Which film introduced Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem as co-stars?

Jamón Jamón introduced Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem as co-stars.

The 1992 Spanish film was directed by Bigas Luna and features Cruz in one of her earliest major screen roles. Bardem plays a different central character in the romantic comedy-drama, which follows intertwined relationships, family tensions and social contrasts in Spain. The film was released internationally under the title Jamón, Jamón.

Cruz and Bardem did not begin dating at the time of the film. They later worked together again in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, released in 2008, and their romantic relationship developed around that later production. They married in 2010 and have two children.

Because Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the film most often associated with their adult relationship, it is sometimes incorrectly named as their first project together. Jamón, Jamón came first, making it the key answer to this career-history question.