Toronto audiences placed La Bola Negra at the top of the vote at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival.
Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky finished as first runner-up, with Siân Heder's Being Heumann in the second runner-up position.
Unlike Cannes' main competition, TIFF's People's Choice Award is decided by festivalgoers rather than a jury. The result therefore gives Calvo and Ambrossi a different kind of validation from the Best Director honor they shared at Cannes in May.
Toronto's top audience award gets unusual attention for a reason
The People's Choice Award has developed a strong correlation with the Academy Awards. Since 2008, most winners have later appeared among the Best Picture nominees.
That history should not be mistaken for a guarantee. TIFF voters represent one festival audience, and months of campaigning, reviews and industry voting still separate La Bola Negra from the Academy Awards.
The track record nevertheless explains the attention. 12 Years a Slave, Green Book and Nomadland all won Toronto's audience prize before eventually receiving the Best Picture Oscar.
Cannes had already given the film major festival credibility
La Bola Negra premiered in competition at Cannes, where Calvo and Ambrossi shared the directing prize with Paweł Pawlikowski.
Toronto broadens that response. A directing award formally recognizes the filmmakers' craft. An audience prize suggests that a lengthy Spanish-language drama spanning several historical periods can also connect outside a jury room.
It is the first non-English-language film to win TIFF's main People's Choice Award since 2011.
Three men are connected across almost a century of Spanish history
The film moves between 1932, 1937 and 2017. Milo Quifes plays Carlos, a young man looking for belonging in a fractured Spain. Guitarricadelafuente plays Sebastián, whose story unfolds across opposing sides of the Spanish Civil War. Carlos González's Alberto discovers a buried family secret decades later.
The title comes from an unfinished work by Federico García Lorca. Calvo and Ambrossi co-wrote the screenplay with Alberto Conejero, drawing on Conejero's La piedra oscura, La bola negra and other Lorca texts.
Miguel Bernardeau, Lola Dueñas and Julio Torres are also in the ensemble, while Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close make special appearances.
The festival story is about to become a theatrical campaign
Netflix holds U.S. and Canadian rights and will begin a platform theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles on October 16 before expanding into additional markets.
The film is scheduled to reach Netflix in the U.S. and Canada on December 2. In Spain, it is a Movistar Plus and Suma Content production, with Elastica handling the theatrical release.
La Bola Negra already had strong reviews, Cannes recognition and an awards campaign. Toronto has now given it one additional asset that cannot be bought through marketing: an audience vote.
