'La Bola Negra,' Industry Dynamics and Spain’s Oscar Trajectory
Updated: 1 minute ago
This case study was conducted as part of a Fulbright research grant in 2026-27 supported by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Central Washington University.
At the time of this writing, La Bola Negra, from co-directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, is generating historical Oscar buzz for a Spanish film. Already Spain’s International Film nominee, La Bola Negra is landing on many commentators’ watch lists for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Score, Song and Supporting Actor and Actress.
This is not just happenstance. Anyone paying attention to the trajectory of the Oscars over the last few decades, or to the factors that make a Spanish movie more likely to find a welcoming audience abroad, might have predicted this scenario.
The following case study will look at the increasingly international Oscars over the last five years, and how the talents, companies and marketing behind La Bola Negra helped assure this particular film’s trajectory. The work here is built on an article published in the AdResearch International Journal of Communication titled “Industry Dynamics in the Selection Process and Voting for the Oscars: A Case Study of Nominees from Spain.”
This article considers Spain’s Oscar trajectory from the 1990s to today and highlights how symbolic capital (festival prestige, auteur branding, distributor clout) intersects with economic capital (such as marketing spend and ticket sales) in shaping Oscar recognition.
International Films at the Oscars
Let’s start with the Oscars. The last five years have seen a significant change in the inclusion of international (non-US) films across categories at the Oscars, a shift underscored in the Academy’s more inclusive rebranding of its “Foreign-Language” category to “Best International Film” in 2019. Before then, non-English-language films were largely relegated to the “Foreign Language” category.
Last year, non-English-language feature films earned a record 22 nominations across categories, including two Best Picture nominations and four acting nods, prompting The Hollywood Reporter to tout that the Academy is “Becoming a Citizen of the World.” Among 2026 nominees, Spain’s Sirāt earned nominations in the International and Sound categories (it didn’t win either).
Best Foreign-Language Oscar Winners (2019-2025)
But back to 2019. That year, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma was an early harbinger of trends to come. The film earned a whopping 10 Oscar nominations across categories, including Best Picture, and it took home Best Director, International Film (a first for Mexico) and Cinematography. It’s widely thought the title would have won more awards were it not for industry backlash against the disruptor Netflix. Times change, and today, Netflix is distributing La Bola Negra, among other early Oscar contenders, and earning press coverage as evidence of a shift in attitudes towards the streamer.
Roma’s success opened the door for the Academy to more seriously consider non-English-language films in its top categories, a shift that was many years in the making. In 2012, a damning LA Times report revealed the Academy’s membership was at that time 94% white and 77% male, with a median age of 62. Combined with the viral #OscarsSoWhite response to the 2015 and 2016 Oscar selections, Donald Trump’s 2016 election and the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse scandal ripped open in 2017, the moment required a response.
In June of 2016, a record 683 new members were invited into the Academy, 46 percent of whom were female, 41 percent non-white and hailing from 59 different countries. Today, a full 21% of voting members come from outside the US. This new membership resulted directly in increasingly more indie and eventually international films in top Oscar categories. The development was quickened again 5-6 years later with the COVID pandemic, theater closures and the shift to streaming.
The Oscars ceremony meanwhile saw a significant decline in audiences, hitting an all-time viewership low in 2021 at 10.4 million. To put that in perspective, during the 1998 ceremony when Titanic was the big winner, the Oscars reached a peak viewership of 57 million with an estimated 87.5 million viewers tuning in for at least some part.
In 2020, South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho made history with his film Parasite, the first-ever non-English-language film to win the Best Picture Oscar (among other awards, including International Film). Parasite went on to earn more than $262m at the global box office, including $53.8m domestically, making it the fifth top-grossing non-English-language film of all time at the domestic market.
Parasite heralded two other trends that became apparent after its success—the role of the Cannes Film Festival as a key “pipeline” to the Oscars, and the rise of Neon as a major Cannes and Oscar player. Parasite was the first Cannes Palme d’Or winner to take the Best Picture Oscar in 70 years, according to reports, and Anora followed in its footsteps in 2024, a year in which films that premiered at Cannes earned a massive nine Oscars and 31 nominations. Best International Film winners now regularly come from Cannes premieres. Of course, many Venice premieres still earn Oscar nominations, as do films from other sections at Cannes.
