What makes a film a soccer film?

Ever since we founded the Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival in 2009, people have asked us, What makes a film a soccer film?

It’s a question that, frankly, we had never contemplated before. Our team was — and still is — steeped in the game, including lifelong players, ex-pros, journalists, investors, marketers, and content creators. What made a film a soccer film was always self-evident to us. 

But the question has resonated with us over the years. Often, as we screen festival submissions, we find ourselves asking: Is this really a soccer film?

Usually, the answer is obvious. For example, behind-the-scenes documentaries revolve around action on the field, such as Les Yeux dans les Bleus, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, Diego Maradona, and The End of the Storm, are clearly soccer films.

So too with documentaries that explore the culture around the game. The themes of these films are universal to sports — the passion of fans (e.g., Fever Pitch; Argentina Fútbol Club), the community impact (e.g., The Home Game; Soccertown USA), the intersection of politics and sports (e.g., Mundial: The Highest Stakes; Football Rebels), the business side of the game (e.g., FC Barcelona Confidential; Soka Afrika), or a hero’s journey (e.g., Next Goal Wins; Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story).

Because soccer or soccer culture is central to the narrative, they are, to us, soccer films. Plus, in our minds, soccer’s unique culture and history make these stories richer than they are in other sports. 

Fictional films are more complicated. Certain movies, like Victory, Rudo y Cursi, or Bend It Like Beckham, are obviously soccer films. Again, the game is central to the story.

Others are less obvious. There are many films in which soccer is a significant part of the plot, but the story does not hinge on the game. 

We then have to determine if there is enough “there” there. Is the soccer integral enough? Would a soccer fan feel a connection to the soccer element of the story? These questions lead us to say the brilliant Scottish film Gregory’s Girl is a soccer film, but 10 Things I Hate about You — which includes a young Julia Stiles famously showing off her real-life soccer skills — is not. 

Finally, there is a special category of movies that are definitely not soccer films but sneak in fragments of the game that fanatics like us notice and remember forever. These moments are like little Easter eggs that make us feel like cool insiders because we get the reference that non-socceristas (especially in the United States) don’t. 

A few examples are the “Arsenal offside trap” line in The Full Monty and the Pele speech in the wrestling film Vision Quest.

In the end, what we’ve learned is that there is no one thing that makes a film a soccer film. Soccer-ness is just a gut feeling. 

To steal a line from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, you know a soccer film when you see it.

Reflecting on 15 years of soccer films and soccer friends

As we gear up for year 15 of the Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival this week, I thought I’d share a few thoughts about our story.

Here’s the truth: Fifteen years ago, my Kicking + Screening cofounder and friend Rachel Markus and I didn’t know what we were getting into when we decided, basically on a whim, to put on a soccer film festival.

We were younger then, with more vim and vinegar and less complicated lives. We just wanted to throw a party for soccer fans in New York and share some of the great soccer films we knew existed that had never found their audience.

That first festival in 2009 was magical. We hosted opening night at a fancy French restaurant called Opia on New York’s Upper East Side. It was owned by renowned restaurateur Fred Lesort, whom I had known from the downtown NYC rec league soccer circuit. We showed Stephane Meurier’s brilliant “Les Yeux dans les Bleus,” an insider’s view of the 1998 World Cup-winning French team. Everyone ate delicious French cuisine and drank wine. Not your typical soccer experience.

We mixed it up on other nights at K+S New York 2009. We showed FC Barcelona Confidential at a Spanish cultural center, In the Hands of the Gods at an Irish pub, and our first screening-room event — Once in a Lifetime at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. This was DIY all the way, from building the website to decorating venues to taking tickets, but it showed us something, namely, that there was an audience for these films and a craving for this kind of soccer culture.

Since then, we’ve been on a wondrous journey.

We’ve organized K+S festivals in some very expected places, like London, Liverpool, Rio de Janeiro, and Amsterdam. And we’ve done them in some very unexpected places, like Abu Dhabi, Kerala (India), and North Adams, Massachusetts. We’ve shown more than 150 films and screened probably 10 times that in order to find the best ones.

We’ve welcomed a steady stream of soccer luminaries, including everyone from French World Cup star Youri Djorkaeff to fashionista Simon Doonan, NY Cosmos legend Shep Messing to foosball world champion Tony Spredeman. More than once, soccer film historian Jan Tilman Schwab joined us, as did soccer philanthropist Ethan Zohn. Then there was that time that the late Chuck Blazer, disgraced former head of Concacaf, showed up and held court in the corner of the long-gone Tribeca Cinemas.

