Sport and Film

Now in a fully revised and updated new edition, Sport and Film examines the social, cultural, historical, and ideological significance of representations of sport in film around the world. It is an essential guide for all students and enthusiasts of sport, film, media, and culture.

This book traces the history of the sports film, from the beginnings of cinema in the 1890s, its consolidation as a distinct fiction genre in the mid-1920s in Hollywood films such as Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman, to its contemporary manifestation in Oscar-winning and nominated films such as Million Dollar Baby, The Fighter, and Creed. Drawing on an extensive range of films as source material, this book explores key issues in the study of sport, film, and wider society, including race, social class, gender, and national culture. It also offers an invaluable guide to ’reading’ a film, to help students fully engage with their source material. This new edition also includes a new chapter on sport documentaries, a consideration of Russian sport cinema, new pedagogical features - including review questions, proposed projects, case studies, and definitions of key terms - to enhance the reader’s understanding, and a consideration of the significance of sport and sport cinema with regard to the election of businessman and media personality Donald Trump as President of the United States.

Comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible, this is an essential text for any course on sport media, and invaluable reading for general courses on sport and society, film studies, or cultural studies.

A dedicated website with further resources is available at sportandfilm.eu.

Seán Crosson is Associate Professor of Film in the Huston School of Film & Digital Media at University of Galway, Ireland. His main research interest over the past twenty years has been the examination of the representation of sport in film. He is leader of the Sport in European Cinema project (https: //sportandfilm.eu). He has also uncovered important historical depictions of sport in film, particularly Gaelic games, and his research has been featured in national and international media, and several sport-related documentary projects, including as writer and co-producer of the mini-series Iománaíocht Hollywood: Cluichí Gaelacha ar Scannán / Hollywood Hurling: Gaelic Games on Film (2025) produced for Irish broadcaster TG4.