SCREEN | Kristen Stewart Swims Past 'The Chronology of Water'

"We will publish or perish together!"

The Forge

Talented actress turned first-time feature filmmaker Kristen Stewart directs Imogen Poots in her riveting portrayal of Oregon-based, bestselling author Lidia Yuknavitch in a hazy film adaptation of the latter's 2011 cult memoir, The Chronology of Water. Framed around a tumultuous family life centred on parental abuse leading to both substance and sex addiction before a promising competitive swimming career, the film is a narratively ambitious portrait of personal salvation.

REEL | Timothée Chalamet Challenges 'Marty Supreme'

"I'm the ultimate product of Hitler's defeat."

A24 / Elevation Pictures

Marty Supreme, the eldest Safdie brother, Josh Safdie's second solo-directed film—after the younger Benny's own debut in The Smashing Machine, also an unconventional sports drama from A24, earlier this year—starring Timothée Chalamet (also a producer), is set in the world of championship table tennis in 1950s New York City. Chalamet portrays a fictional hotshot star player, Marty Mauser, on the rise, based on real-life Jewish-American ping-pong hustler, Marty Reisman.

REEL | Dwayne Johnson Defeats 'The Smashing Machine' x TIFF 2025

"Am I going to hurt him before he hurts me?"

Toronto International Film Festival

Superstar Dwayne Johnson (also a producer) makes his much-hyped, serious dramatic turn in one-half of the Safdie brothers and newly solo writer/director Benny Safdie's tender biographical sports drama, The Smashing Machine (titled after the 2002 HBO documentary of the same name), chronicling the highs and lows of mixed martial arts pioneer and former UFC/Pride FC fighting champion Mark Kerr between 1997 and 2001 during the height of his addiction to opiod painkillers.

REEL | Racing 'F1' – Brad Pitt Feeds His Need for Speed

"Create your own breaks. Hope is not a strategy."

Apple Original Films / Warner Bros. Pictures

Aging superstar Brad Pitt (also a producer) hits the track as a washed-up but still talented racecar driver cashing in his last shot at glory in blockbuster director Joseph Kosinski's expensive motorsports action drama, succinctly titled F1®: The Movie (as it's being marketed as) after the highest class of global open-wheel, single-seater formula auto racing, Formula One.

GATHER | Web Summit Vancouver 2025 x Global Tech Conference

"Vancouver is one of the world's most beautiful cities, with a flourishing tech community."

NBA champions Metta World Peace and JaVale McGee

Waterfront—(May 30, 2025) It sure felt like almost everyone was at the inaugural Web Summit Vancouver multi-day global conference, replacing Collision Conference's five-year run in Toronto. Long considered the "Olympics of Tech" and hosted by the Dublin-based technology events company, the gathering took over three levels of the Vancouver Convention Centre West for as many days at the tail end of May.

SCREEN | Wrestling with the Past – 'Queen of the Ring' Slams

"Bad times don't last but bad guys do!"

Sumerian Pictures / Sherry Media Group

Queen of the Ring, the 1930-50s biographical sports drama from writer/director Ash Avildsen (son of Rocky director John G. Avildsen) based on the non-fiction book, The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend by Jeff Leen, stars Vancouver native Emily Bett Rickards as legendary trailblazing wrestler Mildred Burke in a physically impressive lead performance surrounded by an otherwise midcard-level historical biopic.

CABLE | L.A.'s Sterling NBA Franchise – How the Rich Got 'Clipped'

"He says a lot of things he shouldn't."

FX Productions

Clipped, FX's sports drama miniseries based on ESPN's 30 for 30 podcast series The Sterling Affairs by sports reporter Ramona Shelburne (also an executive producer), dramatizes the wild ownership scandal that rocked the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team during the NBA's tumultuous 2023-24 season when controversial longtime owner Donald Sterling (Ed O'Neill) sparked a player revolt after his extremely racist remarks were leaked by his notorious media-obsessed, visor-wearing mistress V. Stiviano (Cleopatra Coleman).

REEL | 40–Love – Zendaya Breaks 'Challengers'

"Decimate that little bitch!"

Amazon MGM Studios / Warner Bros. Pictures

Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino's exhilaratingly sexy tennis romantic thriller Challengers is about how the magnetic Zendaya (also a producer) is so powerful and talented a force of nature—even only at partial strength due to a career-ending knee injury—that having sweaty, passionate post-match sex with only one of Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist (perfectly pitted against one another) and not both at the same time is simply just not enough for her. We can easily sympathize.

REEL | Michael Mann and Adam Driver Outrace 'Ferrari'

"If you get into one of my cars, you get in to win."

Neon / Elevation Pictures

Octogenarian American filmmaker Michael Mann directs a silver-haired Adam Driver as the famed eponymous Italian motor racing and automobile magnate Enzo Ferrari in the riveting biographical sports drama. Based on the non-fiction book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine by Brock Yates, the 1957-set Ferrari fits right in with Mann's canon of stories about historical men obsessed with excelling at their chosen profession.

REEL | Zac Efron Outmaneuvers the Von Erich Curse – 'The Iron Claw'

"I used to be a brother."

