'Immediately spellbinding': Four reasons why gay Spanish epic La Bola Negra could win the Oscar for best picture

Telling the stories of three gay men across a century, this sweeping but relatively low-budget drama is second favourite to The Odyssey for the Academy's top prize. Here's why it could beat out Homer.

From the first 10 minutes of gay historical epic La Bola Negra, it's hard not to recognise you are seeing something very special. Opening with a scene of a sleepy Spanish village during the Civil War of the 1930s thrown into violence, it has a visual beauty and storytelling rhythm that are immediately spellbinding. It is inspired directly by the work of the revered early 20th-Century poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, but also sprawls in other imaginative directions, creating a tapestry of memory, art and sexual repression across a century of Spanish life. 

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi's film tells the story of the lives of three gay men: Sebastian, in 1937, is a man who's been conscripted into Franco's army during the Spanish Civil War and is grappling with his love for a prisoner he is guarding. Carlos, in 1932, is a bourgeois twenty-something who's been rejected for membership of an exclusive casino club due to rumours of his sexuality. Alberto, in 2017, is a historian and researcher who comes into an unexpected inheritance from his estranged grandfather. La Bola Negra connects these stories in poignant and unexpected ways. 

When the film first hit the Cannes Film Festival this May, the buzz around it inspired a bidding war between heavy-hitter distributors – an early sign that something special might be happening. Now being released by Netflix in North America, it is set to be a major Oscars contender. Odds makers put it at second favourite for best picture – meaning it could be set for a David and Goliath-esque battle with current favourite The Odyssey. Here's why it could even overcome the combined power of Homer and Christopher Nolan.

1. The Industry buzz 

Since it premiered in Cannes, La Bola Negra has been a runaway hit with critics, regular audiences, and just about everyone in between. The Hollywood Reporter said it was "a sweeping, heartsick, often funny journey of recollection and fantasy. It is high time we had a gay war epic of this scope and soulfulness and invention."  

It won best director for its film-making duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (tied with Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski), and went on to win the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival this autumn, too, which has been a common precursor for the Academy's best picture nominees and winners.

On top of this, it is proving a runaway commercial hit in its native Spain, with its box-office numbers actually increasing from its first to second weekend. All this is the kind of international recognition that makes the Academy sit up and take notice. 

2. Its epic take on gay identity 

Mastering a complex triple-storyline structure........

© BBC