Sportz247

Sport on the screen

Sport and the cinema were made for each other. Both are shows watched by a crowd, both live on suspense, and both need a hero, a rival and a final scene in which everything is decided in a few seconds. The sports film has given the cinema some of its most loved stories: the underdog who refuses to give up, the old champion who fights one last time, the team of misfits who learn to play together, the coach who believes in them before anyone else. It has also given it true stories of courage and scandal, from the Olympic runners of 1924 to the doping of the Tour de France, and comedies in which the ball, the puck or the golf club is only an excuse for laughter.

Sportz247 was a sports news desk, open around the clock, with a section for every sport in its menu: Cricket, Football, Tennis, Motor Sports, Hockey, Golf, MMA, Basketball and Other Sports. This guide turns those sections into shelves of films. It gathers 156 sports films, from The Set-Up, of 1949, to F1, Happy Gilmore 2 and The Smashing Machine, of 2025, and sorts them by sport on twelve shelves, in three families, with an English synopsis, the cast and director of each film and a Watch now button that opens it on JustWatch, where you can see the services that offer it in your country. The guide Start with Sportz247 picks one film from each shelf, and the guide How the sections work explains the selection.

The first family, Bat, club and racket, holds the games played with an instrument in the hand: cricket, baseball, golf, and tennis with its little cousin, table tennis. The second, Team games, holds football, American football, basketball and hockey, on ice and on grass. The third, Fight and speed, holds boxing, MMA and wrestling, motor sports, and a shelf of the track, the ice and the other sports of the Olympic Games. Together the 156 films carry about 259,000 votes on TMDB, with an average rating of 6.84; the most voted is the animated Cars, of 2006, a race car that learns there is more to life than winning, and the best rated are the documentary Senna and the Telugu cricket drama Jersey, with an 8.1 each.

The sports desk

The Wayback Machine keeps copies of sportz247.com from 2016 to 2025, and the captures from 2017 to 2023 show a sports news site built on Admag, a magazine theme of the time. The page is a light grey, close to the colour of newsprint. At the top sits a white header with the wordmark of the site, SPORTZ 24/7, in bold italic capitals, with SPORTZ in green, an orange-seamed ball for the letter O and 24/7 in black; below it runs the menu of sports, each name in dark bold letters that turn white on a green block when the pointer passes over them. The home page then opens with a slider of featured stories, each photograph with a small green label for its sport in the corner and a white headline on a dark gradient, followed by blocks of news, each with a dark title underlined by a short green bar, lists of headlines with thumbnails and the time since publication, and a dark grey footer.

This guide keeps that look: the light grey page, the white header with the green and black wordmark, the menu that turns green under the pointer, the dark featured panel of the introduction with its green label, the white blocks with their dark titles underlined in green, and the small green labels, which here carry the name of the sport on each poster, from Cricket to Olympic. The board of the home page, called Sections, lists the twelve shelves like the menu of the old desk, each box with its family in a green label, the name of the sport and its number of films. Behind every poster there is a full page with the synopsis, the cast and the Watch now button, which opens JustWatch. The guide The sports desk describes the captures; only their look was measured, and the guide uses its own data and images from TMDB.

How the sections work

Every film of the guide is about a sport: its hero plays it, coaches it, races in it or fights in it, or its story turns on a match, a season or a championship. The films were chosen by hand from TMDB, sport by sport, and each one sits on a single shelf, that of its sport; each shelf keeps its thirteen most voted films and lists them by votes, so that the best known come first. A few shelves stretch the sections of the old menu: Tennis also holds table tennis, Hockey holds both ice hockey and the field hockey of India, MMA also holds wrestling and kickboxing, and the shelf of the track, the ice and the other sports gathers the runners, skaters, skiers, cyclists and bobsledders that the old menu kept under Other Sports.

The guide is in English, but the sports are global, and so are its films: 135 are in English, fourteen in Hindi, two in Tamil and one each in Telugu, Cantonese, Swedish, Japanese and French. The collection World sports gathers the 21 films in other languages than English, and the guide India at play follows the seventeen films first produced in India, which fill the shelf of cricket and appear on the shelves of hockey, wrestling and the track. Seven films are documentaries, from Hoop Dreams to Senna and Icarus. The guide How the sections work sums up the rules.

