Sony Pictures Classics has set Bunker for a limited release on December 11 in New York and Los Angeles, followed by a nationwide opening on January 15, 2027. The film is the new psychological thriller from Florian Zeller, the writer and director of The Father, and it stars Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, who are married in real life.
Bardem plays Miguel Moreno, an acclaimed architect, and Cruz plays Sofia, his wife. After 17 years together their stable life begins to come apart when he accepts a commission to build a luxury bunker for a tech billionaire. Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger join the cast, with Mark Gatiss and Eileen Atkins also on the list. Ben Smithard shot the film and Volker Bertelmann composed the score. It runs 126 minutes, moves between Spanish and English, and is a French and Spanish production. Zeller has said he wrote the script with Bardem and Cruz in mind.
Bunker premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival on September 8, with Toronto and Zurich also on its festival schedule. It is part of the BFI London Film Festival this month, which runs from October 7 to 18. The reception out of Venice was split. Aggregate scores sat near the halfway mark, with critics praising the two leads and Dano while others found the script schematic.
Why it matters
Zeller made his name with The Father and The Son, two chamber dramas about minds and families under strain, both adapted from his own plays. Bunker keeps the pressure and changes the genre: a marriage tested by desire, privilege and paranoia, wrapped in a thriller. A director moving into a new register is a risk, and the divided Venice response is that risk made public.
A film like this is also where early scores tell you the least. Casting a real married couple as a marriage under stress gives it a charge no review can measure, and the December qualifying run puts it in front of awards voters before the wider audience sees it. The film has weeks to find its argument before the nationwide opening.
Bunker opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 11 and nationwide on January 15, 2027, from Sony Pictures Classics.
About this film
