Young creators may have to find work and financing before they can develop their projects, Pedro Almodóvar said in an interview with Aimar Bretos on Hoy por Hoy. He also pointed to the difficulty of finding housing. The filmmaker voiced concern about a possible government led by PP and Vox as he presented his first novel, El hombre que solo escribía en los aviones.
Almodóvar said proposals he associated with representatives of the two parties could limit public film funding according to a work’s ideology or whether it was deemed to indoctrinate. A regional example came on 9 October 2026, when Castilla y León published rules excluding audiovisual works involving “ideological indoctrination, partisan propaganda or express support for specific political options.” On 23 October, Spain’s Ministry of Culture formally challenged the funding rules, arguing that they could affect freedom of creation and expression and create risks of censorship and administrative arbitrariness.
Alberto Díaz Pico, Castilla y León’s Vox councillor for Culture, Tourism and Sport, said his department would form a committee of technicians and experts to assess subsidy applications for ideological indoctrination. He also questioned the ideological neutrality of the Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, or Seminci, accusing the festival of political instrumentalization. The proposed review is distinct from a ban on films: Seminci’s regional subsidy remained €250,000 in 2026, and the draft 2027 budget included the same allocation. The Ministry’s challenge to the funding rules and the proposed committee have prompted debate over how authorities would apply ideological criteria.
“That is simply censorship,” Almodóvar said in the Hoy por Hoy interview with Bretos, in a translation from Spanish. He questioned how administrators would decide whether a film constituted indoctrination and warned that, if polling forecasts proved accurate, “a hard trek through the desert” lay ahead. On 3 November, Pamplona’s Citizens’ Affairs Commission approved a declaration criticizing the Castilla y León funding clause and opposing a committee tasked with assessing the ideological significance of works.
His concern about the future of cultural work connected with his comments on the conditions facing younger artists. In his view, competition and funding pressures can obstruct creative work before it begins, especially when young artists are also trying to establish themselves in the market. Housing and employment difficulties add to those barriers.
The novel’s central character, Flavio Guijarro, is a frustrated actor who turns to literature. Almodóvar wrote the book during breaks in filming Amarga Navidad in Lanzarote, often returning to his caravan while the crew prepared a set. He has said that books he reads and marks up sometimes feed into his films; the novel grew from the same habit of collecting words and ideas.
Asked whether Pedro Sánchez deserved another four years, Almodóvar focused on the continuation of a progressive government. He acknowledged that much remained to be done and urged people to vote. “Democracy depends on us going to vote,” he said in the interview, in a translation from Spanish.
