La Bola Negra wins Toronto film festival’s People’s Choice Award
Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s Spanish drama won Toronto’s main audience award on September 20, with I Play Rocky and Being Heumann named runners-up.
In short
- Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s Spanish drama won Toronto’s main audience award on September 20, with I Play Rocky and Being Heumann named runners-up.
Spanish drama La Bola Negra won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award on September 20, 2026, adding an audience accolade to its festival run.
Directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, the film follows interconnected gay men across three periods: 1932, 1937 and 2017. The Guardian reported the result, while TheWrap separately reported that festival organisers announced the award at their September 20 ceremony.
The film premiered at Cannes in May. Netflix subsequently acquired its rights, with a release expected later in 2026, according to The Guardian.
I Play Rocky, a biographical film about Sylvester Stallone, and the disability activism drama Being Heumann were the runners-up. Elsinore, a British drama set during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, received the festival’s separate international People’s Choice Award.
Toronto’s main audience prize attracts attention during the film awards season because previous recipients include eventual Oscar best-picture winners Green Book, Nomadland and 12 Years a Slave. The Toronto result is an audience award in its own right and does not determine later Academy Award nominations or winners.
