As film festival season kicks into gear, a new slate of blockbusters and art house and independent films are coming our way and we’re excited, to say the least. With the Venice Film Festival arriving at the end of August, the line-up for its programming has now been released and with it, first-look images and trailers for several new films.

One such film is Pedro Almodóvar’s much-anticipated English language feature debut, The Room Next Door, which is set to explore themes of motherhood, friendship and pain. Here’s everything we know so far about the film.

What is the plot of The Room Next Door?

The film follows the story of a flawed mother and a spiteful daughter separated by a serious misunderstanding. Between them, another woman, Ingrid (Julianne Moore), the mother’s friend, is the “keeper of their pain and bitterness”. Martha, the mother (Tilda Swinton), is a war reporter and Ingrid is an auto-fictional novelist.

“The film addresses the endless cruelty of war, the very different ways in which the two female authors approach and write about reality, death, friendship and sexual pleasure as the best allies in the fight against horror. And it also evokes the sweet awakening with the chirping of birds, in a house built in the middle of a nature reserve in New England, where the two friends live in an extreme and strangely sweet situation,” reads the official synopsis.

Who stars in The Room Next Door?

Alongside Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, the rest of the cast includes John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola, Juan Diego Botto, Raúl Arévalo, Victoria Luengo, Alex Hogh Andersen, Esther McGregor, Alvise Rigo and Melina Matthews.

When will The Room Next Door be released?

The Room Next Door will premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival in competition (for the prestigious Golden Lion) with Joker: Folie à Deux and many more. After its premiere in Venice, the film will be released in Spain on 18 October, so it’s likely that the UK will get a similar autumn cinema release.

Images: Warner Bros / Iglesias Mas