A24 / Elevation Pictures

Accomplished independent filmmaker Sean Durkin dramatizes the tearjerking real-life tragic history and supposed curse of the legendary Von Erich dynasty of wrestlers in The Iron Claw. Based out of the Dallas Sportatorium, the Von Erich (born "Adkisson") brothers dominated the old-school 1980s territorial wrestling promotion scene out of World Class Championship Wrestling, run and owned by their father, Fritz.

VIFF 2023 | ESPN on Public Shaming – 'I'm Just Here for the Riot'

"You have to kinda put yourself in the mindset of 2011."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2023—ESPN relives the infamous hockey riots that started after the Vancouver Canucks' devastating game seven home loss in the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final. Co-directed by local documentary filmmakers Kathleen S. Jayme (a two-time VIFF Audience Award-winner) and Asia Youngman, I'm Just Here for the Riot dissects public shaming through our city's disobedient history of disappointing hockey losses.

SCREEN | Matt Damon Jumps – Fresh 'Air' Jordan x SXSW 2023

"A shoe is just a shoe until my son steps into it."

SXSW Film & TV Festival

Ben Affleck directs longtime friend/collaborator Matt Damon (both producers) in a period marketing drama about the courting of then NBA rookie and future all-star Michael Jordan to become Nike's first star athlete spokesman. Ostensibly a corporate dramedy about advertising and the birth of the wildly popular Air Jordan shoe brand, Air: Courting A Legend (as it's titled in advertising) hits all the right notes as it expertly mimics elements of the biographical underdog sports movie formula to a tee.

REEL | Michael B. Jordan Fights the Past – 'Creed III'

"It's now or never for me."

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures

Creed star/producer Michael B. Jordan makes his directorial debut in the third entry (and ninth Rocky film overall) of the venerable boxing franchise revamp. Creed III takes a more personal, family drama approach to the classic underdog sports drama formula.

VIFF 2022 | Losing Basketball – Shooting for 'The Grizzlie Truth'

"My love of basketball started and ended with the Grizzlies."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2022—Finding Big Country director Kathleen S. Jayme revisits her love of the long-departed hometown basketball team, the Vancouver Grizzlies, in a new documentary (her fourth Grizzlies-related project) with a light true-crime approach, The Grizzlie Truth. Despite ostensibly documenting facets of multi-billion-dollar sports industries, Jayme takes a personal touch in telling her own story, what many other (at the time) young fans felt, and how the city was seemingly abandoned by the NBA.

SCREEN | Adam Sandler Lays Up 'Hustle' on Netflix

"Never back down."

Happy Madison Productions / SpringHill Company

Indie filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar directs a mostly serious Adam Sandler in the formulaic but kinetic basketball drama Hustle. Playing a road-weary talent scout for the Philadelphia 76ers in search of the next NBA superstar, Sandler brings his natural likability to the standard inspirational underdog sports story mixed with a healthy dose of self-doubt and loathing.

CABLE | Showtime! HBO Builds A Lakers Dynasty – 'Winning Time'

"If there's two things in this world that make me believe in God, it's sex and basketball."

Hyperobject Industries

HBO's flashy new prestige series dramatizing the glamorous 1980s-era of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, is a joyously fun time documenting the highs and lows of the NBA's heyday. Based on Jeff Pearlman's book, Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s, every episode showcases multiple aspects of the birth of show business' growing influence over professional sports.

SCREEN | Coaching 'King Richard' – Will Smith Knows Best

"Ain't nothing she can't do."

Warner Bros. Pictures / Westbrook Studios

There's nothing like an inspirational sports drama based on a true story to warm your heart. Aging superstar Will Smith turns on the charm and charisma for his soulful portrayal of Richard Williams, the outspoken father/coach of tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams (also executive producers), in the heartwarming King Richard.

SCREEN | Eddie Huang Makes the Jump to 'Boogie'

"He's more model minority Jesus freak than he is Asian."

Focus Features

Tawainese-American food personality and restaurateur turned first-time filmmaker Eddie Huang (who also co-stars) of Fresh Off the Boat fame makes his writing/directing debut with the high school basketball melodrama Boogie. The story of a troubled hotshot teen athlete in need of taming and teamwork, the film is full of naturalistic performances looking for a sheen of authenticity.

CABLE | Documenting 'The Last Dance' of Basketball on Netflix

"It's just God disguised as Michael Jordan."

ESPN Films

Jason Hehir's latest ESPN sports documentary series closely follows Michael Jordan's historic final championship run amidst the absolute peak of the Chicago Bulls' basketball dynasty during the 1997–98 season. Using archival footage from unprecedented backstage access at the time, paired with new talking-head interviews, The Last Dance is a stunning look at a team of all-stars at the height of their success, popularity, and power, clearly barrelling towards the end of a magical ride.

REEL | Ben Affleck Finds 'The Way Back' to Redemption

"The players decide the game."

Warner Bros. Pictures

Director Gavin O'Connor and star Ben Affleck reteam for a very familiar inspirational underdog sports drama about redemption. Closely mimicking elements of Affleck's own personal life and history of addiction on a more working-class level, The Way Back (aka Finding the Way Back) is a thoroughly engrossing character study using coaching and high school basketball as a greater metaphor for the struggles of alcoholism.