SEPTEMBER 21, 2026

First TIFF, Then OSCAR

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi introduced their film La Bola Negra at its Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) premiere by saying, “Please enjoy our gay magic.” The audience immediately fell in love with “Los Javis,” Spain’s sweet, exuberant and brilliant filmmakers, who are also a former couple. Their epic movie is inspired by an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca and is set during the Spanish Civil War – with a jaw-dropping song-and-dance cameo by Penélope Cruz. “I was blown away by this perfect script,” Cruz said at the premiere. “This movie is so powerful and so necessary, and I was so proud to be a part of it.” Toronto’s audiences agreed, naming La Bola Negra the winner of this year’s TIFF People’s Choice Award. From here, it’s sure to be a major threat at the 2027 Academy Awards. After all, TIFF is a bellwether for that sort of thing: 27 People’s Choice winners have been nominated for Best Picture, including last year’s Hamnet, and seven have gone on to win the category. In a touching callback, this year’s International People’s Choice Award (a new category that debuted at TIFF last year) is Elsinore, a U.K. biopic of actor Ian Charleson (played by Andrew Scott) who starred in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, which was the very first TIFF People’s Choice winner to subsequently take home the Best Picture Oscar. Also given out at this year’s TIFF was the Best Documentary award to Canadian Barry Avrich for Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been; and Best Midnight Madness film (for experimental and provocative movies) to Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney, a psychedelic portrait of our 18th prime minister from Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin. The festival also handed out a few juried awards, including Best Canadian Discovery Award, which went to Edmonton actor/director Cody Lightning for his dramedy Smudge the Blades, a Bad News Bears-like story of an underdog Indigenous hockey team. Meanwhile, the Best Canadian Feature Film went to Serville Poblete’s Sunburn, a comic coming-of-age story set during a heatwave and blackout in Toronto. Congrats and best of luck to all these TIFF stars. See you March 14 – at the Oscars.  |  Getty Images