FILMS from AFAR

Fresh off an Audience Award at San Sebastián (SSIFF), the top People’s Choice prize in Toronto and a Best Director award at Cannes for , known in Spain as ‘Los Javis,’ La Bola Negra opens in US theaters on Oct. 16 and will stream on Netflix beginning Dec. 2 (marking the streamer’s longest-ever theatrical release). In Spain, the film has been a true phenomenon, reportedly outrunning The Odyssey in opening weekend pre-sales and already in the top 10 of all-time local grossers.

Mike Leigh’s ‘Tender Loving Care’ Sweeps San Sebastian Awards as ‘La Bola Negra,’ ‘NAZA’ Earn Audience Nods Amanda Kernell's 'Brace Your Heart' won the Swedish-Sami filmmaker the Silver Shell for best director as the Spanish film fest wrapped up its 74th edition, the last for outgoing director Jose Luis Rebordinos. This article originally ran in The Hollywood Reporter. Mike Leigh’s dramatic comedy Tender Loving Care took home three top awards at Saturday night’s closing cerem

Read these reviews at AWFJ: Nicole Garcia's Milo (7h40 ce matin-la) A somber tale about motherhood, regrets, and class divisions in France, actress-director Nicole Garcia’s newest film, Milo offers a star vehicle for lead Marion Cotillard, who delivers a nuanced and emotional performance. Yesim Ustaoglu’s What Remains (Artakalan) What Remains features two compelling central performances and offers a poetic rumination about how to balance the creative process with the demands

Life advice: Find someone who looks at you the way retired combat dog Odin looks at James Belmont (Brad Pitt) in Heart of the Beast. This man’s best friend survivalist tale set in the Alaska wilderness is a beautifully constructed but stressful 101-minute journey. The film from director David Ayer played Out of Competition in the Official Selection of the San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 18-26), where Pitt made a huge splash with local fans. The script by Cameron Alexander c

Julianne Moore gives a stellar performance as a middle-aged woman who’s become invisible to even those closest to her, in Jesse Eisenberg’s pitch perfect comedy The Debut, premiering in competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 18-26). Moore’s Mona is ignored by her husband and, as he cruelly jokes at dinner with friends, serves no role now that her teenaged twins can drive. When she lands a part in a musical production at a local community theater, d

There are plenty of examples of Spanish filmmakers confronting dark aspects of their country’s history under dictator Francisco Franco, who died in 1975. For international audiences, recent titles might come to mind like this year’s Cannes and Toronto sensation The Black Ball (La Bola Negra), which tells three interlocking tales of repressed gay love, or Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas), where Penélope Cruz’s character helps her village excavate a Civil W