3 hrs ago
La Bola Negra Wins TIFF Award With Epic LGBTQ+ Drama
La Bola Negra is a new Spanish film made by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi.
It tells stories about LGBTQ+ people across different generations.
Some of the story happens around the Spanish Civil War, and some happens in modern times.
The film includes a love story between Sebastián and Rafael.
It also follows a historian who learns difficult things about his family.
The directors found inspiration in unfinished pages written by Federico García Lorca.
They wanted the movie to be large and meaningful for everyone, not just a small group of viewers.
The film won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
It is also Spain’s entry for an upcoming Academy Award.
Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s La Bola Negra won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Spanish-language film moves between the Spanish Civil War era and the present day, exploring forbidden love and LGBTQ+ history.
Its story combines Federico García Lorca’s unfinished play La Bola Negra with elements from La Piedra Oscura and the directors’ contemporary perspective.
The directors said they wanted to create an epic gay drama for everyone rather than a niche story.
La Bola Negra is Spain’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards and was shot over 12 weeks at locations across Spain.
- Who
- Directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, along with actors including Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González and Milo Quifes, made and performed in the film.
- What
- La Bola Negra is a Spanish-language, multi-generational drama about forbidden love, LGBTQ+ experiences and historical memory.
- Where
- The film is set and was shot at real locations across Spain, and it premiered in the Toronto International Film Festival program.
- When
- The story spans the period before and during the Spanish Civil War and the present day; the film won at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
- Why
- The directors wanted to honor earlier LGBTQ+ generations and show that queer stories can be universal and made on an epic scale.
Key facts
- Film
- La Bola Negra
- Directors
- Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known as Los Javis
- TIFF result
- Winner of the 2026 People’s Choice Award
- Source material
- Federico García Lorca’s unfinished La Bola Negra and the play La Piedra Oscura
- Setting
- Spain before and during the Spanish Civil War, and the present day
- Awards outlook
- Spain’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards
- Production
- Produced by Calvo and Ambrossi and backed by Netflix
Quotes
Javier Ambrossi
Spanish director and member of the directing duo Los Javis
“I don’t want to be told that our (queer) stories should be niche. I don’t want to be told that our stories aren’t universal. So it started as something fragile and intimate, but we understood there was a political statement behind it: that we can make an epic gay drama for everyone”
indianexpress.com
“Poetry is anti-fascism. It is polysemic. It doesn’t tell you that the world, or everything in it, has only one meaning or one way of looking at it.”
indianexpress.com
Sources
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