As this year’s Cannes Film Festival wraps up, critics have collectively shrugged and called it an underwhelming edition. Whether it was the lack of A-list stars or the divisive slate of competition films, there wasn’t much to get pulses racing, and even some of the most acclaimed auteurs turned in work that felt a little too familiar - like a director’s greatest hits album, but with fewer bangers.

Still, this slate may look stronger in retrospect once awards season gets underway, because history has taught us that Cannes usually produces two to three best picture nominees each season, and even this subdued lineup has its fair share of major contenders. Foremost among them is “La Bola Negra” (“The Black Ball”), which premiered on the penultimate day of competition and gave the festival a long-overdue jolt. From Spanish directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, this sweeping and romantic triptych of gay stories flits fluidly from the modern day to the Spanish Civil War, and though the ensemble is primarily composed of beautiful young faces that will be largely unknown to American audiences, Oscar favorites Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close pop in for a handful of juicy scenes. “La Bola Negra” is an unabashedly emotional (and expensive-looking) epic that feels like an across-the-board Oscar contender. It came into Cannes with no American distributor, but entertainment media reported a bidding war that seems to have been won by Netflix - because nothing says “prestige” like a streaming algorithm.

The biggest sale of the fest came early when A24 snapped up “Club Kid” for a reported $17 million, the kind of figure that presages a significant awards campaign. You might not expect this comedy from American director-star Jordan Firstman (“I Love L.A.”) to be a major Oscar vehicle, since it’s a little story about a gay club promoter who meets the son he never knew he had. But Firstman pulls things off in crowd-pleasing fashion, and “Anora” producer Alex Coco knows how to steer a scruffy little film like this through the choppy waters of awards season - presumably with a life raft made of gold statuettes.