Best Picture Watch: Netflix to Distribute Inarritu’s Bardo

Alejandro G. Iñárritu is an Academy darling, winning big for Birdman but then winning the next year for Best Director for The Revenant. Not to get too ahead of ourselves here, but yeah, it’s on.

Here is the press release:

Five-time Academy Award Winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s newest film
BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths to be released
globally in theaters and on Netflix at the end of the year

BARDO marks the acclaimed filmmaker’s first feature since ‘The Revenant’ in 2015 and his first film shot in Mexico since 2000’s international sensation ‘Amores Perros.’

Netflix has acquired BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, the new film from visionary Oscar-winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The filmmaker is currently in post-production, and is expected to wrap by fall.

Shot on 65mm and boasting striking cinematography from Academy Award-nominee Darius Khondji (Amour, Se7en), BARDO will enjoy a theatrical release on a global scale later this year, including in Mexico, its country of origin, as well as the US, Canada, UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Japan and Korea, among many more before debuting on Netflix.

Written by Iñárritu and Nicolás Giacobone (who previously collaborated on the Oscar-winning script for Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance and Biutiful), BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is a nostalgic comedy set against an epic personal journey. It chronicles the story of a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker, who returns home and works through an existential crisis as he grapples with his identity, familial relationships, the folly of his memories as well as the past of his country. He seeks answers in his past to reconcile who he is in the present.

“Alejandro is one of the greatest modern filmmakers and one of the leading visionaries in our industry,” said Netflix Head of Global Film Scott Stuber. “BARDO is a cinematic experience that has inspired us to create a release strategy designed for the film to penetrate culture in the biggest and widest way. We will give film lovers everywhere the opportunity to experience the film through a global theatrical release and the film’s worldwide release on Netflix. Having known Alejandro for a long time, I am personally very excited to finally be able to work alongside him and to bring his film to a global audience.”

BARDO stars Daniel Giménez Cacho and Griselda Siciliani. In addition to Khondji, the film features an illustrious below-the-line team including production design by the Oscar-winning Mexican designer Eugenio Caballero (ROMA, Pan’s Labyrinth) and costume design by Anna Terrazas (The Deuce, ROMA). The deeply personal film was shot in Iñárritu’s hometown of Mexico City.

Iñárritu won the Best Picture, Directing and Writing Academy Awards for 2014’s Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance and a second Directing Oscar one year later for The Revenant, starring Academy Award-winner Leonardo DiCaprio. His other titles include the multi-award winning films Biutiful (2010), Babel (2006), 21 Grams (2003) and Amores Perros (2001). In 2018, Iñárritu won a Special Achievement Academy Award for his virtual reality installation Carne y Arena.