Cinema VinesSpain’s Oscar entry, “The Black Ball,” has been turning heads across the festival circuit, earning a standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and bolstering the country’s hopes for an Academy Award nomination. The film, known in Spanish as “La Bola Negra,” tackles LGBTQ rights through intertwined stories set against the backdrop of Spain’s Civil War.
Directed by the creative duo Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo—affectionately called “Los Javis” and formerly a couple—“The Black Ball” follows the lives of three gay men across different eras. The movie stars Miguel Bernardeau, with high‑profile cameos from Penelope Cruz and Glenn Close. The directors, who have built a reputation in Spain for television work, are gaining international recognition after their debut film won the best director award at Cannes, shared with Pawel Pawlikowski.
Ambrossi told AFP that the film is “a tribute to the LGBTQ community of the past that fought for human rights.” He added, “We wanted to make it big.” He explained that the story began as a “fragile” and “intimate” idea that evolved into a “political statement” and ultimately an “epic gay drama for everyone.” Calvo emphasized that the film is “about empathy and humanity and seeing the other as a person.”
The inspiration for the movie came from an unpublished play by Federico García Lorca, the poet executed by fascist forces at the start of the Spanish Civil War. The four pages of unfinished writing sparked the directors’ curiosity, leading them to immerse themselves in Lorca’s work, correspondence and biographies. They said, “We got obsessed with his work… We were trying to connect with what he wanted to do. It was years, years of working.”
With TIFF concluding on September 20, “The Black Ball” continues to generate buzz as Spain’s official entry for the Academy Awards’ international feature film category. The film’s powerful message and stellar cast have positioned it as a strong contender on the global stage.
