With backgrounds in acting, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo—lovingly known in their native Spain as Los Javis—launched their careers as co-writer-directors in the Madrid theatre scene with the 2013 underground musical La llamada, which they went on to adapt for the screen with 2017’s Holy Camp! Since then they have proven to be a formidable—not to mention devastatingly handsome—creative duo, creating three acclaimed television series, Paquita Salas, The Messiah, and their 2020 masterpiece Veneno starring Lola Rodríguez. The charismatic pair, and former romantic couple, are also much-loved judges on the panel of Drag Race España.
Their latest work, La Bola Negra, is a breathtaking, decade-spanning queer epic which earned Los Javis a standing ovation at its Cannes world premiere, where it was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or and Queer Palm, in an exceptional year for LGBTQ+ themed films at the festival, and went on to win the Best Director trophy. Their exceptional sophomore feature continues to garner accolades, including the Vanguard Tribute Award at the upcoming the 36th edition of The Gothams and ten audience awards at festivals globally including The People’s Choice Award at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival. It is Spain’s official selection for the International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
Inspired by an unfinished manuscript by playwright and poet Federico García Lorca and partly based on the play La piedra oscura by Alberto Conejero, La Bola Negra follows three generations of men across pivotal moments in Spanish history, bound by pain, desire, and love. Carlos (Milo Quifes) longs to belong in a fractured Spain. Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente) finds connection across enemy lines. Alberto (Carlos González) uncovers a long-buried family secret — one that finally gives voice to truths the past tried to erase. The film also stars Miguel Bernardeau, Goya-winner Lola Dueñas, Academy Award-winner Penélope Cruz, Golden Globe-winner Glenn Close (Isabelle), and the Emmy-nominated creator of Los Espookys and Fantasmas, Julio Torres (Juan Pablo). Read our ★★★★★ review from TIFF 2026.
With La Bola Negra now playing in select theaters across the US, ahead of its Netflix launch on December 2nd, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo speak exclusively with The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann about their motivations to make the film, the advice they received from legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar—an associate producer on the film—and what they hope audiences will take from it.
James Kleinmann, The Queer Review: taking you back, what excited you about creating such an unapologetically queer film on this epic scale; spanning decades, with queer characters at its centre?
Javier Calvo: “For me, it was the realization that we hadn’t done any projects with a gay main character and we hadn’t portrayed a love story between two men in our whole career. That was weird and we were wondering why is that? Why didn’t we dare to do that? I guess the answer was that we weren’t daring to face our own selves and to portray ourselves on screen. So that was the first motor for La Bola Negra.”
Javier Ambrossi: “Yeah, and at some point when we were writing the script we had a conversation with Pedro Almodóvar and I told him, ‘I think I don’t match good with desire’. He was like, ‘but you have to do it, you have to desire.’ That thing that Pedro said to me was a wake up call; I have to desire more. That was an aha moment that I had with him and it helped me to keep on writing more and more about this.”
“Maybe our reluctance was because we felt the blackball inside us, perhaps because I was raised Catholic so maybe I still had that shame. So it was easy to talk about the trans experience and the lesbian experience, but to talk about being gay—being a gay man myself—felt complicated. So we went for it, because now is the moment. You look at the world and it’s like, we need to do it.”
I guess the black ball is partly that internalized homophobia that comes to us through just living in the world unfortunately?
Javier Calvo: “Absolutely. It’s the rejection we experience from the outside, but also the shame and the homophobia we have inside. We’re programmed to have it. They made a big effort for us to not love ourselves and it’s something that is inherited by generations. Our job is to try to make that black ball smaller and smaller and smaller for the next generations because we are lucky enough to have our freedom and the right to have our identity. But the rejection we felt when we were little and the education we received is still inside.”
The film feels like a passionate rallying cry to live our lives authentically. Could you talk about the pivotal scene between Penélope Cruz’s character Nené and Guitarricadelafuente as Sebastián, where she talks about her trans friend and what her living openly represented in opposition to fascism?
Javier Ambrossi: “This is a movie about the unfinished and we wanted to keep it that way as a wake up call to the audience. A lot of people couldn’t live their lives, so go and try. That’s what I want the audience to get. Like, go and at least try if you can.”
“With Penélope and Guitarricadelafuente’s scene we wanted to pay tribute to the generation of free people that lived in Madrid in the 1920s. To acknowledge that there was a very queer community. The first Transvestism; gay novelists; gay writers; gay journalists; lesbian writers; and the cuplé singers that Penélope portrays. They were free and they were the first pop stars in Spain.”
“The thing about this generation of the 20s in Madrid is that they thought they were going to live free forever, but that changed. It’s a reminder that things can change in a beat. One night you’re free, the next day you’re not. If they can, they want to remove our freedom. If they can, they will do it. You have to remember that.”
By James Kleinmann
La Bola Negra is in select US theaters now and launches on Netflix on December 2nd, 2026. For local theater listings and to purchase tickets visit labolanegrafilm.com.
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