Bat, club and racket

The first family, Bat, club and racket, gathers 52 films of the sports played with an instrument in the hand, with about 49,200 votes and an average of 6.62. They are the sports of patience and precision, where a match can last a whole afternoon or five days, and the films reflect it: they are often stories of character more than of muscle, of a batter who waits for the right ball or a golfer who must master his nerves on the last green. The guide Bat, club and racket sums up the family.

Cricket

The shelf Cricket holds thirteen films from 2001 to 2021, and it is the shelf of India: twelve of its films were made there, nine in Hindi, two in Tamil and one in Telugu. Its most voted film is Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, of 2001, by Ashutosh Gowariker, with Aamir Khan as a young farmer of 1893 who accepts the challenge of a British officer: if his village beats the officers at cricket, it will be spared three years of taxes. At 233 minutes it is the longest film of the guide, and it was nominated for the Academy Award for the best film in a foreign language. The best rated film of the shelf is Jersey, of 2019, by Gowtam Tinnanuri, with Nani as a gifted cricketer in his mid-thirties who returns to the game to buy his son a jersey, with an 8.1, level with Senna as the best rated film of the guide; it was remade in Hindi in 2022.

The true stories of the shelf follow the heroes of Indian cricket. M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, of 2016, by Neeraj Pandey, with Sushant Singh Rajput as the ticket collector who became the captain of India, is at 190 minutes the second longest film of the guide; 83, of 2021, by Kabir Khan, with Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev, retells the victory of the underdogs of India in the World Cup of 1983 at Lord's, and Azhar, of 2016, with Emraan Hashmi, the rise and fall of the captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Sushant Singh Rajput also appears in Kai Po Che!, of 2013, by Abhishek Kapoor, a drama of three friends in Gujarat who open a cricket academy.

The fictions of the shelf are tales of dreamers. Iqbal, of 2005, by Nagesh Kukunoor, follows a deaf boy from a village who wants to bowl for India, with Naseeruddin Shah as his drunken coach; Patiala House, of 2011, follows Akshay Kumar as a fast bowler of the London suburb of Southall whose father forbids him to play for England; Ferrari Ki Sawaari, of 2012, a father who borrows the Ferrari of Sachin Tendulkar to pay for his son's cricket camp at Lord's, and Dil Bole Hadippa!, of 2009, with Rani Mukerji as a young woman who disguises herself as a man to play. The Tamil films are Kanaa, of 2018, with Aishwarya Rajesh as the daughter of a farmer who becomes a cricketer for India, and Chennai 600028, of 2007, the first film of Venkat Prabhu, a comedy of street cricket in the lanes of Chennai. The only film in English is the documentary Fire in Babylon, about the great West Indies team of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, which ruled world cricket from the late 1970s.

Baseball

The shelf Baseball holds thirteen films from 1976 to 2013, all American, about the national pastime. Its most voted film is Moneyball, of 2011, by Bennett Miller, with Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who built a winning team on statistics in 2002, with Jonah Hill as his young analyst. Its best rated film is The Sandlot, of 1993, with a 7.6, a summer of boys who play on a dusty field and must recover a ball signed by Babe Ruth from the yard of a fearsome dog. 42, of 2013, with Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, the first Black player of the major leagues in 1947, and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, the executive who signed him, is the second most voted.

Kevin Costner is the baseball player of the cinema, with three films on the shelf: Bull Durham, of 1988, by Ron Shelton, as a veteran catcher of the minor leagues; Field of Dreams, of 1989, as a farmer of Iowa who builds a baseball field in his cornfield after hearing a voice, and For Love of the Game, of 1999, by Sam Raimi, as a pitcher who reviews his life during a perfect game. He appears in six films of the guide in all, more than any other actor. The Natural, of 1984, by Barry Levinson, with Robert Redford as a mysterious slugger with a bat carved from a tree struck by lightning, and The Rookie, of 2002, with Dennis Quaid as Jim Morris, a high school teacher who made the major leagues at 35, are the dreamers of the shelf.

The team comedies are A League of Their Own, of 1992, by Penny Marshall, with Geena Davis, Madonna and Tom Hanks as the coach of a women's team during the Second World War; Major League, of 1989, with Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen in a team of misfits that its owner wants to lose, and The Bad News Bears, of 1976, by Michael Ritchie, the oldest film of the shelf, with Walter Matthau coaching a hopeless team of the Little League. Eight Men Out, of 1988, by John Sayles, tells the scandal of the Black Sox, the players of Chicago who threw the World Series of 1919, and Trouble with the Curve, of 2012, with Clint Eastwood as an ageing scout and Amy Adams as his daughter.

