The Black Ball named Spain’s Oscar entry after TIFF ovation

Spain has selected "The Black Ball" as its international feature film contender for the Academy Awards after the drama drew a standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival.

The film, known in Spanish as "La Bola Negra," is directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, the creative duo known as "Los Javis." It follows three gay men across different periods in Spain and connects themes of sexuality, human rights and the Spanish Civil War.

Ambrossi told AFP the film is "a tribute to the LGBTQ+ community" of earlier generations who fought for human rights. Speaking at TIFF, he said the project began as something intimate but grew into what the filmmakers saw as a political statement.

Calvo said the film is about "empathy and humanity and seeing the other as a person." The directors said they were inspired in part by an unfinished play by Federico Garcia Lorca, the poet executed by fascist forces at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

"The Black Ball" features Miguel Bernardeau and cameos by Penelope Cruz and Glenn Close. It previously debuted at Cannes, where it won the best director award shared with Pawel Pawlikowski for "Fatherland." TIFF ends on September 20.