Almost a year after his best original script Oscar coup for Talk To Her (Hable Con Ella), Spanish maestro Pedro Almodovar is putting the finishing touches on his next film, Bad Education (La Mala Educacion), and considering a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

"We are open to the possibility of going to Cannes," confirmed the director's producer-brother Agustin Almodovar, who says he will take up talks begun with Thierry Fremaux "when the film is closer to being completed" next month.

Almodovar added that the overall release strategy would be decided then, though a mid-March release in Spain through regular distributor Warner Sogefilms looks set to mark the world premiere.

This roll-out pattern could emulate Almodovar's 1999 international hit All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madre), which premiered in Spain on April 16 then went on to compete in Cannes.

Almodovar added, however, that the director is not likely to submit Bad Education to competition. "I wouldn't rule anything out, but Pedro probably won't want to compete." One advantage of Cannes, the producer said, would be to reach the maximum number of journalists possible, cutting down on promotion time for the director, "who has a lot of projects in mind."

The brothers opted not to submit his last film, the multiple award-winning Talk To Her, to Cannes in 2002 despite a similar spring release schedule - precisely, Almodovar said, in order to cut down on promotion time and free the director up to start work on Bad Education. Talk To Her opened the Paris Film Festival instead.

The Almodovars' production outfit El Deseo may also submit its new Argentinean co-production, Lucrecia Martel's The Holy Girl (La Nina Santa), to Cannes.

Meanwhile, El Deseo is understood to be preparing a teaser of Bad Education and clips from the making-of, which sales company Focus International may show at the AFM.

Bad Education tells the story of two boys who become friends during troubled times in a 1960's live-in Catholic school and later reunite in transformed 1980's Madrid. Gael Garcia Bernal, Fele Martinez, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Fran Boira and Javier Camara star.