UPDATED, AUGUST 4: Netflix has moved up Cannes Best Director winner “La Bola Negra” up from its initial November 6 domestic release date to October 16 in U.S. theaters. The film will stream on Netflix globally starting December 2 after a platform theatrical release.
While Netflix previously announced a full theatrical window for 2027’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew,” “La Bola Negra” marks the longest of its kind for the streaming giant: a window of 47 days between the theatrical premiere and streaming.
Word-of-mouth screenings have helped whip up post-Cannes buzz about the film as it heads into fall festivals like Telluride and Toronto; Anne Hathaway singled out praise for “La Bola Negra” during a recent red carpet interview promoting “The Odyssey,” for one.
Netflix also has secured distribution rights for “La Bola Negra” in Canada, where the film will next play the Toronto International Film Festival’s Special Presentations section. Penélope Cruz is set to receive a Special Tribute Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards, honoring her performance in “La Bola Negra” on the heels of acclaimed work in “The Invite.”
EARLIER, JUNE 24: Spanish directors (and exes!) Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi premiered “La Bola Negra” late in the 2026 Cannes main competition, after many journalists had gone home. But it instantly became the top Oscar player among Cannes entries in an otherwise, as some would argue, subdued year for potential North American breakouts.
Los Javis ended up scoring the Best Director prize (tied with “Fatherland” filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski) at the awards ceremony for their cross-temporal, Federico García Lorca-inspired epic about how the Spanish poet’s unfinished work connects the lives of three gay men circa the Spanish Civil War and 2017.
Then, Netflix scooped up the movie’s U.S. rights in a highly competitive bidding process that allegedly included A24 and Neon. The streamer knew what it was doing. They saw instant awards-season potential in an epically glamorously shot, overwhelmingly emotional, good-old-fashioned sweeping drama of the type we haven’t seen showered with fall accolades in a while. But rapturous praise for the movie out of Cannes also meant it touched critics as much as audiences. The movie is big. Obviously, “La Bola Negra” will hit up the fall fests, but it’s a question of which. I’d bet on Telluride and Toronto. We’re keen to learn what the reactions are stateside, and from the queer audience here.
As announced on Wednesday, Netflix will release “La Bola Negra” on November 6, 2026, in select theaters like its own Paris and Egyptian in New York and L.A., respectively, followed by a streaming debut on December 4. To note, the streamer is not calling the film “The Black Ball” as it was out of Cannes, but instead reverting to its Spanish-language title. Whether or not you find the movie excessive — it’s a neorealist story, a wartime epic, an imagined romance, and a scholarly inquiry all in one — it does get you in the end.
“When we began writing ‘La Bola Negra,’ we wanted to tell a story about freedom, legacy, and the importance of LGBTQ+ visibility. Above all, we wanted to honor the generations of people whose courage and sacrifice made our freedoms possible today. We couldn’t imagine a better home than Netflix to bring this story to audiences across the United States. We are deeply grateful and excited that its message will reach millions of viewers and help carry Federico García Lorca’s legacy to audiences around the world. This is the beginning of an extraordinary new chapter for La Bola Negra, and we can’t wait for audiences to discover it,” Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi said in a joint press statement.
Spanning nearly a century of Spanish history from the 1930s to the modern day, “La Bola Negra” is anchored by a diverse cast of the instantly recognizable and the unfamiliar. Spanish music sensation Guitarricadelafuente makes his acting debut, while the ensemble also includes “Elite” star Miguel Bernardeau, a scene-stealing Penélope Cruz as a bawdy cabaret singer, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, Lola Duenas, Julio Torres, and Glenn Close as a scholar who helps connect the men and their desires across history.
Los Javis co-wrote “La Bola Negra” with Alberto Conejero and produced alongside Jorge Pezzi.
Netflix’s other Cannes purchases include Léa Seydoux’s best actress hopeful “Gentle Monster” and the animated Critics Week title “In Waves.” The streamer’s awards season slate is still coming into focus, but look out for “Burning” director Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love” also, which isn’t dated yet.
More from IndieWire’s review of the film: “‘The Black Ball’ comprises a neorealist tale of a closeted young man seeking membership at a casino in 1932, a tragic wartime romance set in 1937, and a lo-fi drama about a historian prompted to investigate all of this in 2017. The fourth element, which serves as the connective tissue for everything, is a timeless poetic expression of love for all the queer storytellers who died before they could truly live.”