Golf

The shelf Golf holds thirteen films from 1951 to 2025, and with an average of 6.02 it is the lowest rated shelf of the guide, because several of its films are broad comedies. The most voted is Happy Gilmore, of 1996, with Adam Sandler as a failed hockey player who discovers he can drive a golf ball farther than anyone, and its sequel Happy Gilmore 2, of 2025, came 29 years later; Sandler appears in five films of the guide. Caddyshack, of 1980, by Harold Ramis, with Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield and Bill Murray at war with a gopher, is the classic comedy of the country club, and Caddyshack II, of 1988, rated 4.2, its failed sequel. The lowest rated film of the guide is here too, Who's Your Caddy?, of 2007, rated 3.4.

The dramas of the shelf are better rated. The Greatest Game Ever Played, of 2005, directed by the actor Bill Paxton, with Shia LaBeouf as Francis Ouimet, the young amateur who won the US Open of 1913, is the best rated film of the shelf, with a 7.3; The Legend of Bagger Vance, of 2000, by Robert Redford, follows Matt Damon as a champion lost after the war and Will Smith as his mysterious caddie, and Tin Cup, of 1996, by Ron Shelton, Kevin Costner as a driving-range pro who tries to qualify for the US Open. The real golfers of the shelf are Bobby Jones, played by Jim Caviezel in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, of 2004; Ben Hogan, played by Glenn Ford in Follow the Sun, of 1951, the oldest film of the shelf, and Maurice Flitcroft, the British crane operator who entered the Open Championship in 1976 and shot the worst score in its history, played by Mark Rylance in The Phantom of the Open. Pat and Mike, of 1952, by George Cukor, with Katharine Hepburn as an athlete of golf and tennis and Spencer Tracy as her manager, and Seven Days in Utopia, of 2011, with Robert Duvall, complete it.

Tennis and table tennis

The shelf Tennis and table tennis holds thirteen films from 1951 to 2025. Its best rated film is the oldest: Strangers on a Train, of 1951, by Alfred Hitchcock, with a 7.7, in which a tennis player meets a stranger who proposes to swap murders, and the climax plays against a match at Forest Hills. Its most voted is Match Point, of 2005, by Woody Allen, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a former tennis professional who climbs into the London upper class with Scarlett Johansson, and the true stories follow the champions: King Richard, of 2021, with Will Smith, who won the Academy Award, as the father of Venus and Serena Williams, rated 7.6; Battle of the Sexes, of 2017, with Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs, the match of 1973, and the Swedish Borg vs McEnroe, of 2017, the Wimbledon final of 1980, with Shia LaBeouf as McEnroe. The documentary Venus and Serena, of 2012, follows the sisters themselves.

The new tennis films are thrillers of desire: Challengers, of 2024, by Luca Guadagnino, with Zendaya between two players who were once best friends. The table tennis of the shelf goes from farce to obsession: Balls of Fury, of 2007, with Christopher Walken as the host of an underground tournament; the Japanese Ping Pong, of 2002, two school friends with opposite styles, and Marty Supreme, of 2025, by Josh Safdie, with Timothée Chalamet as a hustler of the 1950s who wants to be world champion, rated 7.4. The comedies are Wimbledon, of 2004, with Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst; Break Point, of 2014, two brothers at the end of their careers, and 7 Days in Hell, of 2015, a parody documentary of HBO with Andy Samberg and Kit Harington about the longest match ever played; at 43 minutes it is the shortest film of the guide.

Team games

The second family, Team games, gathers 52 films of football, American football, basketball and hockey, with about 74,100 votes and an average of 6.84. The team film has its own shape: a coach arrives, a group of strangers or rivals becomes a team, and the final game decides whether they have learned to play for each other. Many of the films of the family are true stories of that kind, set in high schools and small towns, where a season of sport can change a whole community. The guide Team games sums up the family.

Football

The shelf Football holds thirteen films from 1981 to 2023 about the game the rest of the world calls football, and most of its films are British. Its most voted film is an American comedy, She's the Man, of 2006, with Amanda Bynes as a girl who disguises herself as her brother to play on the boys' team, from Twelfth Night of Shakespeare, with Channing Tatum. The most famous British films of the shelf are Bend It Like Beckham, of 2002, by Gurinder Chadha, with Parminder Nagra as a Sikh girl of west London who dreams of playing like David Beckham and Keira Knightley as her teammate, and Escape to Victory, of 1981, by John Huston, the oldest film of the shelf, with Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine and Pelé himself as prisoners of war who play a match against a German team.

