The generational queer drama “La Bola Negra” has taken the 2026 TIFF People’s Choice Award, a coveted audience prize out of the annual film festival in Toronto.
\n\nDirected by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, the Netflix project has been on a tear since world premiering in Cannes this year (where it earned a 16-minute standing ovation and won best director for the pair known as “Los Javis”). The film is described as an epic about “the lives of three men intertwined in love and loss across eras.”
\n\nThe audience award is largely seen as an indicator of legs on the road to the Oscars stage. “La Bola” edged out first-runner-up “I Play Rocky,” Peter Farrelly’s crowd-pleaser about the making of the Sylvester Stallone classic. Siân Heder’s Apple project, “Being Heumann,” came in as the second runner-up.
\n\nThe People’s Choice Documentary Award went to “Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been.” Director Barry Avirch examines the life and impact of Love, who spent “many years she spent providing lead and background vocals, often uncredited, for some of the biggest hits of the 1960s while under contract to Phil Spector, the superstar producer who became her nemesis.” The film features interviews with…
Original source: https://variety.com/
