'The Black Ball' Opens Cannes to 16-Minute Ovation
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- 'The Black Ball' (La Bola Negra) premiered in competition at Cannes on Thursday to a 16-minute standing ovation, marking Los Javis' first feature in the festival's official selection and making it a contender for both the Palme d'Or and the Queer Palm.
- Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo used the ovation to deliver an emotional speech invoking Federico García Lorca — 'killed by fascism because he was gay' — and warning those 'who thinks that we are gonna step back in our LGBT rights' that 'we are here to stay.'
- The film traces three interconnected gay men across 1932, 1937, and 2017, drawing on Lorca's four surviving pages of an unfinished novel and playwright Alberto Conejero's play 'La piedra oscura,' with a screenplay co-written by the duo and Conejero.
- The cast includes Glenn Close in a supporting role, Penélope Cruz in an extended cameo, and singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente making his screen debut alongside Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, and Lola Dueñas.
- The production was shot over 12 weeks across Castile and León, Cantabria, Andalusia, Madrid, and Greece, with key 'La Mesías' crew returning — cinematographer Gris Jordana and composer Raül Refree — and is the first film from Suma Content Films, Los Javis' new cinema division.
- The film is co-produced by Movistar Plus+, Suma Content Films, Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar's El Deseo, and Le Pacte, with international sales by Goodfellas and a Spanish theatrical release set for Oct. 2 via Elastica Films.
- Los Javis previously broke out internationally with HBO Max's 'Veneno' (about trans activist Cristina Ortiz) and 'La Mesías,' the first Spanish series at Sundance, which swept Spain's Feroz and Forqué awards and won at France's Series Mania.
Why it matters: Los Javis' first Cannes competition feature — backed by the Almodóvars' El Deseo and double-listed for the Palme d'Or and Queer Palm — represents a major moment for Spanish queer cinema on Cannes' biggest stage. The 16-minute ovation and an explicitly political speech tying Lorca's 1936 murder to present-day LGBT rights battles signals the festival amplifying, not just showcasing, that work.
