Fields of Play

Every evening, Raphaëlle, a six-year-old girl fan of «l'OM», prays for her father Ali, to come home early from his restaurant. One evening, he makes the promise to take her to the Vélodrome Stadium on the next day, forgetting for one evening his environment and its dangers...

In a series of simple frames, the often misunderstood practice of Zen takes shape as basketball bliss. Now in retirement, the greatest defensive player of the amateur leagues continues to practice on a remote island, far from the madding crowds. His techniques and dedication undergo continual refine

És A Nossa Fé a film about Soccer (Futebol) Fans. Specially from two Portuguese clubs: Sporting, a big one, and Leixões a small one, that were slected for the final of the Portugal's Cup 2002 (David against Goliath), and also the adepts of the Portuguese selection that were defe

If you're going to play...Don't lose.

The 70s. A small Latin America in the heart of Mexico City. 30 buildings. 904 apartments. 3,000 exiles. Pablo, a young Argentine, tells his story and that of the community that had Villa Olímpica as his place in the world.

An intimate animated documentary about the most prolific goal scorer in international soccer history, and the power of quiet leadership. Christine Sinclair scored more international goals than any player in soccer history, men's or women's. Moving between the roar of the world stage and the quiet mo

Mayana Zatz is the Director of the Human Genome Research Center at the Biological Institute of the University of São Paulo and a famous figure in Brazilian Science. Her work with stems cells and genomes looks to find treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other genetic disorders.

Take rain on a frigid day as it falls down and creeps into small cracks in between. As the night comes and the water freezes, forcing the rock apart from within, it splits like a seam under pressure. Weathering is slow, but no rock on Earth is hard enough to resist it. Whethering, a word without fix

SISTEMA traces the unsettling proximity between football, militarism, and masculinity, transforming the exhibition space into a training ground where power is rehearsed and the body disciplined. Drawing from Campo Marte in Mexico City—where military ritual and the national sport coexist—

Beyond the Vatican walls, young seminarians from around the world compete in the Clericus Cup soccer tournament while preparing for the priesthood. Through sport, friendship, and spiritual reflection, the film explores faith, sacrifice, calling, and what it means to dedicate one's life to serving ot

With the World Cup having a massive impact on Brazil, Temple explores the science and cultural heritage of stadiums: though products of cutting edge architecture and engineering technology, stadiums are places where emotions and memories are shared; where communities from around the world gather to

The term "arena" refers to the genius loci: the grounds on which the competition is carried out, hence, where the spectacle is redeemed. In Björn Kämmerer's film, this ARENA remains hidden. Or, in other words: it becomes the object of a positioning. Rather than the oval, the stage, or othe

From Rio de Janeiro's beaches to the Amazon wildlife crossing though the urban jungle of Sao Paolo, Campo Experimental explores the state of science and art in Brazil as the World Cup takes over the country. Soccer becomes not only an obsession but also a distraction, a fear, a hope and the platform

Amateur girls' vaulting team takes on the overwhelming and costly challenge to become professionals. On the way they learn about friendship, team spirit and womanhood which become their real victory.

Wind instruments mutate breath into expressions of the soul, the body synchronises and prepares for surrender. Layers amass in the image, colours start to bloom, but our grip on the concrete and rational begins to slip. Allow for the release, give in to the kinetic energy taking over your body, move

When a lonely taxi driver happens upon a football field, he falls into a memory of his past.

In the courtyard of the Air Bel primary school in Marseille, during recess, the boys take up much more space than the girls to play football. The girls have had enough! They decide to mobilize, and a team of reporters goes out into the field to meet the students to find out what actions have been pu

La Cancha is a film about basketball, but also about the choreography of looking: the rhythm of shot and counter-shot, the precision of movement, and the quiet art of the backdoor cut. Filmed over four years on a public court in Montreal, the film observes a space shaped by bodies, time, weather, me

In rural Vermont, soccer brings together immigrant dairy farmworkers, who forge a community and unite to advocate for better working conditions.

Caught up in our human lives, we miss out on the amazing. On an airplane wing, a company of snails performs a wonderfully slippery choreography…

Set against the rhythm and tension of life in Lebanon, Breath After Breath follows two runners who find in movement a way to endure, stay grounded, and keep moving through uncertainty

Shot in two downtown Toronto parks over the course of the pandemic, Lines Drawn looks at various measures of persuasion, containment and control that were brought to bear over the course of the City's attempts to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Throughout the pandemic, space was defined by how the s

'Spectators' is an observational animation that inverts the expected focus of a football match, turning attention to those on the periphery. The film investigates social interaction and human behaviour, revealing the diversity of character found among football spectators, which can often become obsc

Three masters of football. They can perform wonders during the match and score impossible goals, but what goes on in their minds when they are about to take a penalty kick?

A single-subject portrait of a young Nunamiut athlete through the practice of his sport, which focuses on the materiality of film and its surface textures.

From Rio de Janeiro's beaches to the Amazon wildlife crossing though the urban jungle of Sao Paolo, FIELD WORK explores the state of science and art in Brazil as the World Cup takes over the country. Soccer becomes not only an obsession but also a distraction, a fear, a hope and the platform to disc

April 15th 1989. One game of football is about to affect Liam and the city of Liverpool forever. SATURDAY is a fictional account of how the Hillsborough stadium disaster – which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters – unfolded for one family back home in Merseyside. Director/Write

It's the 2012 London Olympics and the whole world is going crazy for the fastest man on the planet: Usain Bolt. Everyone apart from Alvin, an awkward 14 year-old who hates sports and constantly disappoints his Jamaican father, Lester, an ex-athlete who can't understand why his son is "so soft". So w

The Central Brooklyn Soccer Club is a group of young men, most of whom have grown up together around Crown Heights and Flatbush, who continually take their team to state finals but must decide between college and work after high school ends and they out-grow this league. The coaches, neighbors, and

The World Cup has drawn more than rabid soccer fans to Brazil. A team of filmmakers are on the ground in Rio de Janeiro documenting the science behind the games, including an exoskeletal kick-off, the genetics of competition, and even the biochemistry of diehard spectators. Read Popular Science arti

SK and Marley grew up together in Toronto's downtown neighbourhood of Bleecker Street. King's Court offers a fast-paced look at their friendship, families and their journeys into manhood. The National Film Board short film blurs the line between documentary and fiction, immersing viewers in the raw

in a landmark moment for Jordan, a group of teenage girls is brought together to form the country's first official U-17 Women's National Football Team ahead of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, hosted on home soil. Entering the tournament as hosts rather than qualifiers, the young players face relent

More and more often these days there is as much science as there is miracle in how we all come to be. Oh Baby! is an entertaining and imaginative interpretation of what goes into the making of a human being. Start with a dash of Busby Berkeley dance spectacle, add a pinch of wacky Rube Goldberg engi

This is a film commisoned by GQ for the world cup in Mexico. We believe that people should care about the world as they do about football. Its expressed through dance in Valle De Bravo. All shot on 16mm film.

BOOKANIMA is an experimental animation project that breathes cinematic life into books. The term "BOOKANIMA" is a portmanteau of "Book" and "Anima" (Latin for "soul" or "motion"), encapsulating the project's vision of exploring the intersection between literature and film through animated motion.

A season in the life of Alina, a poor 20-year-old girl from Kyiv who has a chance to be saved by football, but must also rescue her young siblings. A hard look at the reality of broken homes and strong women.

Coco "Muralla" Rivera, is an alcoholic, washed-up 90s soccer goalkeeper. Desperate to pay for his sick son's surgery, he becomes involved in a human trafficking crime. Driven by guilt, he risks everything to redeem himself by rescuing the sold girl.

900 Footballs is a short documentary about creativity, resilience, and the unexpected teamwork that emerges when plans fall apart. When a storm threatens a football-themed art installation on the outskirts of Rome, Finnish visual artist Sophia Ehrnrooth finds unexpected help from a group of immigran

The hispering is a magical experience that engages with the natural world serendipity and myth making. Exploring animation, film, collage, spoken word and sound to create the narrative.

A group of children in the Mayan village of San José Oriente spend their days riding motorcycles and playing soccer, but one of them, David, has other plans. Short film made during the Playlab Films Creator's Lab 2023 in Yucatán, México, with the guidance of Apichatpong Weeraset

A tapestry of images and sounds. Tango dancing. A conversation about heaven and hell, with illustrations. Horses nuzzle. A woman reclines. Silent soccer. Street entertainers play classical music. Travel is mysterious and sometimes fraught.

Décorps translates the biometric data of martial arts athletes — heart rate, temperature, EEG waves, gesture dynamics — into a 3D animation that moves from point to line to body to fractal. The body assembles itself from its own mathematics, then exceeds it. What remains is not ab

The film offers a rare glimpse into the Cuban experience, paralleling a day in the lives of two boxers in Havana, one at the start of his competitive career and the other at his end. The former is 7-year-old Daniel who dreams of becoming a national boxing star, and the latter is Evelio, a 45-year-ol

Dream of Championship brings together a group of ordinary Scandinavian boys who are tasked with a singular, monumental ritual: reciting the names of global football players from memory. Challenged to name at least 200 players, each boy successfully achieves the goal in one single, uninterrupted shot

Simulated images of crowds are compared with accounts from Liverpool FC supporters, who recount their experience marked by a tragic event: the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 96 people lost their lives, which changed the nature of football. A crowd simulation software serves as a tool for explor

"When the look on a face forebodes its reason, then this look becomes the mirror of fantasy." (Béla Balázs) - Where do you still have the possibility to openly show your emotions and excitement, if not in sports and which sport would be better for this than football? The film features

A Musical Space is a tribute to the perseverance of young footballers. Its rhythm emulates the relentless echoing of thousands and thousands of kicks rehearsed again and again and again—in any place, against any surface, ceaselessly, without any guarantee of a future with the game. The piece e

Baby Girl spends his days with Cookie and Banana in a soccer fans' association. The discovery of a box full of firecrackers leads them to a stunt, behind which lies an order from upstairs: organized crime to which the three teenagers' families are linked. Yet this event creates the chance of a showd

Tattooed hands gently glide over a rock face, probing it with the tips of the fingers. Three women, arms raised to a high boulder, appear to be in prayer. Hidden in a cave, two others stare at their bloody palms. Touching Rocks depicts bouldering as a pagan ritual.

Sweaty bodies and drought-wracked landscapes collide in Whammy Alcazaren's (Bold Eagle, NYFF61) frenzied sci-fi fantasy, a tale of love and basketball, earthquakes and tsunamis, treasured pasts and dismal futures. As extreme heat burns the planet and surviving a waterless Philippines becomes increas

In 1954, there was a UFO sighting over Florence's municipal stadium, during a Fiorentina match. Seventy years later, aliens return to planet Earth and find the stadiums abandoned.

A ten-metre-high diving board. People climb up: to leap or to climb down? The situation highlights a dilemma: endure the instinctive fear of taking the plunge or the humiliation of having to climb down. Ten Meter Tower is an entertaining study of human vulnerability. A 10 meter diving tower. People

Crystal Lake is an anthem to the new feminist generation that depicts female friendship as a way to survive adolescence.

Zuzia - 12, has been training vaulting for two years and has extraordinary role topping the acrobatic pyramid. She is "flyer" lifted by the stronger and more experienced vaulters-"base". Another intensive season begins. During training sessions it becomes apparent that the girl has lost some of her

Confronted with the prospect of an imminent farewell, two friends reunite on the football field they grew up in.

A short documentary about those who live a passion that is carried out there, in the neighborhood. The Football Ceremony celebrates the grace, the self-regulation, the trickery, the camaraderie, and the social compact found only in a pickup game in South America.

While exploring the boundaries between commitment and sincere enthusiasm of football commentators and the technique of using their voice, this film reconstructs the goal called the "Hand of God" scored by Diego Armando Maradona during the match between Argentina and England at the World Championship

Life is happening now.

"It's a distraction for many, a profession for a few, when for me sport is my whole life. And if fighting is the reason you're living. If every muscle clamors : train me, exercise, put on a sprint. Find a competitor or at least fight against a pole. It's hard to get started but it's otherwise diffic

We Clap For Airballs is a layered documentary - visually, expressively, and thematically -- where the basketball court is a safe space for queer and trans BIPOC people to play, feel seen, and valued by one another. With Swish, healing in community happens on the blacktop.

LAST GOAL WINS - Documentary about soccer as a lifestyle in NYC thought the eyes of the community First Touch FC - playing all year long 7am at McCarren park, Brooklyn, rain or shine! ​Showcasing how immigrants from all over the world found themselves in a lifestyle on playing soccer 2-3 times a wee

From Rio de Janeiro's beaches to the Amazon wildlife crossing though the urban jungle of Sao Paolo, Copa 2014 explores the state of science and art in Brazil as the World Cup takes over the country. Soccer becomes not only an obsession but also a distraction, a fear, a hope and the platform to discu

A soccer pitch emerges based on a process standardized down to the last detail. Layers of sand and soil are piled up and leveled, pieces of turf are rolled out and cut to size. Nothing is left to chance. Only when nature has been cast into shape can the game begin.

