La Bola Negra bagged the coveted People's Choice Award at the Toronto film fest 2026.
Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi's century-spanning gay epic garnered Best Director at Cannes in May.
La Bola Negra is Spain's Oscar submission for Best International Feature.
The People’s Choice Award at the 51st Toronto Film Festival is bestowed on Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s La Bola Negra, with first runner-up going to I Play Rocky and second runner-up Being Heumann. La Bola Negra marks the first non-English-language film to have won the award in 15 years. The film is described as an epic about “the lives of three men intertwined in love and loss across eras", premiering at Cannes to a 20-minute standing ovation and eventually gathering the Best Director prize.
Recently announced as Spain's Oscar entry, La Bola Negra has travelled to leading film festivals including Telluride and San Sebastian. Penelope Cruz and Glenn Close also star in the film's ensemble. It was picked up by Netflix, which is mounting a major theatrical release and awards campaign.
TIFF People's Choice Award's Oscar History
The People's Choice award has frequently ushered glory at the Oscars, at least a secure nomination. Since 2000, 33 Best Picture nominees have shown up here, with nine of them actually winning the Academy Award. Moreover, plenty of nominees/winners elsewhere, especially in both Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay, are littered across this list. Nomadland in 2020 is the last winner of this award to go on to win Best Picture. Hence, the People's Choice award is one of the fest's most coveted honours, if not the most.
For the first time, the winner of the Platform Award that TIFF gives is instantly eligible for the Oscar International Film Award, Six film festivals offer this new opportunity. Last year’s People's Choice winner was Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare drama Hamnet, which was nominated for eight Oscars, winning one for best actress Jessie Buckley.
The International People’s Choice Award went to Simon Stone’s Elsinore starring Andrew Scott. The Documentary People’s Choice winner was Barry Avrich’s Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been. The Midnight Madness People’s Choice winner was Matthew Rankin's Ladies And Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney. Theja Rio's Nagaland-set Angh won the top prize in Platform Competition, automatically turned eligible for the Oscars.
