, also known as The Black Ball, is a 2026 drama film directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (widely known as 'Los Javis' in Spain), from a screenplay they co-wrote with Alberto Conejero. A queer epic inspired by the unfinished work of the same name by Federico García Lorca and Conejero's play La piedra oscura, the triptych film stars Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, Lola Dueñas, Penélope Cruz, and Glenn Close.
A Movistar Plus+ original produced alongside Suma Content, El Deseo and Le Pacte, the film premiered in the main competition of the 79th Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2026, earning Calvo and Ambrossi the Best Director Award. The festival run continued with screenings in Toronto and San Sebastián ahead of the 25 September 2026 theatrical release in Spain by Elastica. The French release by Le Pacte is set for 16 December 2026.
It was selected as the Spanish entry for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. It received widespread critical acclaim.
Plot
In 1932 Granada, Carlos, a young man from a wealthy family, is refused membership of an exclusive social club after its members vote against his admission using a blackball ballot because of rumours about his homosexuality. His father, Vicente, urges him to deny the rumours and seek admission again. His sister, Valentina, describes the restrictions she faces as a woman, while his mother suggests that he leave for Madrid. In a club at night, Carlos dances to Flamenco music and encounters a mourning elderly woman who identifies him as her missing son, but Carlos flees afterwards. He appeals to the club's committee and, when questioned, denies being homosexual. In the wake of the botched Sanjurjada, the Casino is stormed by a mob. After the building is destroyed and covered in snow, Carlos escapes using the painters' scaffolding and walks up a snowy mountain, where he encounters a boy with a young woman and a group of skiers and is addressed by the personified Snow, whose voice is that of the elderly woman he met earlier.
In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Sebastián, a young village trumpeter, survives an attack by Italian aircraft on a community preparing to welcome them. His mother is killed. After fleeing the attack, he is forced to join the Nationalist forces to survive. He is assigned to guard Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, a wounded Republican prisoner of war, and obtain information from him. Rafael had belonged to Federico García Lorca's theatre company, La Barraca, and had been the poet's lover. As Sebastián gets to know Rafael, his homosexual desire is aroused, bonding closer with the prisoner for whom he has been assigned as a custodian. Rafael introduces him to Lorca's poetry. Nené Romero, a popular cupletista entertaining the troops, also introduces Sebastián to a world beyond the army.
As a last request Rafael asks Sebastián to recover a manuscript of Lorca's play La bola negra from an appartment in Alcalá 96 and preserve it. Rafael is taken with other prisoners for a summary execution (), and Sebastián is placed in the firing squad, killing Rafael. Sebastián survives the war and retrieves the manuscript, although dropping four pages on the floor.
In 2017, Alberto López Azcuna, a historian and former playwright, is researching queer culture while visiting Athens. His estranged maternal grandfather dies and leaves him an inheritance should he meet a lawyer in Cantabria. In Madrid, Alberto lives with Juan Pablo. Alberto struggles to communicate with his mother, Teresa, who resents her father's abandonment of her. Alberto's part of the inheritance turns out to be the remaining manuscript of La bola negra, believed to have been left unfinished by Lorca. He investigates its origins and seeks the help of Lorca scholar Isabelle Durand.
Alberto's grandfather is revealed to be Sebastián, who went on to live in the countryside with another man while allowing the villagers to believe that they were cousins. Although estranged from his family, Sebastián followed Alberto's theatrical career from a distance, attending a performance and keeping press cuttings. Alberto meets his grandfather's surviving partner, who tells him that Sebastián would have been proud of him. Isabelle confirms the manuscript's authenticity, and Alberto and Teresa begin to reconcile.
Cast
Lola Rodríguez, Judeline, Alana Portero, María Barrier, , Daniel Ibáñez, Antonio Dechent, Sabina Urraca, Claudia Costafreda, Sara Torres, Álex de Lucas, El Bugg, , Leo Encinas Cruz, Mabel Olea, , and Custodio Pastor make cameo appearances.
Production Development The plot is inspired by La bola negra, an incomplete work by Federico García Lorca of which 4 pages are preserved, with the title ('the black ball') alluding to the form of rejection to a young gay man when attempting to join a social club in Granada. It is also inspired by the play by Alberto Conejero, which contributes mostly to the 1937 timeline featuring Sebastián and Rafael Rodríguez Rapún. The 2017 timeline taps to an extent from Conejero's life and, as per Conejero's statements, it is no coincidence that the leading character, a writer and playwright, is named Alberto and is writing a dissertation on Greek literature. While in the early stages of development, Los Javis declined to confirm whether García Lorca would appear as a character in the film.
Main cast members Guitarricadelafuente (in his acting debut), Carlos González, Miguel Bernardeau, Lola Dueñas, and Penélope Cruz were announced by Los Javis during the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. La bola negra is a Movistar Plus+ and Suma Content Films co-production with El Deseo and Le Pacte, and it had the participation of Atresmedia. Other cast members such as Milo Quifes (in his acting debut), Lorenzo Zurzolo, Albert Pla, Yenesi Suárez, Mona Martínez, Hugo Welzel, María Morales, Daniel Ibáñez, and Nuria Mencía were announced while shooting was taking place.
