La Bola Negra is Spain's submission for Oscars International Feature 2027.
Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi's epic brings LBTQ+ visibility to the forefront, which also stars Penelope Cruz and Glenn Close.
Netflix has given La Bola Negra its longest theatrical window to date.
La Bola Negra, Spain's Oscar Entry, Is A Century-Spanning Homage To Queer History
Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo won Best Director at Cannes this year for their gay historical epic, that stretches from 1932 to 2017.
Summary
Los Javis' Cannes winner La Bola Negra made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2026. The film, known in English as The Black Ball, made a splashy TIFF premiere on the back of major hype from its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo garnered the Best Director prize at Cannes, triggering a competitive bidding war that ended with Netflix nabbing U.S. distribution rights. At Cannes, it scored a 20-minute standing ovation, coming close to the fest's all-time record at 22 minutes that Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (2006) pulled off.
The epic drama traces three gay men across distinct eras: 1932, 1937, and 2017. Their lives thread across generations through shared experiences of desire, pain, and romance against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and modern times. La Bola Negra has just been announced as Spain's offical submission for the 2027 Best International Feature Oscar.
Joining directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo on the stage at TIFF was the ensemble cast including Carlos González, Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Milo Quifes, and Oscar winner Penélope Cruz. Glenn Close too is a part of the cast.
The title La Bola Negra borrows directly from an unfinished play by celebrated Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, who was assassinated in 1936. The script also culls elements from Alberto Conejero’s stage play La Piedra Oscura (The Dark Stone). Conejero co-wrote the screenplay alongside Los Javis.
La Bola Negra Directors On Tribute To LGBTQ Community
"It's a tribute to the LGBTQ community" of the past that fought for human rights, Ambrossi told AFP. Adding to journalists at a press conference at TIFF, he said "we wanted to make it big."
The film began as "fragile" and "intimate," Ambrossi insisted, "but we understood there was a political statement behind it" that allowed for an "epic gay drama for everyone."
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“When we began writing La Bola Negra, we wanted to tell a story about freedom, legacy, and the importance of LGBTQ+ visibility,” Calvo and Ambrossi said. “Above all, we wanted to honor the generations of people whose courage and sacrifice made our freedoms possible today.”
Netflix is releasing the feature theatrically on Oct. 16, setting a 47-day U.S. theatrical window the longest form any movie in the streaming giant’s history,
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