{"id":659585,"date":"2026-05-23T02:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T02:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/659585\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T02:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T02:00:11","slug":"la-bola-negra-sparks-multi-studio-bidding-war-after-cannes-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/659585\/","title":{"rendered":"‘La Bola Negra’ Sparks Multi-Studio Bidding War After Cannes Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter garnering a rapturous reception and a 16-minute standing ovation<\/a> in Cannes, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo\u2019s \u201cLa Bola Negra<\/a>\u201d (\u201cThe Black Ball\u201d) has sparked a multi-studio bidding war for U.S. rights. Among the bidders are A24, Mubi and Netflix.<\/p>\n

\n\tThursday night\u2019s premiere marked the Cannes competition debut for the filmmaking duo known collectively as Los Javis, who have built an ardent international following with the series \u201cVeneno\u201d and \u201cLa Mes\u00edas.\u201d Their film \u201cThe Black Ball\u201d \u2014 a queer epic spanning 85 years of Spanish history and inspired by an unfinished fragment by Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca \u2014\u00a0is in contention for both the Palme d\u2019Or and the Queer Palm.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal marks the second major bidding war <\/a>of this year\u2019s festival; the other hot sales title was Jordan Firstman\u2019s \u201cClub Kid,\u201d which ultimately landed at A24 in a $17 million acquisition<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tA24 would be the most surprising of the three distribtuors to land the title as the indie darling hasn\u2019t widely prioritized non-English-language films, while Mubi is more established in that arena and Netflix has a track record of promoting local-language movies. Neon, which brought nine titles to the festival, also has a history of foreign-language films, but it\u2019s unclear if they\u2019ve submitted a bid or are simply interested in the title. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Black Ball\u201d traces the interconnected lives of three gay men across three eras \u2014 1932, 1937, and 2017 \u2014 braiding together stories of desire, loss, and what one generation bequeaths to the next. The film\u2019s title alludes to a mode of social rejection: a black ball cast into a voting urn to deny a young gay man entry into a Granada club. Glenn Close appears in a supporting role alongside Guitarricadelafuente \u2014 the beloved Spanish singer-songwriter, making his screen debut \u2014 Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos Gonz\u00e1lez, Milo Quifes and Lola Due\u00f1as, with Pen\u00e9lope Cruz contributing an extended cameo.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmbrossi and Calvo co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Alberto Conejero. \u201cThe Black Ball\u201d is also the first film produced under Suma Content Films, the new cinema division of Los Javis\u2019 production company; additional producers include Movistar Plus+, Pedro and Agust\u00edn Almod\u00f3var\u2019s El Deseo and Le Pacte.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film opens theatrically in Spain on Oct. 2 via Elastica Films. International sales are being handled by Goodfellas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After garnering a rapturous reception and a 16-minute standing ovation in Cannes, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo\u2019s \u201cLa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[32176,88,283178],"class_list":["post-659585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-la-bola-negra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}