“La Bola Negra,” the Cannes-winning film from Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, will open the New York City LGBTQ+ film festival NewFest38 on Oct. 15.
Calvo and Ambrossi, known together as Los Javis, are set to attend the screening, as is star Julio Torres.
Set in 1932, 1937 and 2017, “La Bola Negra” spans 85 years of Spanish history. It explores the interconnected lives of three gay men and is inspired by an unfinished fragment by Federico García Lorca.
“Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi have brought us a sweeping epic in ‘La Bola Negra,’ exactly the kind of bold, intergenerational queer storytelling that NewFest exists to champion,” NewFest interim executive director Lesli Klainberg said Wednesday. “Opening our festival with a film of this scale and ambition signals our commitment to showcasing LGBTQ+ narratives that are cinematic, politically resonant and unapologetically visible on the world stage.”
The film not only received a 16-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, but Los Javis also won best director (in a tie with Paweł Pawlikowski for “Fatherland”). “La Bola Negra” most recently had its North America premiere at Telluride.
