'La Bola Negra' wins People's Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival

"La Bola Negra" has won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Javier Ambrossi, left, and Javier Calvo are photographed on the red carpet for the film "La Bola Negra" during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Keito Newman

TORONTO — “La Bola Negra” has won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The movie directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi took home the top prize, which has long been a bellwether for Oscar buzz.

It is about the interconnected lives of three gay men in Spain

Other big winners include “Angh,” which nabbed the Platform Award, a jury prize that comes with a $20,000 purse.

The film from director Theja Rio is about the last surviving chief of a Nagaland village on the Indo-Burma border.

For the first time this year, the Platform Award offers a direct route to the Academy Awards.

The Academy previously only accepted one submission from each country for that Oscar, but this year it expanded its criteria to consider winners of qualifying awards at international film festivals.

The Platform Award is one of six such prizes, but other eligibility criteria still apply, including that at least half of the film must be in a language other than English.

Because “Angh” is mostly in Konyak, it qualifies for best international feature contention.

Best Canadian Discovery for a first- or second-time director went to Cody Lightning for his sophomore feature “Smudge the Blades.”

“I come to you today with a heavy heart and beer on my breath,” Lightning said as he accepted the award, saying his mother -- also a filmmaker -- died several weeks ago.

“I get my humour from my dad, I get my storytelling from my mom,” he said through tears. “This one’s for my mom. This one’s for my mom. This one’s for my mom.”

Best Canadian feature went to “Sunburn” by Serville Poblete, a coming-of-age film about a group of kids from Toronto’s Bleecker Street.

Rounding out the People’s Choice winners are “Elsinore” by Simon Stone for International People’s Choice Award; “Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney” for Midnight Madness; and Barry Avrich’s “Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been” for documentary.

This is the second-straight year Avrich has won that prize. Last year he was the surprise winner for “The Road Between Us,” a documentary about an Israeli general’s rescue mission on Oct. 7, 2023.

The FIPRESCI Prize, which goes to a first-time international filmmaker, was awarded to “Ancestors” by Irish writer-director David Turpin, about an Irishman in London in the 1980s, when homosexuality was still illegal in Ireland.

The NETPAC Award, which recognizes movies from Asia and the Pacific, went to the Palestinian film “Thirteen in Gaza” by Hosam Abu Dan, about a 13-year-old girl living in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2026.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press