Sabrina Carpenter has seen “La Bola Negra.” So have Paul Simon, F. Murray Abraham, Zachary Quinto and Nan Goldin, Page Six reported Oct. 28, at New York screenings at the Paris Theater and the Angelika Film Center. Matt Rogers, Matt Bernstein and Kevin McHale went too.
Javier Ambrossi, who made the film with Javier Calvo, has a theory about the crowds. “They want to buy popcorn and be given a big movie like Titanic,” he told The Guardian. “This is the gay Titanic!”
He also told the paper he’s “done with LGBTQ+ movies being niche.”
‘La Bola Negra’ Expands in Theaters Oct. 30
Netflix is in no rush to stream it. The film opened in New York and Los Angeles on Oct. 16, expands to more North American theaters Oct. 30, with a broader rollout Nov. 6, per the schedule Netflix posted. It hits Netflix Dec. 2. The Associated Press reported in October that it was the longest theatrical window Netflix had ever committed to. Netflix won a bidding war for the film at Cannes.
“Netflix understood perfectly that we did a movie for theaters,” Ambrossi told The Associated Press.
Page Six said its per-screen average was the best ever for a Spanish film, and only “Parasite” has topped it among non-English films.
Los Javis’ Oscar Run for Spain
Calvo and Ambrossi, known at home as Los Javis, split Cannes’ best director prize in May with Paweł Pawlikowski, the AP reported. In September, Spain chose the film as its international feature submission, ¡Hola! reported. Gayety covered its Toronto premiere.
The movie, named for an unfinished Lorca play, tracks gay men across three eras of Spanish history. At home it has sold more than 4 million tickets and beat “Torrente presidente” as Spain’s biggest local film of 2026, Qué reported.
Calvo sounded less playful on NPR’s “Fresh Air.” “But history repeats itself. Fascism is rising and it’s a worrying thing,” he told host Tonya Mosley. He said “our weapon against intolerance and hate is our writing and making movies.”
Miguel Bernardeau and the Prosthetic Question
Miguel Bernardeau, who plays Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, got asked on TVE’s “Al cielo con ella” whether a prosthetic was used in his nude scene. He said no, then yes, explaining that prosthetics were used for scenes where his character is wounded, OKDiario reported. All the talk “molesta un poco,” he said. It bothers him a little.
“We don’t need to make a gay movie. It’s just a movie in which the characters are gay,” he told W magazine.
U.K. audiences get it Nov. 6.
