Bardem, Holmes, Marvel and La bola negra: four stories that define cinema’s autumn

A lifetime award in Rome, a Spanish bid on the road to the Oscars, a documentary turned box-office phenomenon and a record that changes hands once again. October leaves four stories that capture the moment cinema is living: the prestige of talent, the power of a good story and the strength of entertainment’s biggest brands.

Autumn is traditionally the season when cinema gets serious. Festivals give way to the awards race, the big campaigns take position and the box office begins to measure which stories truly connect with audiences. This October has delivered four headlines that, together, map out the industry.

Javier Bardem: a life in film, celebrated in Rome

On 17 October, the Sala Sinopoli of the Auditorium Parco della Musica paid tribute to Javier Bardem. The 21st Festa del Cinema di Roma presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award, handed over by Oscar-winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino after a montage that condensed half a century of career into barely a minute and a half.

The numbers are impressive: more than 80 films, over a hundred awards, the Oscar for No Country for Old Men and nominations for Before Night Falls, Biutiful and Being the Ricardos. It all began in 1974 when, aged just five, he appeared as an extra in El pícaro, a production in which his mother, actress Pilar Bardem, was working.

Far from solemn, Bardem delivered one of the lines of the night: awards like this, he said, must be “received, honoured and then forgotten, so you can keep working.” And that is exactly what he is doing. In Rome he presented Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s El ser querido, in which he plays a legendary film director trying to reconnect with his daughter, played by Virginia Luengo. It marks his return to Spanish cinema after a decade focused on the United States. In December he returns to the big screen as Stilgar in Dune: Part Three.

La bola negra: from Cannes to the Oscar race

If one Spanish film embodies international prestige this year, it is La bola negra. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi — known in Spain as Los Javis — won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival with their first drama, and on 16 September the Spanish Film Academy chose it to represent Spain at the Oscars, ahead of El ser querido and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Los domingos.

The film interweaves the lives of three men in three different eras, linked by an unfinished novel by Federico García Lorca. It is a story of desire, pain and identity, led by Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau and Lola Dueñas, with appearances by Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close.

Its US debut has already sent a promising signal: around $277,500 from just four screens in New York and Los Angeles, one of the best per-screen averages of the weekend. Netflix, which holds the US rights, will back the campaign. The key dates are circled in red: the 15-film shortlist will be announced on 15 December, and the five nominees on 21 January 2027.

You Can See Everything: the documentary that filled cinemas

The biggest surprise at the US box office came not from a superhero but from a documentary. You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim and distributed by A24, portrays Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, the blood-testing company that became one of Silicon Valley’s most admired names before its fall. The filmmakers had exceptional access to Holmes and her family during the month before she went to prison.

The result has been historic: around $15 million on its opening from 855 cinemas, more than 2,000 sold-out screenings and an average of over $17,500 per location. It is the biggest documentary opening since 2013 and, excluding music films, the best since Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. With a combined production and marketing budget under $10 million and 99% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the film shows that audiences are still hungry for true stories told with an auteur’s eye.

Avengers: Endgame reclaims the throne

Meanwhile, Marvel has rewritten box-office history once again. The re-release of Avengers: Endgame, titled Encore and featuring an exclusive preview of Avengers: Doomsday — in cinemas on 18 December — has grossed around $126 million worldwide since 25 September.

That was enough to overtake Avatar once more and become the highest-grossing film of all time, with around $2.925 billion. It is the latest chapter in a duel now seven years long: Endgame passed Avatar in 2019, James Cameron’s film reclaimed the top spot with its own re-release in 2021, and now Marvel is back on top. Encore also became the first re-release to lead the US box office since The Lion King in 2011.

An autumn of big names

An actor celebrating half a century of career while still looking ahead. Two Spanish directors taking their first drama from Cannes to Hollywood. An auteur documentary filling cinemas. And a franchise turning nostalgia into a world record. Four very different stories converging at the same moment in the calendar, just as awards season begins.

Main image: Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz at the Goya Awards. Photo: Carlos Delgado / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).