By digging the script for Parallel Mothers out of a drawer for his new feature, Pedro Almodóvar has returned to his signature theme (the maternal) and his signature style of colorful, bold, twisty melodrama. Almodóvar’s muse Penélope Cruz says this new film also has a message for Spain and for its mothers.

Twenty-four years ago, Guillermo del Toro and Danish cinematographer Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF teamed up for the Oscar-winning director’s first American feature, Mimic. Since then, the two have collaborated on Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water and now noir crime drama Nightmare Alley.

Based on the 1946 novel of the same name, Nightmare Alley takes us to 1940s Buffalo, New York, where grifter Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) finds himself in psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter’s (Cate Blanchett) orbit, planning a big con.

Although first filmed in 1947, del Toro doesn’t consider his version a remake but more an accurate adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s pulp fiction — and of Gresham himself.

“In 2022, we expect content investment to exceed $230 billion, primarily driven by subscription streaming services, as the battle in the original content arena intensifies — both in the US, but also in the global markets which are increasingly key for growth,” says Hannah Walsh, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis.