Huelva Unveils 52nd Festival Lineup: 'La Bola Negra,' 'Funk' and Lucía Puenzo's Latest

Javier Ambrossi wants "La Bola Negra" to be "the gayest, biggest war movie ever." He said it to Variety co-editor in chief Ramin Setoodeh at last week's Miami Film Festival, and the film's €38.5 million ($42.75 million) and counting suggests he may have managed it. The Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival's 52nd edition screens the title in its catch-up Accent Cine Español panorama, alongside Rodrigo Sorogoyen's "The Beloved."

The timing is not accidental. Spanish cinema fielded three titles in Cannes main competition this year — Pedro Almodóvar's "Bitter Christmas," Sorogoyen's "The Beloved" and "La Bola Negra" — a year when, as festival director Manuel H. Martín puts it, Spanish cinema "has never had it so good." Martín frames the program's logic plainly: "'The Odyssey' is a film made for the public, but from a personal vision, as indeed is 'La Bola Negra."

"La Bola Negra" is now the Cannes Festival's most prominent Oscar hopeful and the third highest-grossing Spanish movie in Spain in history. Netflix's December 2 bow will add global reach to the milestone. Co-directed by Los Javis — Ambrossi and Javier Calvo — the Spain-France production forms part of Movistar Plus' first movie slate, which gave directors budgets, in Martín's programming logic, "to make the movie they need to tell." "The Beloved" shares that slate, along with "Sirāt."

What does the 12-title competition hold?

The main slate spotlights Latin American debuts and new work from directors with auteurist personality, social concerns and crossover style — the kind of films Huelva loves to program.

• "After Elena" ("Después de Elena"), Shawn Garry. A dark absurdist comedy and Toronto 2026 world premiere, Garry's second feature after "Desierto Sur." Alfredo Castro plays Roberto, 70, a widower forced to take in his three adult children and their offspring. Castro abandons his "heightened performances I'm used to" for "strict, grounded realism," he told Variety. Nicolás Zárate, hot off "Red Hanger," co-stars. Gabriela Sandoval produces via Cine Matriz; Chile, Colombia and Italy co-produce.
• "Anguita. El Hombre de los Tres Siglos," Hugo Cabezas. A doc portrait of Julio Anguita, first communist mayor of Córdoba (1978-86) and president of Izquierda Unida (1987-2000), Spain's third political force in the 1990s. Cabezas mixes testimony and archival footage; Seville's La Favorita produces with pubcaster RTVA backing.
• "The Beloved" ("El ser querido"), Rodrigo Sorogoyen. "Bardem is powerful as a filmmaker directing his estranged daughter in Rodrigo Sorogoyen's making-of-a-movie drama," Variety said. Sorogoyen's most daring film slices a father-daughter re-encounter into multiple POVs and formats.
• "Funk," Ali Muritiba, Brazil. A "revolutionary film," says Muritiba, centering "Black joy" in a musical with no gunshots. Duda Santos plays MC Sabrina, a sexually uninhibited funk artist whose success demands large personal sacrifice. Hector Dhalia ("Adrift," "Criminal Code") and Manoel Rangel produce.
• "Gugu's World," Allan Deberton, Brazil. A "radiant queer coming-of-age charmer," in Variety's words, following Gugu, 12, and his grandmother, increasingly afflicted by dementia. It won a 2026 Berlin KPlus Generation jury prize and is now Brazil's International Feature Oscar entry — announced after Huelva zeroed in on it for competition, says Martín. M-Appeal handles sales.
• "Julia's Flowers" ("Las Flores De Julia"), Cris Tapia Marchiori, Argentina-Chile. A quiet daughter-mother melodrama: Julia returns to her home village as Álvaro, 17, to handle power of attorney for her gravely ill mother (Paulina García). Trans actress Mariana Genesio Peña and García anchor the Mendoza-set identity tale.
• "200 Lives, Paco Rabal" ("200 vidas, Paco Rabal"), Vanesa Benítez. A San Sebastián world premiere and centenary tribute to Francisco Rabal, who worked with Buñuel, Antonioni, Saura and Almodóvar. Benítez skips talking heads and lets Rabal narrate himself through newly found footage; in her words, he was "a child who wanted to return to the paradise of childhood."
• "Pepita, the Gunslinger" ("Pepita, La Pistolera"), Lucía Puenzo. Luisana Lopilato stars in the story of Margarita Di Tullio, who rebelled against the deaths of fellow sex workers in 1980s Mar del Plata by founding her own brothel and nightlife empire. Puenzo's debut, 2007's "XXY," won the Cannes Critics' Week Grand Prix.
• "The Riverbank," Matheus Farias and Enock Carvalho, Brazil-Germany. A Locarno 2026 Special Jury Prize winner and Best Fiction Feature at Rio Film Festival. Young janitor Izaquiel (Caique Copque) meets fisherman Jeremias (Ítalo Martins) in Recife's mangrove forest while his evangelical church job exposes links to politics and death squad violence. MPM Premium and Premium Films handle it — a tropical noir dosed with magical realism.

Talento Andaluz frames two notable documentary features from the active regional scene. Between an Oscar campaign, a Netflix bow on December 2 and Latin American debuts announcing themselves, Huelva's 52nd edition doubles as a ledger of where Ibero-American cinema stands right now — and where it's headed.