News

Penélope Cruz has joined the cast of Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s upcoming feature La Bola Negra (The Black Ball), taking inspiration from an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca.

Calvo and Ambrossi, who are known jointly as Los Javis and made waves with genre-bending thriller La Mesias, unveiled fresh casting details at an event Monday in Cannes.

Goodfellas’ Eva Diederix was also in attendance to announce the company had boarded sales on the title, which is an original Movistar Plus+ film in collaboration with Suma Content Films and co-produced with Le Pacte.

Further cast announcements included singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente, who will make his big-screen debut; Miguel Bernardeau; Carlos González; and Cannes Best Actress winner Lola Dueñas (Volver), who also won the Feroz, Forqué, and Platino Awards for her performance in La Mesías.

The duo’s breakout film La Mesías premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival,...

Una reinterpretación queer de la inacabada obra de Lorca. © Getty Images

Los Javis han anunciado hoy en el Festival de Cannes el reparto de su nueva película La bola negra, que arranca su rodaje en agosto en distintas localidades de España y de Europa.

Guitarricadelafuente (cantautor español que debuta en el cine), Miguel Bernardeau (Querer), Carlos González (Mariliendre), Lola Dueñas (La Mesías) y Penélope Cruz (Volver) encabezarán el reparto de la película que toma como punto de partida una de las últimas obras, inacabada, de Federico García Lorca desde una perspectiva queer y el fenómeno teatral La piedra oscura, de Alberto Conejero.

La bola negra narra las vidas entrelazadas de tres hombres en tres épocas diferentes. Tres existencias íntimamente ligadas por la sexualidad y el deseo, el dolor y la herencia.

En palabras de Javier Calvo y Javier Ambrossi: «Es una revisitación queer de una parte de la historia de nuestro país.

Penélope Cruz is set to star in “La bola negra,” a new feature film written, directed and produced by celebrated Spanish filmmakers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, collectively known as Los Javis.

The film is produced Movistar Plus+ and Suma Content Films in co-production with France’s Le Pacte, with French sales company Goodfellas taking sales rights outside Spain and France, it was announced in Cannes on Monday.

“La bola negra” will premiere exclusively in cinemas in 2026 before arriving on Movistar Plus+ sometime later.

Joining Cruz in the star-studded cast are Guitarricadelafuente, making his screen debut, Miguel Bernardeau (“Elite”), Carlos González (“Veneno”) and acclaimed actress Lola Dueñas, known for her award-winning performances in “The Sea Inside” and “La Mesías.”

“We wrote Penelope’s role specifically for her. Her humor and elegance make it a pleasure to work with her,” said Javier Calvo during the Cannes event.

Inspired by Federico García Lorca...

This June, Movistar Plus+ will unveil “Pedro x Javis,” a three-part documentary series paying tribute to the life and work of celebrated Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. Created and hosted by celebrated filmmakers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known locally as Los Javis, the series blends documentary storytelling with musical performances and reimagined scenes from Almodóvar’s films in a bold new format.

At the heart of “Pedro x Javis” is an intimate, in-depth conversation between the three directors. Filmed over several days, their exchanges are rich with unexpected confessions, emotional memories, and previously unrevealed insights into the two-time Academy Award winner’s creative journey. “I think I’ve talked too much,” Almodóvar wryly commented on the process.

The series features contributions from many of Almodóvar’s most iconic collaborators, including actresses Penélope Cruz, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, Bibiana Fernández, Loles León, Carmen Machi, Lola Dueñas and Leonor Watling. It...

Turning on real-life 1990s trans icon Cristina Ortiz, “Veneno” established Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo as leading LGBTQ directors in Spain.

In “La Mesías,” they bring their hallmark visceral sense of diversity to each and every scene and episode, which lends them their large distinction.

“We’re not very conscious of it, but you can see diversity in how each character reacts differently to trauma, as well as the genre mix and diversity of settings. It’s a bit like how we are; we like a lot of things and modes,” says Calvo.

In the series, protagonist Enric (Roger Casamajor) is eviscerated emotionally by his childhood trauma which involves his fanatically religious mother. In contrast Sister Irene (Macarena García) tries to make a new life. Enric escapes but is triggered into action when he sees his siblings on TV performing as a Christian music group.

Episode 1 blends psychodrama and sci-fi,...

Underscoring its growing ambitions in features, MoreThan Films has secured the international sales rights for “Muyeres,” a Spanish film directed by Marta Lallana, which won over the weekend at the Shanghai International Film Festival its jury Grand Prix and best cinematography plaudit for Toni Vidal.

MoreThan Films has shared “Muyeres”’ international trailer in exclusivity with Variety.

“Muyeres” is a hybrid documentary telling a story of Carmina and Irene, the last guardians of an oral folk tradition on the brink of extinction, set in the northern Spanish region of Asturias.

A musician, played by the film’s composer Raül Refree, embarks on a journey of the region; listening back to recordings of the folk songs he’s found. Blurring fact with fiction the recordings are woven into the mix of Refree’s soundtrack for the film. It is a film that captures the faltering memory of a tradition, of the seamless quality of community through song,...

Alvaro la Fuente’s year has been a whirlwind — a product of a budding, but frenetic musical career that has taken him across the world. Prior to releasing his first LP, La Cantera, which came out in May, the Spanish singer, who records under his stage name Guitarricadelafuente, was touring with only a handful of songs under his belt. Many of those tracks were acoustic-driven melodies dressed in La Fuente’s low-hum, classical drawl. But after realizing he wanted to make a full-length album, la Fuente joined forces with Raül Refree,...