Well, there it is. The 51st Toronto International Film Festival has handed its People's Choice Award to "La Bola Negra," the Los Javis film that premiered at Cannes and has been quietly building steam ever since. Runner-up went to "I Play Rocky," with "Being Heumann" taking second runner-up. I flagged both of the top two, and the rapturous receptions they got in Toronto, here and here.
A few things worth sitting with here.
First, the Cannes factor. Toronto audiences historically don't reward films that already had their premiere on the Croisette — the PCA is a launchpad award. Second, and more notably, Netflix has never won this thing. Not once. They've thrown everything at Toronto for a decade and walked away empty-handed every time. That streak is now over, and it's over with a Spanish-language film.
“La Bola Negra,” which stars Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, and Milo Quifesis, with Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close in supporting roles, is an ambitious but wildly uneven 2.5-hour Spanish drama that blends historical fiction, queer melodrama, and meta-literary adaptation. I didn't find it particularly impressive. It plays like a Weinstein-era Oscar-bait vehicle, only in Spanish, and is likely to divide critics' groups. It's technically well made, self-important in its messaging, and ultimately dull in stretches.
Netflix recently decided to give "La Bola Negra" a very serious theatrical run and, by its standards, a historic one. The Spanish-language Oscar hopeful will hit theaters October 16 before arriving on Netflix December 2. That gives the queer epic a 47-day exclusive theatrical window, the longest in Netflix history, at least until next year's 'Narnia.'
TIFF's People's Choice winner has gone on to Best Picture roughly 7 out of 48 times. "Parasite" placed third. "Anora" placed third. Winning outright has never been a boost to win. What's more interesting is who didn't show up: Jesse Eisenberg's "The Debut" failed to place at all — it was overpraised at Telluride, starting off with 90 on Metacritic, and now with TIFF reviews added, now sits at 74.
Still, if you're building the Best Picture race this morning, it's "The Odyssey" vs. "La Bola Negra," and the gap between those two and everything else is wide. Nolan has the scale, the industry goodwill, and the "give him another one" energy. "La Bola Negra" has the Cannes and TIFF momentum, but will Academy voters want to finally reward a Netflix movie the top prize? Netflix has roughly four months to find out whether this is a wave or a weekend.
Regardless, Toronto has spoken. Now we find out if anyone outside Toronto agrees.
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