Every award season brings its own lineup of promising cinematic epics, ready to shatter a genre’s previously established sense of self, all while simultaneously paving industry conversation around one of the year’s biggest cinematic achievements: the Oscars’ Best Picture award. And already sitting at the center of that conversation is a heartbreaking Spanish film that has quickly become one of Hollywood’s biggest talking points — now being hailed as “the best film of the year,” according to AwardsWatch in a new trailer for the film.
La Bola Negra follows three queer men in three separate time periods, all intertwined by similar feelings of pain, desire, sexuality, and legacy. Their journeys transpire over three distinct moments in Spanish history — 1932, 1937, and 2017 — with each one offering its own unique relationship between hardship and tenderness. Released earlier today, the new and visually stunning trailer gives audiences a deeper look into the emotional journey of the three men, alongside glimpses of performances from Glenn Close (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery), Penélope Cruz (The Invite), Guitarricadelafuente, Carlos González, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Miguel Bernardeau, among others.
After making its debut at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and winning the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (the first non-English-language film to win the honor since 2011), La Bola Negra is picking up considerable momentum amongst audiences for its emotional impact and profound exploration of art, history, and memory. It currently sits on Best Picture prediction lists by Variety, IndieWire, and TheWrap at the time of reporting, and was also submitted by Spain for the Best International Feature race.
La Bola Negra is directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, a directorial duo widely known as “Los Javis.” In addition to their film’s grand critical praise during its Cannes debut (evidenced by its twenty-minute standing ovation), the pair also received the Best Director award at the festival. La Bola Negra is scheduled to release in U.S. theaters on Oct. 16, before making its permanent home on Netflix on Dec. 2. This is the longest theatrical window Netflix has ever given one of its movies, and comes after the industry’s concerns over the platform’s push for shorter theatrical release windows.
In addition to La Bola Negra, Netflix’s upcoming film Possible Love, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, has also been generating a lot of award buzz and is another prominent title in the early Oscars’ Best Picture conversation. While official nominations will not be announced until January 2027, both Netflix titles are gaining notable momentum as award conversations begin to take shape. Other potential contenders for Best Picture have been The Odyssey, Wild Horse Nine, The Invite, Fjord, and You Can See Everything.
- Release Date
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October 16, 2026
- Runtime
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155 minutes
- Director
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Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi
- Writers
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Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi, Alberto Conejero
- Producers
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Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, Jorge Pezzi
Cast
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Guitarricadelafuente
Sebastian
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This story originally appeared on Movieweb