The dark side of English football is the subject of Green Street Hooligans, of 2005, with Elijah Wood as an American student drawn into a firm of West Ham supporters, rated 7.3, and of The Football Factory, of 2004, with Danny Dyer; The Damned United, of 2009, by Tom Hooper, with Michael Sheen as Brian Clough, tells the 44 days he spent as the manager of Leeds United in 1974, and Looking for Eric, of 2009, by Ken Loach, with Éric Cantona as himself, the imaginary adviser of a depressed postman of Manchester. Mean Machine, of 2001, with Vinnie Jones as a former captain of England who coaches a prison team, and Goal!, of 2005, a young Mexican immigrant of Los Angeles who gets a trial at Newcastle United, complete the British films.

The rest of the shelf comes from around the world. Shaolin Soccer, of 2001, by Stephen Chow, in Cantonese, turns a team of kung fu masters into footballers with superpowers; Pelé: Birth of a Legend, of 2016, follows the young Pelé to the World Cup of 1958, rated 7.3; Next Goal Wins, of 2023, by Taika Waititi, with Michael Fassbender as the coach of American Samoa, once beaten 31 to 0, and the best rated film of the shelf is the documentary Diego Maradona, of 2019, by Asif Kapadia, made from hundreds of hours of footage of the years in Naples, with a 7.4. Kapadia also made Senna, on the shelf of motor sports.

American football

The shelf American football holds thirteen films from 1993 to 2015, and with about 29,600 votes it is the most voted shelf of the family. Its most voted and best rated film is The Blind Side, of 2009, by John Lee Hancock, with Sandra Bullock, who won the Academy Award, as the mother who takes in Michael Oher, a homeless teenager who becomes a star of the NFL, rated 7.7, level with Remember the Titans, of 2000, with Denzel Washington as Herman Boone, the coach who led the first integrated team of a high school of Virginia in 1971. Denzel Washington appears in three films of the guide, with He Got Game and The Hurricane. John Lee Hancock also made The Rookie, on the shelf of baseball.

The true stories go on with Rudy, of 1993, by David Anspaugh, with Sean Astin as the small, stubborn boy who dreams of playing for Notre Dame, rated 7.4; Invincible, of 2006, with Mark Wahlberg as Vince Papale, a substitute teacher who made the Philadelphia Eagles at 30 after an open tryout; We Are Marshall, of 2006, the rebuilding of a college team after the plane crash of 1970 that killed most of its players; Friday Night Lights, of 2004, by Peter Berg, with Billy Bob Thornton, a season of a high school of Odessa, Texas, in 1988, and Concussion, of 2015, with Will Smith as Bennet Omalu, the doctor who discovered the brain disease of football players.

The fictions are led by Jerry Maguire, of 1996, by Cameron Crowe, with Tom Cruise as a sports agent who loses everything except one client; Any Given Sunday, of 1999, by Oliver Stone, with Al Pacino as an ageing coach, at 163 minutes the longest film of the shelf, and Draft Day, of 2014, by Ivan Reitman, with Kevin Costner as the general manager of the Cleveland Browns on the day of the draft. Adam Sandler has two comedies of the shelf: The Longest Yard, of 2005, the prison game remade from the film of 1974, and The Waterboy, of 1998, a water boy with a talent for tackling. Leatherheads, of 2008, by and with George Clooney, recalls the early days of the professional game in the 1920s.

Basketball

The shelf Basketball holds thirteen films from 1985 to 2023. Its most voted film is Space Jam, of 1996, in which Michael Jordan plays himself and helps the Looney Tunes win a game against alien invaders, and its best rated film is Hustle, of 2022, with a 7.7, Adam Sandler as a tired scout of the Philadelphia 76ers who discovers a street player in Spain, played by the real professional Juancho Hernangómez. Coach Carter, of 2005, with Samuel L. Jackson as Ken Carter, the coach of Richmond, California, who locked his unbeaten team out of the gym in 1999 until their grades improved, rated 7.6, and Glory Road, of 2006, the team of Texas Western that won the national title of 1966 with five Black starters, rated 7.4, are its true stories.

