Netflix’s “La Bola Negra,” from Spanish directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, will receive the International Star Award at the Palm Springs International Film Awards on Thursday, Jan. 7, MyNewsLA reported Friday. “With ‘La Bola Negra,’ Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi have created a beautiful and moving film that brings together stories across generations and cultures,” said Nachhattar Singh Chandi, the festival’s chairman.
The directors, known as Los Javis, are expected at the Palm Springs Convention Center with actors Penélope Cruz, Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente, according to the festival’s announcement. “Guitarricadelafuente brings such honesty and heart to his first film role, joined by Miguel Bernardeau as the film’s emotional anchor and Penélope Cruz in an unforgettable turn as Nené,” Chandi said.
Netflix sums up the movie in one line on its Tudum site: “Desire, pain and love intimately connect three generations of men.” Its stories unfold in 1932, 1937 and 2017, with a cast that also includes Glenn Close, Lola Dueñas, Julio Torres and Carlos González. “Suddenly, in one night, the structure came to us: three timelines,” Ambrossi said, according to Tudum.
The title comes from an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca, who was assassinated in 1936, and Calvo and Ambrossi wrote the script with playwright Alberto Conejero, Netflix says. “When we began writing La Bola Negra, we wanted to tell a story about freedom, legacy, and the importance of LGBTQ+ visibility,” the directors say in Netflix’s Tudum feature.
Netflix Streams Los Javis’ Film Starting Dec. 2
It has been in New York and Los Angeles theaters since Oct. 16. Streaming starts Dec. 2 in the U.S. and Canada. “We couldn’t imagine a better home than Netflix to bring this story to audiences across the United States,” Calvo and Ambrossi say on Tudum, which lists both dates.
The Associated Press called the theatrical run Netflix’s longest yet. “There’s something in me, that black ball of shame, of rejection toward my homosexuality, that I don’t know how to manage,” Ambrossi told Latin Times in an interview published Nov. 6. “Understanding that you’re part of something bigger is important,” Calvo said.
Spain’s Oscar Entry Arrives With Cannes and Toronto Prizes
Spain picked it for the international feature Oscar on Sept. 16, Hola USA reported, and it’s on Gayety’s list of LGBTQ Oscar contenders. “This is a deeply personal film but it also carries a message of the importance and necessity of expressing who you are,” the directors said after winning the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, the AP reported. “Knowing that audiences connected with it and made it their own is the greatest gift we could receive.”
Every People’s Choice winner from 2012 through 2025 except 2024’s “The Life of Chuck” has gone on to a best picture nomination, the AP noted. Cannes split its best director prize in May between the pair and Paweł Pawlikowski of “Fatherland,” per the festival’s official awards list, and London’s audience award came after that.
Calvo says in Tudum’s feature that “the central question is what we do with our past, with our inheritance.” Oscar nominations land Jan. 21, the Academy says.
‘La Bola Negra’ at Palm Springs: Gala and Festival Dates
The Film Awards, presented by Kering, “will kick-off the festival on Thursday, January 7 at the Palm Springs Convention Center,” according to the festival. The 38th festival runs through Jan. 18. Palm Springs said in March that “nearly all honorees at the 2026 Film Awards went on to receive Academy Award nominations.”
Cruz has been here before, sort of. Palm Springs named her for the actress version of the award in November 2021, for “Parallel Mothers,” Awards Daily reported. “She is an actress with immense depth and humanity, giving the world a tremendous body of work for three decades,” then-chairman Harold Matzner said. Then the film society canceled that gala, citing “the recent spike in COVID cases,” according to its notice.
She’s tied to a second honor that night, too. Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite,” which Cruz is in, gets the Vanguard Award for its cast and director, KESQ reported. “With The Invite, Olivia Wilde has made a film that is both comedic and deeply human,” Chandi said.
