Spanish queer epic La Bola Negra has cemented its standing as a major Academy Award contender after taking home the coveted People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday. The feature explores the intertwined lives of three gay men.
Voted for directly by festivalgoers, the top prize at TIFF is widely regarded as a reliable predictor for future Oscar success. Every recipient since 2012, bar one, has subsequently secured a best picture nomination at the Academy Awards. The sole exception occurred in 2024 with Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck. Last year's winner, Hamnet, went on to earn eight Oscar nominations.
Helmed by the directorial duo known as Los Javis — Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo — La Bola Negra previously proved a hit at the Cannes Film Festival. There, it shared the best director award alongside Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland.
After acquiring the US film rights from Cannes, Netflix launched a full awards campaign and granted La Bola Negra its longest theatrical run to date for the streaming service. The movie opens in US cinemas on 16 October before arriving on the platform on 2 December. Altitude picked up the UK and Ireland rights to the film and will release it in UK and Irish cinemas on 6 November.
"This is a deeply personal film but it also carries a message of the importance and necessity of expressing who you are," Los Javis said in a statement Sunday. "Knowing that audiences connected with it and made it their own is the greatest gift we could receive."
Peter Farrelly’s comedy I Play Rocky, which depicts the creation of Rocky, was named first runner-up for the main festival prize. Second runner-up went to Being Heumann, Siân Heder’s drama portraying disability rights pioneer Judy Heumann.
The festival’s People’s Choice Award for international films was awarded to Elsinore, which stars Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson, the Scottish actor who performed Hamlet in London while suffering from AIDS. Lee Chang-dong’s Korean drama Possible Love, focusing on the trauma of mass layoffs, was chosen as first runner-up, while Hur Jin-ho’s Korean procedural The Assassin(s) finished as second runner-up.
In the non-fiction category, Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been, a portrait of the 85-year-old vocalist, secured TIFF's documentary award. The audience award for the Midnight Madness section was claimed by Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney, a so-called "gonzo documentary" directed by Matthew Rankin about the former Canadian prime minister.
The 51st edition of TIFF draws to a close Sunday.