The dramas of the shelf are about fathers, sons and second chances. He Got Game, of 1998, by Spike Lee, with Denzel Washington as a prisoner released for a week to convince his son, played by the real player Ray Allen, to join the team of the governor's university; Hoosiers, of 1986, by David Anspaugh, who also made Rudy, with Gene Hackman as the coach of a small school of Indiana in 1954; The Way Back, of 2020, with Ben Affleck as a former star who coaches his old high school while fighting alcoholism, and the romance of Love and Basketball, of 2000, by Gina Prince-Bythewood, two neighbours who both dream of playing professionally. The documentary Hoop Dreams, of 1994, by Steve James, follows two boys of Chicago through five years of their hopes, at 174 minutes, rated 7.6.

The comedies complete the shelf: Teen Wolf, of 1985, with Michael J. Fox as a teenager who turns into a werewolf and a star of the court; Like Mike, of 2002, an orphan who finds the sneakers of Michael Jordan; Semi-Pro, of 2008, with Will Ferrell as the owner, coach and star of a team of the 1970s, and Champions, of 2023, by Bobby Farrelly, with Woody Harrelson as a minor league coach sentenced to train a team of players with intellectual disabilities.

Hockey

The shelf Hockey holds thirteen films from 1977 to 2018, of the ice and of the grass. The best rated is the documentary Red Army, of 2015, by Gabe Polsky, about the great Soviet team of the 1980s, rated 7.3, and its rival appears in Miracle, of 2004, by Gavin O'Connor, with Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks, the coach whose team of college players beat the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games of 1980. The most voted film is Goon, of 2012, with Seann William Scott as a gentle bouncer hired as the enforcer of a minor league team, and the classic comedy of the ice is Slap Shot, of 1977, by George Roy Hill, with Paul Newman as the player-coach of a team that wins by fighting, the oldest film of the shelf.

The families of the shelf know The Mighty Ducks, of 1992, with Emilio Estevez as a lawyer sentenced to coach a team of children, and its sequel D2: The Mighty Ducks, of 1994; the action fans know Sudden Death, of 1995, with Jean-Claude Van Damme as a fire marshal who fights terrorists during a final of the Stanley Cup. Mystery, Alaska, of 1999, by Jay Roach, with Russell Crowe, a small town whose amateur team gets to play the New York Rangers; Youngblood, of 1986, with Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze, and the French-Canadian The Rocket, of 2005, the life of Maurice Richard, the hero of the Montreal Canadiens, complete the films of the ice.

The films of the grass come from India, where field hockey is a national passion. Chak De! India, of 2007, with Shah Rukh Khan as a disgraced former captain who coaches the women's national team to the World Cup, rated 7.2; Gold, of 2018, with Akshay Kumar, the first Olympic gold of independent India, in London in 1948, and Soorma, of 2018, with Diljit Dosanjh as Sandeep Singh, the drag-flicker who returned to the team after being shot by accident.

Fight and speed

The third family, Fight and speed, gathers 52 films of boxing, MMA and wrestling, motor sports, and the track, the ice and the other sports. With about 135,900 votes it is the most voted family of the guide, and with an average of 7.07 the best rated. These are the sports of the single hero, alone in the ring, at the wheel or on the track, and the cinema has always loved them for their faces: the bruised eye of the boxer, the helmet of the driver, the agony of the runner in the last metres. The guide Fight and speed sums up the family.

Boxing

The shelf Boxing holds thirteen films from 1949 to 2016, and it is the best rated shelf of the guide, with an average of 7.22. Its most voted and best rated film is Million Dollar Baby, of 2004, by and with Clint Eastwood as an old trainer who takes on a determined waitress, played by Hilary Swank, with Morgan Freeman; it won four Academy Awards, including best picture, and is rated 8.0. Raging Bull, of 1980, by Martin Scorsese, filmed in black and white, with Robert De Niro as the middleweight Jake LaMotta, rated 7.9, is the other great boxing film of the shelf; De Niro returned to the ring as the trainer Ray Arcel in Hands of Stone, of 2016, with Édgar Ramírez as Roberto Durán.

The true stories go on with Cinderella Man, of 2005, by Ron Howard, with Russell Crowe as James Braddock, the champion of the Great Depression, rated 7.6; The Fighter, of 2010, by David O. Russell, with Mark Wahlberg as Micky Ward and Christian Bale, who won the Academy Award, as his troubled brother; Ali, of 2001, by Michael Mann, with Will Smith as Muhammad Ali, at 157 minutes the longest film of the shelf; The Hurricane, of 1999, by Norman Jewison, with Denzel Washington as Rubin Carter, the boxer wrongly convicted of three murders in 1966, and Bleed for This, of 2016, with Miles Teller as Vinny Pazienza, who returned to the ring after breaking his neck in a car crash. Southpaw, of 2015, by Antoine Fuqua, with Jake Gyllenhaal as a champion who loses everything and must start again, is the second most voted film of the shelf, rated 7.4.

