'La Bola Negra' Wins TIFF, Revives Netflix's Oscar Quest — SkimNews
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- "La Bola Negra" won the Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award, becoming the first Netflix film and the first non-English-language winner in 15 years
- Los Javis — directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi — made the 160-minute Spanish-language queer epic, co-produced by Pedro Almodóvar's El Deseo and starring Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close, and Guitarricadelafuente
- Netflix is giving the film a 47-day exclusive theatrical window (Oct. 16 to Dec. 2), the longest in company history and a reversal of its long-standing resistance to theatrical releases
- Netflix has earned 10 Best Picture nominations over a decade without winning, including "Roma" (2018), "The Power of the Dog" (2021), "All Quiet on the Western Front" (2022), and "Emilia Pérez" (2025), the last derailed by star Karla Sofía Gascón's social media posts
- The film is Spain's submission for the international feature Oscar, raising the risk the Academy "compartmentalizes" it into that category as it did with "Roma" and "All Quiet on the Western Front" — only South Korea's "Parasite" has broken through to win Best Picture in a foreign language
- Variety's updated Oscar predictions place "La Bola Negra" across 9 categories including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actress (Cruz), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design, Production Design, Film Editing, and Original Score
Why it matters: Netflix's 47-day theatrical window — its longest ever — signals a restructured campaign after the "Emilia Pérez" collapse, but a 160-minute runtime in a foreign language remains a structural obstacle. With the Academy's track record of channeling non-English films into international feature rather than Best Picture, Netflix's decade of near-misses may continue unless the film's TIFF audience momentum breaks that pattern.
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