A frequent special guest of K+S was the journalist and author Grant Wahl. He promoted our events on his channels and participated in multiple panels. Even after his untimely and tragic death in 2022, he remains a spiritual friend of the festival.

When we launched in 2009, there was only one other film festival dedicated to soccer films — the brilliant 11mm Film Festival in Germany. Today, there are more than a dozen festivals that we know about, from Brazil to Bilbao. We like to think we played a role in building this small, but vibrant, soccer film industry.

Now, as we get ready to celebrate our 15th year with K+S New York 2024, we can reflect and admit that this K+S journey hasn’t always been easy. It’s had its ups and downs, it’s good and its bad.

But for Rachel and me — and Oliver, who joined not only the K+S family, but also married Rachel — and all the other people who have helped us along the way, it’s been worth it. There are amazingly talented filmmakers telling unique and memorable stories about this game. These stories deserve to be told. And heard or seen, and we have helped do that.

Most importantly, we’ve made lifelong friends with soccer people in our hometown and around the world. That’s the best K+S story of all.

Rachel (left) and I watch a film at K+S New York 2010.

The 7 best World Cup films ever, according to the soccer film experts (read: us)

The Men’s World Cup is here!

Which, of course, means plenty of World Cup film lists are floating around.

Since we like to think we know a thing or two about great soccer films, we thought we’d share some our favorite Men’s World Cup films — all of which have screened K+S at some point.

We’ve looked for streaming options for these films, but many are just not available in the US. (Some might be online somewhere, but you didn’t hear that from us.)

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Les Yeux dans les Bleus

Before Hard Knocks and All or Nothing, director Stephane Meunier showed what life was truly like inside a team. This up-close-and-personal view of France’s World Cup win in 1998 goes inside player’s rooms, private meetings, and team meals.

• The scene alone with Zinedine Zidane in the locker room after he gets a red card is pure sports-doc gold.

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American Fútbol

Four American friends embark on an epic soccer adventure through Central and South America. With the 2014 World Cup in Brazil as their final destination, they embrace the passionate fútbol culture of Latin America — and supercharge their own passion to support the US national team.

Rent on Amazon.

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One Night in Turin

Gary Lineker's goals. David Platt's volley. Paul Gascoigne's tears. Chris Waddle’s missed penalty. This was England at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Director James Erskine’s film recalls all the joy and pain of the run to the semis, interwoven with the political context of Thatcherism and the specter of hooliganism.

• The early ‘90s soundtrack is brilliant, and Gary Oldman is the narrator.

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Game of Their Lives

Directed by Daniel Gordon (FIFA Uncovered), this feature doc tells the story of the North Korean team that competed at the 1966 World Cup.

The squad of unknowns stunned Italy before disappearing back home.

Gordon brilliantly interweaves the historical account with his attempts to meet the seven surviving players in North Korea.

Rent on Vimeo.

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Tres Millones

Filmmaker Yamandu Roos and his father, Jaime Roos, a famous Uruguayan singer, travel to South Africa to follow Uruguay’s talented team at the 2010 World Cup.

Roos’s fame gets them access to the likes of Edinson Cavani, Diego Forlán, and Luis Suárez as La Celeste reach the semifinals.

Ultimately, though, this is a story of a father and son and a shared passion music, stories, and fútbol.

Stream on Apple TV or Amazon.

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One: The Story of a Goal

As El Salvador descended into civil war in the early 1980s, the national team stunningly earned a berth in the 1982 World Cup.

The internal politics and corruption that ensued crushed any notions of a Cinderella story for the team. And they lost 10-1 to Hungary in their opener.

But none of that can dampen El Salvador’s enduring pride about that team’s unlikely achievement.

Watch on YouTube (Spanish).

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Mundial: The Highest Stakes

A retelling of the Poland’s 3rd place finish at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, achieved against the backdrop of martial law back home.

The team were unable to prepare properly because of the politics, but the talent of Boniek, Młynarczyk, Smolarek, and others were not to be denied.

And the fans in Madrid and Barcelona embraced the team and the global pro-Solidarity movement burst into view in the stadiums.

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Actors who played soccer (kinda) seriously, from Cristo Fernandez to Julia Stiles

Eric Cantona, Pele, Vinnie Jones,…

Over the years, a few accomplished footballers have made the jump to acting.

In our minds, though, those names will always be players first, actors second. (Note: That might change for Cantona if the rave reviews for an upcoming Netflix drama are any indication.)

There are also actors who tried to make it on the field before they decided that the big screen was their true calling.

The game was their first love, their first passion. And a few even played at a decent level.

