Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem’s film Bunker didn’t deserve a 16-minute standing ovation

Bunker boasts the longest standing ovation of the 2026 Venice Film Festival (Picture: Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

I don’t understand the 16-minute standing ovation at Venice Film Festival – the longest of 2026 so far – for Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem’s film Bunker.

Having seen it, it’s a clever film, well acted, complex and raising some interesting ethical points – but it’s also meandering, and isn’t the only film this festival to feature an abrupt gear-change in the final act. 

I thought it was okay as a whole, and I’m glad I saw it, but it’s certainly not worthy of punishing my palms for anything like that amount of time, in my opinion.

Standing ovations at festivals have also got wildly out of hand, with the longest one ever at Venice inspired by The Voice of Hind Rajab last year (23 minutes, although I’d make an exception and argue that’s understandable given the raw emotional power of its central character) as well as The Room Next Door in 2024 on 18 minutes: that’s another film I didn’t find anything that remarkable.

Sometimes I do agree that the right films are being recognised with a solid ovation, such as the thrillingly radical Testament of Ann Lee last year managing 15 minutes (and then subsequently being sorely overlooked at awards season), while Wild Horse Nine this year ‘scored’ 14 minutes. That was far more accomplished as both a character study and story, in my eyes, than Bunker.

Although as a Brit, I would still consider this show of emotion and amount of noise just… a bit much and very self-congratulatory.

It stars real-life husband and wife, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, as a couple whose marriage is strained by a tech billionaire’s proposal (Picture: Venice Film Festival)

It’s also clear it’s all competition too, with audience members connected to the film keen to keep the applause going, knowing what a great immediate marketing tool it is to boast a lengthy ovation; its publicity money can’t buy, especially when many films at festivals are still looking to lock in distribution deals.

Obviously love for the filmmakers and actors feed into the ovation length too, with director Pedro Almodóvar’s rapturous reception at Venice clearly a large part of The Room Next Door’s many minutes of applause (the man was greeted with a level of enthusiasm I have never seen at any other festival), as well as politics and any strong timely message – and then the actual quality of the film.

Cruz and Bardem certainly have huge pulling power – and Cruz especially is in the middle of a fantastic run, thanks to La Bola Negra and The Invite.

Bunker examines a marriage put under strain when an architect Miguel (Bardem) considers a tech billionaire’s (an underutilised Paul Dano) request that he design him a bunker. But before we get to any digging underground, their surly neighbour (Stephen Graham) has knocked a big hole through their adjoining garden wall with a plan to install a window, all without planning permission.

Obviously this doesn’t fly with Miguel, famous enough in his profession to be interviewed by a cooing reporter (Miranda star Sarah Hadland) from his home in London – a modernised Victorian terrace, where he lives with his wife and two daughters. And what doesn’t fly with book editor Sofia (Cruz) is how tempted Miguel is by the massive fee to build this survivalist bunker in Hawaii and help him escape the potential future fallout from products that he has inflicted upon the world.

Both actors are fantastic – but Bunker veers off the rails in the final act (Picture: Mirco Toniolo/AGF/Shutterstock) Oscar-winning writer-director Florian Zeller had a lot to live up to with Bunker (Picture: Mirco Toniolo/AGF/Shutterstock)

Right from the beginning, writer-director Florian Zeller teases the friction between Sofia and Miguel, when they’re recounting their early courtship and it transpires Sofia’s first impression of him was built on deception, which he tells like the punchline of a joke.

Speaking of humour, there are actually several quite funny moments in Bunker, largely built on irony – such as when Miguel and Sofia are being told enthusiastically in great detail about a visionary artist who has presented three blank black canvases with names like ‘My mother in an evening gown’ – he ‘glazes’ every painting he completes in this manner, rendering it indistinguishable.

Given Zeller’s reputation – he co-wrote and directed the film adaptation of his own stage play, The Father, in 2020, which netted both him an Oscar for writing and Sir Anthony Hopkins the best actor Academy Award – he attracts several famous faces in smaller roles for Bunker.

The White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger is Jeremy, a hotshot young author Sofia is working alongside, while Mark Gatiss plays Miguel’s agent and even Dame Eileen Atkins has a brief cameo.

The movie’s eclectic cast also includes Paul Dano, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Stephen Graham (Picture: Cifalà/NurPhoto/Shutterstock)

But there’s a feeling we’re anticipating the climax of all the simmering tension between Cruz and Bardem. And then when it does arrive, it’s not anything that really meshes with what you’ve spent the last hour and 40 minutes watching.

Zeller wrote Bunker purposely for the hot Spanish superstars at its heart, both of whom are terrific and absolutely the reasons to watch the film. But it feels like their relationship is never properly excavated to the level it deserves to be, alongside the wider themes of the film.

And for anyone hoping to get stuck more into the bunker building and design elements, well I’m afraid that’s rather a big fat MacGuffin. 

Bunker premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday September 8. It is yet to have a UK release date confirmed.

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