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Spain Selects 'La Bola Negra' for Best International Feature Film at Oscars
Confirmed
In Short: Spain has chosen 'La Bola Negra' to represent the country in the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
Spain has chosen "La Bola Negra" to represent the country in the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, according to the Spanish Film Academy. The film, directed and co-written by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, weaves three different timelines—1932, 1937, and 2017—to explore queer desire and repression in Spain. The selection was confirmed during a press conference this morning.
The film has garnered interest from distributors worldwide, with acquisitions in Israel, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and Airlines. In Spain, it will be released on September 25, shortly after its premiere at the San Sebastian film festival.
Spain has a rich history of Oscar nominations, having won the international feature Oscar four times and been nominated 22 times. The selection of "La Bola Negra" was announced by Alejandro Amenábar, who won the Oscar for "The Sea Inside" in 2005. "Any other Oscar entry choice from Spain than 'La Bola Negra' would have been a shock," said Variety, highlighting the film's significance in the international film community.
What's confirmed
- Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s breakout Cannes title La Bola Negra has been selected as Spain ’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
What's still developing
- La Bola Negra is an original film by Movistar Plus+ Film and Suma Content Films in co-production with El Deseo and Le Pacte, with the participation of Atresmedia.
- Netflix has North American rights and will open the film in theatres on October 16 before it starts streaming on the platform on December 2.
- The other two films shortlisted to represent the country at the Oscars were Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Sundays.
- Directed and co-written (with Alberto Conejero) by Calvo and Ambrossi, La Bola Negra is produced by Los Javis’ company Suma Content with Almodóvar’s El Deseo, Movistar Plus and France’s Le Pacte, with backing by Atresmedia, La Bola Negra world premiered in competition in Cannes, where Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi shared the best director award with Pawel Pawlikowski for Fatherland.
- The film has just made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where Penélope Cruz also received the TIFF special tribute award.
- The Javis caught up with THR ‘s David Canfield recently as the film hit Telluride, where they spoke about the movie becoming a bona fide word-of-mouth hit.
- La Bola Negra was also shot on 35mm, and brought in starpower via small but pivotal roles for Close and Cruz.
- Netflix will release La Bola Negra in theaters on Oct.