Here are a few actors and on-screen personalities who played soccer seriously before they decided they were better off on a set than a field.

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Cristo Fernandez

By now, Dani Rojas’s catchphrase on Ted Lasso — “Futbol Is Life” — has become a global phenomenon. But it has some basis in reality for the man behind Rojas, Cristo Fernandez. Before he became an actor, Fernandez was an up-and-coming talent in the academy at Tecos, a club in his hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. A knee injury forced a career change when he was 15.

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Elisabeth Shue

Long before she won our hearts in The Karate Kid and received an Oscar nomination for Leaving Las Vegas, Shue was a talented soccer player in New Jersey. Times were different then, though — she had to play on a boys’ team. "Every time I played, I knew everyone was watching me,” she said. “And they definitely hit me a little harder. But I would always hit them a little harder back.”

In 2007, Shue and her brother, Andrew — who actually played for the LA Galaxy in 1996 — made Gracie, a soccer film about her experiences growing up.

Watch Gracie on Amazon.

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Jon Stewart

To get the scoop on the legendary Daily Show host, we actually contacted his former coach at The College of William & Mary in Virginia. “Jon was a good player, a walk-on who became a three-year starter. He scored the goal in 1983 at UConn in a huge 1-0 win for us. And, as you can imagine, he was very funny in the locker room.”

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Colin Farrell

In Bruges star Farrell dreamed of following his father and uncle, both of whom played for Irish club Shamrock Rovers, into footy fame. But the young Farrell’s skills weren’t quite as strong as his acting talent. “Certainly, when I was 13 or 14, I knew for sure that I'd dropped the ball, so to speak," he said. Footy’s loss. Hollywood’s gain.

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Julia Stiles

It’s probably a coincidence that Stiles’s breakthrough on-screen performance came in 10 Things I Hate about You, which just happened to have several soccer scenes. But we choose to think otherwise. She was mad about the game, and even as an undergrad at Columbia was playing some serious footy in an Irish league in the Bronx. She often showed up at soccer practice after a film shoot and her makeup and fake tattoos “would get all smeared.”

Watch 10 Things I Hate About You on Apple TV.

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BONUS: A young Tom Cruise playing soccer

6 great films & TV series about Diego Maradona

To many, Diego Armando Maradona was the best footballer in history.

From the beginning, there was never any doubt about his talent. Or his flaws. He was a virtuoso whose genius on the field was matched only by his fallibility off of it.

So it’s not surprising that Maradona, who died in 2020 at the age of 60 after a life of unimaginable glories and epic failures, was the subject of countless films, including the K+S favorites In the Hands of the Gods and El Camino de San Diego. He was nothing if not entertaining.

This month, a new documentary about Maradona’s final year, titled Diego: The Last Goodbye, is out on HBO Max. It’s the latest in a slew of recent and upcoming Maradona films and series available in the United States.

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Diego: The Last Goodbye | Part chronicle of Maradona’s final days, part eulogy to his legend, this documentary includes interviews with his family, friends, former teammates, and fans. Everyone from ex-teammate Jorge Burrachaga to Paris St. Germain coach Mauricio Pochettino to biographer Ernesto Bialo reflect on what Maradona meant to them, to Argentina, and to the world.

Watch on HBO Max.

Maradona in Mexico | In 2018, in the wake of several managerial misadventures, Maradona was named manager of a small Mexican club, Dorados, based in Sinaloa, home base for one of Mexico’s biggest drug cartels. This seven-part series follows his time there, the media frenzy, the temptations, and, finally, the failure.

Watch on Netflix.

Diego Maradona | Directed by Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy), this documentary uses intimate never-before-seen footage to explore Maradona’s time at Italian club Napoli in the 1980s. Trophies, drugs, the mafia — it was a wild ride.

Watch on HBO Max.

Maradona: Blessed Dream | A 10-part series dramatizing Maradona’s life story, from his tough childhood in the barrios of Buenos Aires to the thrills of the World Cup. Argentine star Nazareno Casero portrays Diego as a young man, while Nicolás Goldschmidt takes the teenage years, and newcomer Juan Cruz Romero plays the childhood years.

Watch on Amazon Prime.

In the Hands of the Gods | Five British freestyling football friends head off on an epic journey to meet their idol: Diego Armando Maradona.

Watch on DocumentaryTube.com (free).

Maradona: The Fall | Coming this fall. As part of the launch of DaZN Studios, from live streaming platform DaZN, this feature-length documentary “explores football legend Diego Maradona’s fall from grace following a failed drug test during the 1994 World Cup. Angus MacQueen, who helmed Maradona in Mexico, will direct.

Learn more.