That made Bunker the winner of Venice 2026 (so far) for the most enthusiastic reception, and it fell just shy of one of the longest standing ovations of recent memory for Almodovar’s “The Room Next Door’ (which had the crowd clapping for 16 minutes in 2024).

Bunker stars Bardem and Cruz as a married couple navigating professional and personal turmoil in the London home they share with their kids. Their marriage begins to unravel after Miguel, an architect, agrees to build a survivalist bunker for Andrew, a tech billionaire played by Dano. The morally dubious assignment opens up a rift between the couple after 17 years together, as Sofia begins questioning whether they still share the same values and starts working with a handsome American novelist Jeremy Gray (Schwarzenegger).

Cruz, wearing a ravishing red dress, collected flowers from fans and posed for selfies on the carpet beforehand.

With its glamorous cast and Zeller’s auteur pedigree, Bunker ranks among the biggest international movies hitting the fall festival circuit this year.

The film also brings Zeller back to Venice, where The Son competed for the Golden Lion in 2022. Zeller was already an acclaimed playwright when he made a successful leap into cinema with “The Father,” which won a pair of Oscars for Anthony Hopkins’ lead performance and for best adapted screenplay, shared by Zeller and Christopher Hampton. “Bunker” is arguably his most personal yet expansive film to date.

Sony Pictures Classics acquired rights to Bunker for America, among other territories, and is planning an awards-qualifying run at the end of the year ahead of an early 2027 U.S. theatrical release. The company — which previously campaigned for “The Father” that earned six Oscar nominations, including best picture — is certainly hoping Cruz and Bardem’s visceral performances in the film will propel it in the awards conversation.

The film is produced by Federica Sainte-Rose and Zeller through their Blue Morning Pictures, a Mediawan banner, alongside Fernando Bovaira and Simon de Santiago of MOD Producciones. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international sales.

Inspired by Kubrick

Zeller said in interview before Venice that Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” was a key inspiration for the film.

Like Kubrick, who cast the then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as a couple whose relationship is unraveling, Zeller wanted to exploit the permeability between fiction and reality by putting Cruz and Bardem — partners for nearly two decades — on screen as husband and wife.

“I loved ‘Eyes Wide Shut,’ this ambivalent proposition presented to the audience where you’re not quite sure what you’re being invited to watch,” Zeller said.

With Cruz and Bardem, he wanted to use “what they are to touch on something more authentic and more unsettling for the audience.”

The film also takes aim at the extreme wealth and isolation of the billionaire class, with Zeller saying Cruz brought her own “genuine anger” toward tech billionaires to Sofia. But rather than turning “Bunker” into an overtly political film, Zeller lets those larger themes gradually seep into the marriage at its center.

The story of Bunker, which was inspired by the 2009 movie The Man Next Door, grew beyond the central couple.

While “Bunker” retains the psychological intensity that has become Zeller’s signature, it is also more overtly political than his previous work, looking at how socio-economic anxieties are shaping contemporary relationships and family dynamics.