Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi paused a 13-year romance in the middle of shooting their Netflix-backed period epic, yet they finished the film, won a Cannes directing prize and relaunch at fall festivals as a leading Oscar hopeful.
Directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi split romantically during production but remained professional collaborators and completed La Bola Negra.
Musician-actor Guitarricadelafuente signed to play the lead without a finished script and helped shape the role as the writers developed the story around him.
La Bola Negra is the sophomore feature by the Spanish directing duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known as Los Javis. Netflix financed the project for roughly $14 million. The film won a Cannes directing prize (shared with Pawel Pawlikowski) and is one of three films on Spain's shortlist for Best International Feature, with the national selection to be announced on September 16.
Development started three years ago after another project fell through. Calvo read Alberto Conejero's play La Piedra Oscura on a flight and said, "It called me somehow." The play contains a reference to Federico García Lorca's unfinished fragment La Bola Negra, which prompted the filmmakers to imagine completing or reimagining that material. That creative pathway became the spine for a larger screenplay.
La Bola Negra interweaves three gay narratives set in different periods (1932, 1937 and 2017). The film is a period war epic that aims for emotional breadth across time, connecting desire, pain and political context. Ambrossi framed the choice as deliberate: "There's a political statement behind creating a big, bold, gay, period, epic drama."
The directors sought a lead who felt authentic to the story's musical and wartime elements. They found Spanish musician Guitarricadelafuente, whom they pictured as "young little soldier" with music in him. He signed on before the script was finished, and the duo wrote with him in mind. The finished script reached 156 pages.
Calvo and Ambrossi ended their 13-year romantic relationship in the middle of shooting. Despite the breakup, they maintained a professional relationship: they continued to write, direct and produce together and presented a cooperative front at promotional events. IndieWire observed they seemed friendly when they met ahead of the film's fall festival relaunch.
Festival trajectory and awards prospects
The project ties together three sources: Conejero's La Piedra Oscura, Lorca's incomplete La Bola Negra fragment, and the directors' own sensibilities developed through TV and film work (Paquita Salas, Veneno, La Mesías, and Holy Camp!). The creative decision to link an unfinished Lorca fragment to a modern epic shaped the project's historical reach and emotional ambition.
If you want to understand why La Bola Negra is a lead contender this awards season, focus on three things: its festival recognition (Cannes prize), Netflix's substantial backing, and the directors' unusual production story — finishing a large-scale, risky film during and after the end of a long personal relationship while keeping their collaborative pipeline intact.
Netflix released the official trailer for “La Bola Negra” (“The Black Ball”), from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. Set in 1932, 1937 and 2017, the Spanish-language queer epic explores the interconnected lives of three gay men. The film is inspired by an unfinished work of the same name by Spanish poet and p
Directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, the queer epic made major waves at Cannes and look to be Netflix's major Oscar push.
Cannes-winning directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo joined star Carlos González at an electric post-screening Q&A — capping a weekend of deafening word-of-mouth for the Oscar contender.
Is La Bola Negra the sweeping queer masterpiece we've been waiting for?
Three gay men. Three different eras. One sweeping story of desire, pain and love.
Originally appeared on Island94.org . The following is one of those posts where I share some concrete memories/experiences that I associate with some musings, but otherwise doesn’t really have a strong point other than I want to write it down. When I worked at Code for America, I helped design and deliver two different
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