Wasp 2026.
Penélope Cruz and Los Javis’ New Project
One of Penélope Cruz’s standout moments on the big screen this year will come from Los Javis. The actress will have a significant role in The Black Ball, the new film by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. The main cast of this anticipated title will be composed of the singer Guitarricadelafuente, who makes his acting debut in this role, Miguel Bernardeau, Lola Dueñas and Carlos González.
The Black Ball tells the interwoven lives of three men in three different eras. Three existences intimately linked by sexuality and desire, pain and heritage. Part of the film will be inspired by the eponymous work left unfinished by Federico García Lorca. For Penélope Cruz, the filmmaking duo has written “a tailor-made role,” according to Javier Ambrossi at the presentation of the film, before adding that it is “an absolute dream” that she has fallen in love with the project.
Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar in Cannes.
The film’s release in cinemas won’t take place until October 2, but beforehand The Black Ball will arrive at the world’s most important film festival: Cannes. It will be Los Javis’ debut at this festival, where they will compete for the Palme d’Or at the 79th edition alongside two other Spanish films: Bitter Christmas by Pedro Almodóvar and The Dear One by Rodrigo Sorogoyen.
Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz’s Reunion
Penélope Cruz’s last anticipated film for this year is the one that will reunite her with Johnny Depp in the action thriller Day Drinker. This will be the fourth time the two Hollywood stars share the screen after first appearing in Blow (2001) and subsequently in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Murder on the Orient Express (2017).
Day Drinker, already shot but with no release date confirmed, tells the story of an enigmatic stranger who forms an unlikely bond with a waitress who has lost her lover, as their lives intertwine in unforeseen ways. The cast also includes several other Spanish actors such as Manu Ríos, Arón Piper and Juan Diego Botto.
