Fresh off making history at the Toronto International Film Festival by winning the People’s Choice Award, marking the first time a Netflix title has earned the top prize and the first international film to win it in 15 years, La Bola Negra received the San Sebastian Film Festival Audience Award. The movie received the highest score for a Spanish film in the history of the festival, a 9.4 out of 10.
A bold tapestry spanning nearly a century of Spanish history, La Bola Negra tells the story of three generations of men whose lives are intimately connected through desire, pain, and love in this celebrated film from Cannes-winning directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. La Bola Negra has also been chosen as Spain’s official submission for the International Feature prize at the Academy Awards.
You can preview the film’s epic scope in the teaser trailer above. Set to the tune of Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again,” the trailer showcases the film’s journey through three distinct moments in time, with sequences set in a small-town casino, the height of the Spanish Civil War, and modern day. “With this film, the central question is what we do with our past, with our inheritance, with the objects and art that remain, with the traces history leaves behind,” Calvo says.
That preoccupation with the past bleeds into the story’s very structure, which flashes between three generations of characters. “We imagined it very precisely before shooting; even the cuts were already there in the script,” Ambrossi tells Tudum. “If you read the screenplay, it’s extremely close to the finished film. Of course, some things changed, but we really took our time building that narrative architecture.”
The cast includes the celebrated Spanish singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente (Spanish Leather), who’s making his acting debut in La Bola Negra. (You can listen to “La Nieve,” a new original song for the film by Guitarricadelafuente, right here.) He’s joined by Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, and Milo Quifes, among others, with special appearances by Academy Award winner Penélope Cruz and three-time Golden Globe winner Glenn Close.
Read on for more information about La Bola Negra, including a timeline of its theatrical rollout.
Penélope Cruz
Guitarricadelafuente
La Bola Negra follows three generations of men across pivotal moments in Spanish history: 1932, 1937, and 2017. Carlos (Quifes) longs to belong in a fractured Spain. Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente) finds connection across enemy lines. And Alberto (González) uncovers a long-buried family secret — one that finally gives voice to truths the past tried to erase.
“When we began writing La Bola Negra, we wanted to tell a story about freedom, legacy, and the importance of LGBTQ+ visibility,” say Calvo and Ambrossi, popularly known as Los Javis. “Above all, we wanted to honor the generations of people whose courage and sacrifice made our freedoms possible today.”
La Bola Negra features an extraordinary international cast that includes:
La Bola Negra might not exist if not for the participation of Guitarricadelafuente, who plays the soulful soldier Sebastián. “When we are writing, we try to picture who is going to do it, and then write it for him or her,” Calvo says. “We were already big fans of Guitarrica’s work. With the sensitivity he brings onstage and his beautiful songs and performances, we knew he could do it, that he could act. He’s already telling a story when he’s singing.”
“Guitarrica was such a revelation when we were writing that we were like, ‘If he’s doing it, we can do it. If not, we cannot,’” Ambrossi adds. “The role of Sebastián was that important to us.”
Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo
La Bola Negra borrows its name from an unfinished play by the influential Spanish playwright and poet Federico García Lorca, who was assassinated in 1936, and explores his legacy through a contemporary lens. Los Javis co-wrote the film with Alberto Conejero, adapted from Conejero’s play La piedra oscura, La bola negra, and other texts by Lorca.
La Bola Negra will have a traditional platform release, opening in New York City and Los Angeles on Oct. 16. Calvo and Ambrossi, along with members of the cast, will participate in select in-theater Q&As in both Los Angeles and New York City.
Read here for a full city-by-city breakdown of La Bola Negra’s theatrical rollout.
La Bola Negra hits Netflix on Dec. 2 in the US and Canada.
“We couldn’t imagine a better home than Netflix to bring this story to audiences across the United States. We are deeply grateful and excited that its message will reach millions of viewers and help carry Federico García Lorca’s legacy to audiences around the world,” say Ambrossi and Calvo. “This is the beginning of an extraordinary new chapter for La Bola Negra, and we can’t wait for audiences to discover it.”
The film had its Canadian premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival’s Special Presentations section, and Cruz received a Special Tribute Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards.
A Movistar Plus+ Original Film in collaboration with Suma Content Films, La Bola Negra is produced by Telefónica Audiovisual Digital and Los Esquiadores AIE, co-produced by El Deseo and Le Pacte, with the participation of Atresmedia and CREA SGR. Goodfellas is handling world sales.
