La Bola Negra, starring Penélope Cruz, debuted Thursday evening at the Cannes Film Festival and landed a 20-minute ovation in the Grand Théâtre Lumière.
The overwhelming reception to the Competition pic (English title: The Black Ball), directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, comes very near the Cannes record for an ovation in a premiere, set by another Spanish film, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, which clocked a 22-minute ovation in 2006.
As for La Bola Negra, it was a uniquely overjoyed audience reception for a Cannes world premiere, the crowd sparking to the pic’s tale of three men in three different periods — 1932, 1937 and 2017 — connected by the last works of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.
Calvo and Ambrossi, responding the the crowd, got more loud applause when Ambrossi told them, “To everyone who thinks that we’re gonna step back in our LGBTQ rights, I have bad news.”
‘La Bola Negra’ directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi get a loud applause as they tell the audience at their #Cannes2026 premiere: “To everyone who thinks that we’re gonna step back in our LGBTQ rights, I have bad news” pic.twitter.com/DDf2FCWFQx
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) May 21, 2026
The film’s official synopsis reads: “La bola negra tells the interconnected stories of three men in three different eras. Three lives intimately linked by sexuality and desire, pain and inheritance, and one of the last unfinished works by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.”
The film’s cast features Spanish musician Guitarricadelafuente alongside Miguel Bernardeau, Cruz and Glenn Close. Calvo and Ambrossi also collaborated on the screenplay with Alberto Conejero.
La Bola Negra is the third Spanish film to debut in Competition this year in Cannes.
The project is a Movistar Plus+ and Suma Content Films production in co-production with Pedro Almodóvar’s El Deseo and Le Pacte. Suma Content Films is Ambrossi and Calvo’s production company. The film was shot for 12 weeks in different locations across Spain, including Castile, León, Cantabria, Andalusia, and Madrid.
The film was shot on 35mm by director of photography Gris Jordana. Other below-the-line credits on the project include Roger Bellés as art director, Ana López Cobos as costume designer, Eva Leira and Yolanda Serrano as casting directors, Rodrigo Madrigal as sound engineer, Pablo Morillas as hairstylist, Mariló Osuna for make-up, and Belén Martí Lluch as movement director. Alberto Gutiérrez edited the film.
Elastica will distribute the film in Spain, and Goodfellas is handling international sales. La Bola Negra is the first feature from Calvo and Ambrossi since 2017’s Holy Camp! The duo’s last project was the Movistar Plus+ series La Mesías (2023), which premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival and was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
