Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton surprised the Venice Film Festival on Monday night with the premiere of Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” which received a 17-minute standing ovation, the longest of the 2024 edition so far.

After the film ended, the Spanish auteur kissed both Swinton and Moore’s cheeks and raised their arms like champion boxers. He then descended the stairs with his new muses, prolonging the ovation by shaking hands with fans in the audience. Swinton, in a glittering white suit, embraced Moore, who was dressed in a glittering gold dress. Moore watched with moist eyes as Almodóvar — in a cotton-candy pink suit — eagerly soaked up the applause, while the crowd chanted, “Pedro! Pedro! Pedro!”

Almodóvar appeared to wave individually to every fan in the Sala Grande theater as the ovation became the biggest of the festival so far. He clapped as Moore grabbed his arm, beaming like a proud friend. As the ovation subsided, around minute 14, Almodóvar extended the clapping by running back down the stairs from the theater balcony to sign autographs and take selfies with fans. Moore and Swinton laughed as they tried to gauge when exactly they should try to escape the theater.

Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, “The Room Next Door,” stars the two Oscar winners as Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Swinton), who were close friends in their youth while working at the same magazine. “Ingrid became an autofiction novelist, while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life,” the film’s synopsis reads. “After years of no contact, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.”