'The black ball', by the Javis, will represent Spain at the Oscars

The film La bola negra, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, will represent Spain in the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars, as announced today by the Film Academy. The film beat the other two proposals, El ser querido, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and Los domingos, by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa.

The film, which is inspired by an unfinished work by Federico García Lorca, was the best positioned to represent Spain, especially after its triumphant run at the Cannes Film Festival, where Calvo and Ambrossi won the award for Best Director. It was the first time the couple, popularly known as 'los Javis', participated in the French festival. As journalist Xavi Serra explained in his report from Cannes, La bola negra is a hymn to the right to love freely that weaves together three stories set in Spain in different eras: Granada in 1932, a Francoist military camp in Cantabria in 1937, and Madrid in 2017. The film, which was produced by Movistar Plus, stars Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Lola Dueñas, and Glenn Close. Additionally, it features an appearance by Penélope Cruz, who has a small role.

The success of La bola negra at Cannes was key for Netflix to acquire the distribution rights in the United States. The streaming giant will show the film in theaters for 47 days—the longest time a Netflix film has been in theaters—and will then add it to its catalog.

In recent weeks, the directors and the cast of the film have moved to North America, where they are presenting La bola negra at different festivals, an essential path to finally being nominated for the Oscars. They have been to the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, where the North American premiere of the film took place, and this week it was at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where the film received an ovation.

After their first years as actors, 'los Javis' began their careers as screenwriters and directors in television with the series Paquita Salas. Their first film project was La llamada, an adaptation of a play written by themselves that was performed for years at the Teatro Lara in Madrid. La bola negra arrives after the couple established themselves with the series La Mesías.

The selection of La bola negra comes a year after the one chosen to represent Spain was the Catalan co-production Sirât, which passed the various selection phases until reaching the gala in Los Angeles. Finally, however, the Oscar for best international film went to Sentimental Value.