Where there's people there's joy. Where's more people there's more joy. A short piece of docu-fiction about happiness, nations & massive football crowds. Covertly filmed amid the very real crowds of the European Football Championships 2016.

A contest between Yellow and Red: Two teams of eight players take the field and a lone referee officiates. Never before has the game been captured with such clarity, and never before, it might be argued, has the sport been demonstrated with such poise. What was once a raw and untidy spectacle of bru

In the 60's, patriarchal traditions were shaken when women started questioning the division of roles. Nowadays, this advocacy bore fruit in the sports world. In a small francophone town of Switzerland, Joséphine, a football coach, tries to pass on her passion for her sport to a teenage girl's

In Bangkok, Prayad plays street takraw as a way to survive.

Through distant observation of people walking on desire lines, a filmmaker notices a pattern in peoples tendency to cut corners, and reflects on what this might mean for the future of our planet. 'Desire Lines' are the official name given to the unofficial paths created as a consequence of erosion b

Two rival cyclists face off in a grueling and surreal cross-Canada cycling race, Le Tour De Canada!

Welcome to an imaginary world where traditions and modernity blend, ancestral memories and visionary ideas intertwine, and vibrant colors coexist with dark designs. Each scene splendidly reveals a facet of Mali or Africa: a monument in flames, reminiscent of a cultural and architectural heritage end

Still Defending shows the recovery of former soccer player Drew Beckie's recovery from myocarditis, which is a heart condition. Trialing for a soccer club in Sweden, Beckie found himself in the hospital unexpectedly. Still Defending highlights Beckie's path back to the field and explores hat myocard

Isabelle is a thirty-three year old female boxer from the south shore of Montreal. As an athlete, she inevitably relies on her body. The body is like a mechanical engine. Her gym, a cold building made of steel and concrete, is located in the industrial area of an anonymous and typical suburban town.

Summer of 1982. Teo claims he has found a wormhole. His brother Óscar does not believe him - at least not for now. Short Director Olga Osorio Screenplay Olga Osorio Producer Juan Galiñanes, Olga Osorio Produced by: Miss Movies Music: Sergio Moure de Oteyza Cinematography: Suso Bello (A

The film follows the lives of two brothers: 14-year-old Mateusz and 13-year-old Łukasz, who live in a small mountain village in the south of Poland. Like many boys their age they have a dream - they want to be great football players. The documentary presents the first and usually the toughest stage

Between neighbors who promise cakes that never arrive, football games on the other side of the wall, and children who turn him into a target for mockery, Deco discovers that the greatest disability is not in his mind, but in a world that insists on treating him as an eternal spectator.

It looks like a little paradise, this Sicilian cactus nursery where plants, insects, and a remarkable group of people form a harmonious community. In this sheltered place, the world of war and violence beyond the garden walls feels far away. "A home," one of the cactus growers calls it. Victor Missu

Thaïs, a 17 years old girl is desperate about the mysterious paralysis affecting the planet. To make money and reopen cafés, she sets up a juicy business for Tokyo Olympic games tickets, taking place during the summer.

The microcosmos of a courtyard, situated in the centre of Sofia, Bulgaria. The story unfolds from the perspective of one window. The film is a visual meditation on a quiet oasis in the middle of a busy city, where birds and airplanes fly, cats play and loud football matches echo in the distance.

Blindness doesn't define these women-Football does. VOY captures the incredible journey of Women Blind Footballers In India, who play not with sight, but with instinct, sound, and trust. Their path hasn't been easy, but with the support of Mai Bal Bhavan, an NGO in Pune, Maharashtra, dedicated to em

Can a horse save a life? In Clondalkin (Dublin) that's exactly the case. In a district where there is a lot of problems and not a lot of prospects, young people face drugs, prison and the path of crime. But some of them manage to escape into an unusual hobby. They tame wild horses and become...urban

A poetic and nostalgic portrait of a childhood seen through the eyes of siblings. A beautiful, sunny afternoon. A bunch of kids is playing football in the yard. Meanwhile in an closed apartment, a boy is looking after his younger sister. Behind the closed door the boy and the girl start a game of th