‘La Bola Negra’ wins TIFF’s People Choice Award, putting it on Oscar path
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
“La Bola Negra,” the Spanish queer epic about the intertwined lives of three gay men, won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, confirming its status as a major Oscar contender.
TIFF’s top award is voted on by festivalgoers, and it’s become known as one of the most iron-clad Academy Awards predictors. Since 2012, all but one winner of the People’s Choice Award has gone on to score a best-picture nomination at the Oscars. The lone exception was in 2024, when Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation “The Life of Chuck” won the award. Last year, “Hamnet” won it and later landed eight Oscar nominations.
“La Bola Negra” is directed by the duo known as Los Javis — Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. It was already a hit at the Cannes Film Festival, where “La Bola Negra” split the best director award with Paweł Pawlikowski for “Fatherland.”
Netflix acquired “La Bola Negra” out of Cannes and has launched a full awards campaign for the film. Netflix is also giving the film its longest theatrical release yet for the streamer. “La Bola Negra” opens in theaters Oct. 16 and begins streaming Dec. 2.
“This is a deeply personal film but it also carries a message of the importance and necessity of expressing who you are,” the Javis said in a statement Sunday. “Knowing that audiences connected with it and made it their own is the greatest gift we could receive.”
The first runner-up for the TIFF award was “I Play Rocky,” Peter Farrelly’s comedy about the making of “Rocky.” Second runner-up was “Being Heumann,” Siân Heder’s drama about disability rights pioneer Judy Heumann.
The festival also awards a People’s Choice Award for international films. That went to “Elsinore,” starring Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson, the Scottish actor who performed “Hamlet” in London while suffering from AIDS. The first runner-up was “Possible Love,” Lee Chang-dong’s Korean drama about the trauma of mass layoffs. Second runner-up was “The Assassin(s),” a Korean procedural by Hur Jin-ho.
“Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been,” a portrait of the 85-year-old vocalist, won TIFF’s People’s Choice Award for documentary. The festival’s audience award for its Midnight Madness section went to “Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney,” a so-called “gonzo documentary” by Matthew Rankin about the former Canadian prime minister.
The 51st edition of TIFF draws to a close Sunday.
