The Spanish Film Academy has chosen ‘La bola negra’ to carry Spain’s hopes of securing a new Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category, a feat achieved only four times in the history of the American awards; the last time thanks to Alejandro Amenábar’s ‘Mar adentro’ (“The Sea Inside”) in 2005.
This ensemble story about desire and queer repression, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and closely linked to the figure of Federico García Lorca, has already won the award for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival after competing in other categories, including the Palme d’Or itself.
15 December will be the date when the final Oscar nominations are unveiled. Only then will it be known whether the professional duo made up of Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known as the Javis, will wrap up at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre the promotional tour they have been immersed in for several months. The awards ceremony will take place this year on 14 March 2027.
Film analysts are confident about its chances of receiving several extra nods from the Hollywood Academy in different categories such as Best Supporting Actress, a nomination that could go to the cupletista Nené Romero, played by Penélope Cruz. The reactions coming in this week from the Toronto International Film Festival, the annual barometer of American critics, appear positive both among specialists and among general audiences.
This is the Javis’ second feature after their debut ‘La llamada’, which was followed by several television creations including ‘Paquita Salas’, ‘Veneno’ and ‘La Mesías’. The cast of ‘La bola negra’ is rounded out by singer-songwriter Álvaro Lafuente, Guitarricadelafuente, as well as Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, Lola Dueñas and a brief appearance by Glenn Close as a historian who travels to present-day Madrid.
The war drama has seen off ‘Los Domingos‘ by Alauda Ruíz de Azúa, one of the most awarded films in Spain last season but unable to make the 2025 preselection, and ‘El ser querido‘ by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, which portrays the relationship between an absent director (Javier Bardem) and his daughter, played by Victoria Luengo.
Pending the final nominations, one of the Javis’ main rivals could be the Romanian film ‘Fjord‘, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner, acclaimed for its story of an ultra-religious marriage (formed by Renate Reinsve, who has Hollywood experience, and Sebastian Stan) that explores the contradictions of Norway’s progressive society.