“La Bola Negra,” which held a rapturous world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday and triggered a bidding war between Neon, Mubi, A24 and others, zeroed in on Netflix as victor overnight Friday in a streaming and theatrical deal reportedly in the $5 million range.
The Spanish-language gay epic comes from filmmaking duo Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (known in their home country by the moniker “Los Javis”) and would be slated at the streamer to have an awards push similar to “Emilia Pérez” last year.
The project stars Spanish musician Guitarricadelafuente in his screen debut and also features standout supporting turns from Glenn Close and Penélope Cruz. The decades-spanning odyssey “tells the interconnected stories of three men in three different eras,” according to the official synopsis from Cannes. “Three lives intimately linked by sexuality and desire, pain and inheritance, and one of Federico García Lorca’s last, unfinished works.”
TheWrap’s Zachary Lee praised the feature in his review out of the festival as “one of those rare films that feels both old and new.”
“It’s rife with ingenious and technical marvels and sequences that rank among cinema’s best while also telling a very classical story about honoring those who’ve come before us, making space for the stories of those we may never meet, and acting as a celebration of those who never gave up on their love even when it was punishable by death,” Lee wrote.
In the final days of Cannes — and following its impressive 16-minute ovation on Thursday — “La Bola Negra” is one of the buzziest projects out of the festival and stands a front-running chance at its top Palme d’Or prize.
The film opens theatrically in Spain on Oct. 2 via Elastica Films. It is co-produced by Movistar Plus+, Los Javis’ Suma Content Films, Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar’s El Deseo and Le Pacte. Goodfellas is handling international sales.
Variety was the first to report the news of Netflix’s acquisition as talks were being finalized.