The oldest boxing films of the guide are among its best. The Set-Up, of 1949, by Robert Wise, the oldest film of the guide, with Robert Ryan as an ageing fighter whose manager has secretly agreed that he will lose, is told in real time, 73 minutes for 73 minutes; Wise returned to the ring in Somebody Up There Likes Me, of 1956, with Paul Newman as the champion Rocky Graziano, and Fat City, of 1972, by John Huston, with Stacy Keach and the young Jeff Bridges, follows two boxers of the small halls of Stockton, California. Girlfight, of 2000, by Karyn Kusama, with Michelle Rodriguez as a teenager of Brooklyn who channels her anger into the ring, completes the shelf.

MMA and wrestling

The shelf MMA and wrestling holds thirteen films from 1988 to 2025 about the fighters of the cage, the mat and the ring of wrestling. Its most voted film is Warrior, of 2011, by Gavin O'Connor, with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as two estranged brothers who meet in the final of a tournament of mixed martial arts, rated 7.8, and its best rated is Dangal, of 2016, by Nitesh Tiwari, with Aamir Khan as Mahavir Singh Phogat, the wrestler of Haryana who trained his daughters to become champions, rated 7.9; Aamir Khan also leads Lagaan, on the shelf of cricket. Gavin O'Connor directed three films of the guide, Warrior, Miracle and The Way Back, more than any other director.

The wrestlers of the shelf are The Wrestler, of 2008, by Darren Aronofsky, with Mickey Rourke as a faded star of the 1980s, rated 7.5; The Iron Claw, of 2023, with Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White as the brothers of the Von Erich family; Foxcatcher, of 2014, by Bennett Miller, who also made Moneyball, with Steve Carell as the millionaire John du Pont and Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo as the Olympic wrestlers he sponsored; Fighting with My Family, of 2019, with Florence Pugh as Paige, a girl of Norwich who became a champion of WWE, and Nacho Libre, of 2006, with Jack Black as a monk who wrestles in secret in Mexico. Channing Tatum appears in three films of the guide, with She's the Man and Fighting, of 2009, a drama of street fights in New York.

The martial arts belong to Jean-Claude Van Damme, who appears in three films of the guide: Bloodsport, of 1988, the story of Frank Dux in a secret tournament in Hong Kong, rated 7.1, Kickboxer, of 1989, and Sudden Death, on the shelf of hockey. Redbelt, of 2008, by David Mamet, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as a teacher of jiu-jitsu; Here Comes the Boom, of 2012, with Kevin James as a biology teacher who fights in the cage to save the music programme of his school, and The Smashing Machine, of 2025, by Benny Safdie, with Dwayne Johnson as the pioneer of MMA Mark Kerr, the newest film of the shelf, complete it.

Motor sports

The shelf Motor sports holds thirteen films from 1971 to 2025, and with about 52,000 votes it is the most voted shelf of the guide. Its most voted film is Cars, of 2006, by John Lasseter, with the voices of Owen Wilson as the race car Lightning McQueen and Paul Newman as Doc Hudson, a retired champion; with about 15,700 votes it is the most voted film of the guide, and Newman, himself a racing driver who finished second at Le Mans in 1979, appears in three films of the guide. Its best rated is the documentary Senna, of 2010, by Asif Kapadia, made entirely from archive footage of the Brazilian champion Ayrton Senna, who died at Imola in 1994, rated 8.1, level with Jersey as the best rated film of the guide.

Formula One has three great films on the shelf. Rush, of 2013, by Ron Howard, with Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt and Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda in the season of 1976, rated 7.7; F1, of 2025, by Joseph Kosinski, with Brad Pitt as a veteran driver who returns to help a struggling team, rated 7.8, and Senna. Ford v Ferrari, of 2019, by James Mangold, with Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby and Christian Bale as Ken Miles, the duel of Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans in 1966, rated 8.0; Ferrari, of 2023, by Michael Mann, with Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari in the summer of 1957, and Le Mans, of 1971, the oldest film of the shelf, with Steve McQueen in the 24-hour race, filmed during the real race. Ron Howard and Michael Mann each have two films in the guide, with Cinderella Man and Ali on the shelf of boxing.