Eva Leira and Yolanda Serrano worked as casting directors.
Filming On 26 August 2025, local media reported the beginning of filming in the abandoned village of , halfway between Belorado and Briviesca. Shooting also took place in Comillas, Cantabria (where a man working as an extra fell down some stairs on set and eventually died), Granada (, , Albaicín), and Sigüenza. Athens and Madrid were also shooting locations. The production had a budget of around €15 million.
Cinematographer Gris Jordana shot the movie on 35mm film. She used two Arricam LT cameras and Panavision Primo lenses. Roger Bellés, a recurring collaborator with Los Javis since Holy Camp!, was the art director. Prior to seeing the result in scene, he was worried about criticism for the colossal size of the statue of Saint Sebastian that Sebastián climbs up in the film. Looking up for locations to stand in for Nené's theatre, the crew found a venue in Sigüenza that had been closed for fifty years, that was subsequently restored. Regarding the set design of the Casino of Granada, a non-realist style was pursued as well as nods to stage, finding inspiration in Joaquín Sorolla's paintings of Granada and how a hypothetical set design by La Barraca for the story would look like. Alberto Gutiérrez edited the film.
Ana López-Cobos took over costume design. To prepare for the looks of the cupletista Nené portrayed by Penélope Cruz, the team took inspiration from images of Raquel Meller, La Fornarina, and Tórtola Valencia. In order to prepare for the role, Cruz took inspiration from Olga Ramos and rehearsed with help from her daughter .
Calvo and Ambrossi broke up their 13-year relationship during the shooting. According to sources consulted by El País, the separation was not going to disrupt ongoing and future professional projects by Los Javis, including the rest of this shooting.
Music Lead actor Guitarricadelafuente performed (and co-wrote along with Raül Refree) the tune "La nieve", that features in a scene late in the film. Judeline (who also debuted as an actress in the film) performed a version of "Soldadito español" for the film's score. The trailer features an arrangement by Refree and Pablo Lluch reinterpreting Camarón de la Isla's "La leyenda del tiempo", which in turn sets to music a poem by García Lorca. provides vocals for a seguiriya.
Songs in the film include: "La nieve" – Guitarricadelafuente "Soldadito español" – Judeline & Raül Refree "Ginomai Andras" – Roza Eskenazi "Polca de los desamparados" – Raül Refree "La hija de Juan Simón" – Angelillo "Giati Foumaro Kokaini" – Roza Eskenazi "Seguiriya de los valientes" – María Terremoto & Raül Refree "Hello" – Martin Solveig & Dragonette "Las tardes del Ritz" – Penélope Cruz & "La Banda de Nené" "Batallón de modistillas" – Penélope Cruz & "La Banda de Nené" "Tubthumping" – Chumbawamba "Las castigadoras, schotis" – Orquesta Betoré "Mi querer es como el hierro" – Manuel de Falla "Danza (Acto II) de la ópera La vida breve" – Manuel de Falla
An EP was released on 2 October 2026. The full soundtrack, with songs featured in the film will be released on 16 October 2026.
Release
The film had its world premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2026. For its Australian premiere, the film made it to the lineup of the 73rd Sydney Film Festival. For its Spanish premiere, it was programmed in the slate of the 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival. For its Canadian premiere, it made it to the slate of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. It was also programmed at the New Horizons Film Festival, the New Zealand International Film Festival, the 74th Melbourne International Film Festival, the 53rd Telluride Film Festival (for its North American premiere), the 39th Out on Film festival, the 28th Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, the 39th Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy, the 22nd Zurich Film Festival, the 70th BFI London Film Festival, the 24th Morelia International Film Festival, the of the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, and the 41st Mar del Plata International Film Festival.
Goodfellas took over international sales. Elastica will handle theatrical distribution in Spain. The release in Spanish theatres was originally scheduled for 2 October 2026, but was later brought forward to 25 September 2026. Co-producer Le Pacte is scheduled to release the film in French theatres on 16 December 2026. Likewise, Altitude programmed a 6 November 2026 theatrical release in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a 14 January 2027 theatrical release in Italy.
Also in Europe, Goodfellas closed distribution deals with Cinéart (for the Benelux), Filmcoopi (Switzerland), Pandora Film (Germany and Austria), Rosebud (Greece), (Scandinavia), Nitrato Filmes (Portugal), Cinelibri (Bulgaria), (former Yugoslavia), (Hungary), (Czechia), Independenta (Romania), A-One Films (the Baltic countries), and (Poland).
Shortly after its Cannes premiere, a bidding war ensued for U.S. distribution rights to the film, with A24, Netflix, Mubi, and Neon believed to be among the interested companies. Netflix ultimately won in a deal worth around $4–5 million, with a multi-week theatrical release obligation and plans for an awards campaign. Netflix subsequently set a 4-week theatrical window starting on 6 November 2026 before the film's U.S. streaming debut on 4 December 2026. It later announced that the theatrical release date (then also reported to involve the Canadian market in addition to the U.S.) would be moved up to 16 October 2026. Its streaming release date was also brought forward to 2 December, thus giving the film a 47-day theatrical window, the longest for a Netflix film, breaking Marriage Storys record.