Meanwhile, indie outfit Neon (which handled Parasite) represented a remarkable four out five International Film Oscar nominees last year, including Sirāt, which it picked up after its Jury Prize-winning debut in Cannes. This year, Netflix won the bidding war at Cannes for distribution rights to La Bola Negra and announced it would give it Netflix’s longest-yet theatrical release. On its first weekend release in the US, La Bola Negra recorded the second-highest per-screen average for a non-English language film of all time, after Parasite, and the highest per-screen average ever for a Spanish film. It also marked the first time Netflix shared official box office grosses.
Related Stories
Spain at the Oscars, Courtesy of Almodóvar
Historically, Spain ranks third behind France and Italy in International Oscar nominations and fourth for wins behind Italy, France and Japan. The Spanish directors who have been nominated the most for the International Oscars are José Luis Garci and Pedro Almodóvar.
Across other categories, Spain has had an enviable presence at the Oscars in the new millennium, outside of a dry spell between 2011 and 2019. One notable connection among almost all? Pedro Almodóvar. All but six Oscar nominees from Spain this century have some connection to Almodóvar (the six are: Hollywood regular JA Bayona’s Society of the Snow, animated features Klaus, Robot Dreams and Chico & Rita (from previous Oscar-winner Fernando Trueba) and Cuba documentary Balseros).
If we count Almodóvar's own movies and his company El Deseo’s co-productions (including Sirāt), as well as films starring Penélope Cruz and/or Javier Bardem—both of whom Almodóvar gets credit for introducing to international audiences—then his name is at least tangentially attached to 16 of Spain’s 21 nominees to date in any Oscar category (not including craft fields and short films).
The three finalists for Spain’s International Film nomination this year were top Goya and San Sebastián winner Sundays (Los Domingos), La Bola Negra and The Beloved (El Ser Querido), starring Bardem, which also premiered in Cannes. It can’t be ignored, then, that whatever qualities La Bola Negra has for appealing to Academy voters, it also follows the larger trends for Oscar nominees: a Cannes premiere and an Almodóvar connection.
Spain’s Oscar Nominees and Winners (in bold) (2000-2025)
(Not including technical and short film categories)
What the Oscars Tell Us About Spanish Films’ International Appeal
Spain’s Oscar nominees and especially winners offer insights into how Hollywood connections and familiarity, industry backing and prestige event recognition combine to help Spanish films find an audience abroad, particularly in the US. For starters, Oscar nominees in the 2000s more often than not have an existing connection to, and reputation in, Hollywood. Almodóvar is the prime example, but Alejandro Amenábar and J.A. Bayona are recent other examples. Bong and Cuarón represent the same trend.
These directors might be more likely to make Hollywood-style or Hollywood-friendly films and to find US backers, distributors and audiences for their films. In that sense, their Hollywood work can have a positive rebound effect on their work back ‘home’ in their native language. Collaborations with US companies, especially studios, can play a dual role of familiarizing international talents with Hollywood techniques, crews and styles, and simultaneously familiarizing American audiences and businesses with them.
Another level of familiarity for US audiences: Documentary nominee Balseros and animation nominees Chico & Rita and Robot Dreams are all fully or partially set in the US.
The select group of foreign-language films which break out also tend to benefit from a powerful distributor behind them. Companies and release strategies may evolve (from Miramax and SPC to A24 and Neon, from elite press and platform releases to digital campaigns designed for media-savvy users), but the impact of a powerful industry backer remains.
Netflix offers a great example—it was behind Spanish nominees Society of the Snow, 2019 animation candidate Klaus and 2024’s Emilia Pérez, which earned a Best Actress nomination for Spaniard Karla Sofía Gascón. And now La Bola Negra.
La Bola Negra can be seen as capitalizing on some of the elements which have proven to help Spanish films find an audience in the United States: a major industry backer (Netflix), Hollywood connections (Almodóvar and both Glenn Close, who co-stars in one sequence, and Penélope Cruz, who also has a minor role but has been a large presence in the international promotion), and prestige event recognition (the Best Director prize at Cannes, the People’s Choice award in Toronto and an Audience Award in San Sebastián).
Of course, none of this would matter if the Javis had made a terrible film. But that’s not the case here.
Comments