The rest of the shelf races in every form. Gran Turismo, of 2023, by Neill Blomkamp, the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a player of the video game who became a real racing driver, rated 7.7; The World's Fastest Indian, of 2005, with Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro, the man of New Zealand who set a speed record at Bonneville on a motorcycle of 1920, rated 7.7; Days of Thunder, of 1990, by Tony Scott, with Tom Cruise in the NASCAR; Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, of 2006, with Will Ferrell, the comedy of the NASCAR; Speed Racer, of 2008, by the Wachowskis, from the Japanese cartoon, and Driven, of 2001, by Renny Harlin, with Sylvester Stallone, the lowest rated film of the shelf, with a 5.2.

Track, ice and other sports

The shelf Track, ice and other sports holds thirteen films from 1962 to 2017 about the sports that the old menu kept under Other Sports, most of them the sports of the Olympic Games. Its most voted film is I, Tonya, of 2017, by Craig Gillespie, with Margot Robbie as the figure skater Tonya Harding and Allison Janney, who won the Academy Award, as her mother; its best rated is the documentary Icarus, of 2017, by Bryan Fogel, which began as an experiment with doping in cycling and became the story of the Russian doping programme, the winner of the Academy Award for best documentary, rated 7.6.

The runners of the shelf are Chariots of Fire, of 1981, by Hugh Hudson, the winner of the Academy Award for best picture, about two British runners at the Olympic Games of Paris in 1924; Race, of 2016, with Stephan James as Jesse Owens, the four gold medals of Berlin in 1936; Unbroken, of 2014, by Angelina Jolie, the Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who survived 47 days on a raft and two years in Japanese camps; Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, of 2013, with Farhan Akhtar as the Indian sprinter Milkha Singh, at 186 minutes; McFarland, USA, of 2015, with Kevin Costner as the coach of a team of cross-country runners from the farm workers' families of California, rated 7.5, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, of 1962, by Tony Richardson, the oldest film of the shelf, with Tom Courtenay as a young offender who runs for his reform school.

Two films of the shelf tell the Winter Olympics of Calgary in 1988: Cool Runnings, of 1993, the first bobsleigh team of Jamaica, rated 7.0, and Eddie the Eagle, of 2016, with Taron Egerton as Eddie Edwards, the British ski jumper who came last and won the hearts of the crowd, with Hugh Jackman as his coach. Blades of Glory, of 2007, with Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as the first male pair of figure skating, is the comedy of the ice; Ferrell appears in three films of the guide, with Talladega Nights and Semi-Pro. The cyclists close the shelf: Breaking Away, of 1979, by Peter Yates, a boy of Indiana who dreams of the Italian racers, and The Program, of 2015, by Stephen Frears, with Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong.

True stories of sport

About sixty-five films of the guide are drawn from real life, and together they form a short history of modern sport. The oldest stories are those of the 1910s to the 1940s: Francis Ouimet at the US Open of 1913 in The Greatest Game Ever Played, the Black Sox of 1919 in Eight Men Out, the runners of 1924 in Chariots of Fire, James Braddock in Cinderella Man, Jesse Owens in Race, the women's league of baseball in A League of Their Own, Jackie Robinson in 42 and the first Olympic gold of independent India in Gold. The 1960s and 1970s bring Glory Road, Remember the Titans, Rush, Battle of the Sexes and Ford v Ferrari; the 1980s bring Miracle, Raging Bull, the World Cup of cricket of 1983 in 83 and the Winter Olympics of Calgary, and the 21st century brings Moneyball, The Blind Side, Coach Carter, King Richard, Dangal, Icarus and The Program. The guide True stories of sport puts them in order.

Several of the true stories are about the coaches rather than the players: Herb Brooks in Miracle, Herman Boone in Remember the Titans, Ken Carter in Coach Carter, Mahavir Singh Phogat in Dangal, Richard Williams in King Richard, the coach of McFarland, USA, and Brian Clough in The Damned United. The guide The coaches gathers them, and the guide The underdogs follows the teams and athletes who won against the odds, from the village of Lagaan to the bobsledders of Jamaica.

