Javier Bardem will star in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful, the Mexican helmer’s first project after his much-publicized bust-up with former screenwriting partner Guillermo Arriaga.

Spanish-language urban thriller, which Gonzalez Inarritu wrote, shoots on location in Barcelona next week.

Rodrigo Prieto boards pic as director of photography while two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla will compose soundtrack. Argentina’s Maricel Alvarez and Spanish thesp Ruben Ochandiano play opposite Bardem.

Pic is about a man embroiled in shady dealings who is confronted by a childhood friend, now a policeman.

Arriaga and Gonzalez Inarritu were Mexico’s most successful filmmaking duo, starting with their breakout hit “Amores perros” in 2000 and the subsequent leap into Hollywood with English-language pics “21 Grams” and “Babel” that formed a trilogy.

… Read the full story »

Javier Bardem has won Spain’s 2008 national film award, an honor given annually by the Culture Ministry.

Bardem was selected for the $46,500 prize for “goals achieved throughout a long career.”

The ministry, in a statement Wednesday, highlighted the 39-year-old actor’s “defense of the acting profession and a constant commitment to Spanish cinema.”

Bardem won a best supporting actor Oscar for “No Country for Old Men.” His screen credits also include “Before Night Falls.”

Source: AP

After more than thirty years stranded in one of the most inhospitable areas of desert on earth, refugees from Western Sahara are using the arts to highlight their plight. Peter Culshaw met Manu Chao and Javier Bardem at the Sahara Film Festival

How do you get attention for your cause if you are a marginalised people, ignored for thirty years in the desert? When I spoke to several Saharawi refugees in a camp this month in Southern Algeria they felt they had two options. One: violence - freedom fighting, from their point of view; terrorism, according to their enemies - or two: hosting an arts festival and getting some celebrities along to garner some media attention.

‘If me being here helps in any way, I am glad to help’ - Javier Bardem with Manu Chao and Javier Carcuera, director of the Sahara Film Festival

… Read the full story »

Forget the Tribeca Film Festival! Javier Bardem is all about the Sahara International Film Festival.

The Oscar winner jetted off to southwestern Algeria near the border with the Western Sahara to partake in the cinema gala’s fifth installment Thursday and took time out of his schedule to visit the Dakhla refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria. There, the 39-year-old was welcomed with open arms by numerous exiled Sahrawi families.

The Saharawis fled their native Western Sahara more than 30 years ago to escape Moroccan and Mauritanian oppression.

… Read the full story »

Spanish stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are to marry, reports claim.

Bardem, who won this year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “No Country For Old Men”, is thought to have proposed last month during a holiday in France.

Sources told the National Enquirer that he popped the question after mum Pilar urged him to take the relationship to the next level.

A friend said: “Pilar took her son aside and told him, ‘What’s the matter with you? She’s perfect! You love her, she loves you. Get married.’”

The couple began dating last summer after hooking up on the set of Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” in Spain.

The wedding is rumoured to be taking place later this year.

Source: Digital Spy

Huge congrats to Javier for the great honor! Photos will be added shortly.

The Actors Union Prizes were awarded at a gala in Madrid last night, with the gongs given to those who have excelled in television, theatre or film over the past year. This year the main Premio Homenaje went to actor Javier Bardem for winning an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor in “No Country for Old Men”.

In his acceptance speech, Javier Bardem commented that when he was told about the award that he thought it was a bit absurd that he was being given an award for having won an award, but that it was a very special prize to belong to a different race of people that had a lot to do with the love of life. Javier Bardem was visibly affected by the night and enjoyed the choice of his brother Carlos as Best newcomer.

… Read the full story »

Vincent Gallo is joining Javier Bardem in writer-director Francis Ford Coppola’s family drama Tetro for American Zoetrope.

The Brown Bunny actor-director will play the title character, a brother in a family torn apart by rivalries and betrayal. Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich plays the younger brother who searches for him in Buenos Aires. Bardem plays an Argentinean literary critic, and Maribel Verdu plays Tetro’s longtime love interest.

… Read the full story »

Today is Javier Bardem’s birthday, he is 39. Many congrats!

On behalf of all the fans I’d like to congratulate Mr Bardem for his well deserved Academy Award win for his performance in “No Country for Old Men”.

Here is Javier’s very funny speech. You can also view it here.

Wow. Alright, this is very amazing. It’s a great honor for me to have this. I want to and I have to speak fast here, man. Thank you to the Coens for being crazy enough to think that I could do that and put one of the most horrible haircuts in history over my head.

Thank you for really proving my work. I want to share this with the cast, with the great Tommy Lee Jones, with the great Josh Brolin, with the great Kelly Macdonald. And I want to dedicate this to my mother, and I have to say this in Spanish, and I’m sorry…

Mama esto es para ti. Esto es para tus abuelos, para tus padres, Rafael y Matilde. Esto es para los comicos de Espana que han traido la dignidad y el orgullo a nuestro oficio.

Esto es para Espana. Y esto es para todos vosotros.

Thank you very much!