India at play

Seventeen films of the guide were first produced in India, and they show a cinema in which sport is a matter of national pride. Cricket is the great passion, with twelve films from Lagaan to 83, but India also gave the guide its films of field hockey, Chak De! India, Gold and Soorma, its great wrestling film, Dangal, and its great running film, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. The Indian sports film is often long, often musical and often patriotic: Lagaan lasts 233 minutes, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story 190 and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag 186, the three longest films of the guide, and many of them end with the anthem of the nation or a victory over a foreign team. Aamir Khan leads two of them, Lagaan and Dangal, and Sushant Singh Rajput two more, Kai Po Che! and M.S. Dhoni; Akshay Kumar plays the fast bowler of Patiala House and the hockey manager of Gold. The guide India at play follows them all.

The directors and the stars

Gavin O'Connor is the director of the guide, with three films on three shelves: Miracle, Warrior and The Way Back. Ron Howard made Rush and Cinderella Man; Michael Mann made Ali and Ferrari; Asif Kapadia made the documentaries Senna and Diego Maradona; Bennett Miller made Moneyball and Foxcatcher; John Lee Hancock made The Rookie and The Blind Side; David Anspaugh made Hoosiers and Rudy; Ron Shelton made Bull Durham and Tin Cup; Robert Wise made The Set-Up and Somebody Up There Likes Me, and John Huston made Escape to Victory and Fat City. The guide The directors lists them all.

Kevin Costner is the athlete of the guide, with six films: three of baseball, one of golf, one of American football and one of running. Adam Sandler follows with five, two of golf, two of American football and one of basketball, and Will Smith with four, as the father of King Richard, the doctor of Concussion, the boxer of Ali and the caddie of Bagger Vance. Paul Newman, Denzel Washington, Will Ferrell, Channing Tatum, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Quaid and Robert Duvall appear in three films each. The guide The stars lists the actors who appear most often.

The decades of sport

By decade, the guide holds one film of the 1940s, four of the 1950s, one of the 1960s, five of the 1970s, fifteen of the 1980s, nineteen of the 1990s, 51 of the 2000s, 45 of the 2010s and fifteen of the 2020s. The sports film grew with the big sports of television: the 1980s gave it its classics, from Raging Bull and Chariots of Fire to Hoosiers and Field of Dreams, and the 2000s, the largest decade of the guide, its true stories, from Remember the Titans to Million Dollar Baby and The Blind Side. The collection Before 1980 gathers the eleven oldest films, from The Set-Up, of 1949, to Breaking Away, of 1979, in order of release.

Sportz247 in figures

The 156 films of the guide carry about 259,000 votes on TMDB, with an average rating of 6.84. Four of them reach 8 or more: Senna and Jersey, with an 8.1, and Million Dollar Baby and Ford v Ferrari, with an 8.0. The collection Rated 7.5 or more gathers the 26 films rated 7.5 or more, best first. The most voted films are Cars, with about 15,700 votes, Million Dollar Baby, Ford v Ferrari, Rush and The Blind Side. Together the films last 18,575 minutes, more than 309 hours of sport; the longest is Lagaan, with 233 minutes, and the shortest is 7 Days in Hell, with 43, a match that lasts longer than the film. The guide The figures gathers every number.

Where to begin

For a first visit, choose one film from each family. From Bat, club and racket, try Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India for the most famous cricket film of all, or Moneyball for a sports film about numbers. From Team games, try Remember the Titans or Miracle, two true stories of a coach who turned a group into a team. From Fight and speed, try Million Dollar Baby, the best rated film of the boxing shelf, or Rush, the duel of two drivers who could hardly have been more different. And for a laugh, try Happy Gilmore, Cool Runnings or Shaolin Soccer. The guide Start with Sportz247 gives one pick from each shelf.

How to use Sportz247

The home page opens with the introduction on a dark panel with a green label, and then the Sections, the board of the twelve shelves. Each box shows its family in a green label, the name of the sport and its number of films, and leads to its row on the same page. Each row is a white block with a dark title underlined in green, a line of posters and a green View all button that opens the full shelf. The menu in the header leads to the three families, and the search box finds any film by its title; the guide Search tips explains how.

Each poster carries the year and the TMDB rating and, at the bottom, the name of its sport in a green label, for example Cricket or Boxing; under the poster come the first genre and the running time. The page of each film has the English synopsis, the cast, the director and the genres. The Watch now button opens the film on JustWatch, which shows the services that offer it in your country, and the button Add to My List keeps it in My list, stored in your browser. The guide How to use Sportz247 explains each part, and the guide The Watch now button explains how JustWatch works.

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