When We Were Kings is a 1996 American documentary film directed by Leon Gast about the "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight championship boxing match that was held on October 30, 1974, in Zaire between world heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. It features archival footage of celebrities, including James Brown, B.B. King, and promoter Don King, in the lead-up to the fight and accompanying Zaire 74 music festival, alongside interview footage of Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, Spike Lee and Thomas Hauser from the 1990s.
Conor McPherson is an Irish playwright, screenwriter and director of stage and film. In recognition of his contribution to world theatre, McPherson was awarded a doctorate of Literature, Honoris Causa, in June 2013 by the University College Dublin.
Million Dollar Baby is a 2004 American sports drama film directed, co-produced, scored by and starring Clint Eastwood from a screenplay written by Paul Haggis, based on stories from the 2000 collection Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner by F.X. Toole, the pen name of fight manager and cutman Jerry Boyd. It also stars Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman. The film follows Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald (Swank), an underdog amateur boxer who is helped by an underappreciated boxing trainer (Eastwood) to achieve her dream of becoming a professional.
The Set-Up is a 1949 American film noir boxing drama directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter. The screenplay was adapted by Art Cohn from a 1928 narrative poem of the same name by Joseph Moncure March. The Set-Up was the last film Wise made for RKO, and he named it his favorite of the pictures he directed for the studio, as well as one of his top ten of his career.
State and Main is a 2000 comedy film written and directed by David Mamet and starring William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alec Baldwin, Julia Stiles, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon, David Paymer, Patti LuPone, Clark Gregg, and Charles Durning.
Girlfight is a 2000 American sports drama film written and directed by Karyn Kusama and starring Michelle Rodriguez in both of their film debuts. It follows Diana Guzman, a troubled teenager from Brooklyn who decides to channel her aggression by training to become a boxer, despite the disapproval of both her father and her prospective trainers and competitors in the male-dominated sport.
Rocky Balboa is a 2006 American sports drama film written, directed by, and starring Sylvester Stallone. The film is the sequel to Rocky V (1990) and the sixth installment in the Rocky film series. Burt Young and Antonio Tarver also star. It was Tarver's first and only film, and Stallone's first film as director since Rocky IV (1985). In the film, Rocky Balboa (Stallone), now an aging small restaurant owner, is challenged to an exhibition fight by hothead boxer Mason Dixon (Tarver).
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun was born in 1961 in Abéché, Chad. He is a film director from Chad. He left Chad during the civil wars of the 1980s. Haroun is the first Chadian full-length film director. He both writes and directs his films. Though he has lived in France since 1982, most of his films have been set in and made in Chad.
Chad Dawson is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2019. He has held multiple light heavyweight world championships, and was one of the most highly regarded boxers in that division between 2006 and 2013. Dawson rose to prominence on the world stage in 2007, when he defeated Tomasz Adamek to become the WBC light heavyweight champion. After vacating that title, he defeated Antonio Tarver in 2008 to win the IBF and IBO titles, and defeated him in a rematch in 2009.
Poor Boy's Game is a 2007 Canadian drama film directed by Clement Virgo. Co-written with Nova Scotian writer/director Chaz Thorne, it is the story of class struggle, racial tensions, and boxing, set in the Canadian east coast port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The film premiered on February 11, 2007, at the Berlin International Film Festival. The movie stars Danny Glover, Rossif Sutherland, Greg Bryk, Flex Alexander and Laura Regan.
Who Loves the Sun is a 2006 Canadian film directed and written by Matt Bissonnette and starring Lukas Haas, Molly Parker, Adam Scott, R.H. Thomson, and Wendy Crewson.
Fighting Tommy Riley is a 2004 independent American sports drama film. It tells the story of Tommy Riley and Marty Goldberg, a boxer and his trainer, as they work to secure a title shot for Tommy. Their plans are complicated by the unrequited feelings Marty develops for Tommy. When a big-time promoter seeks to acquire Tommy's contract, Tommy endangers his future career because of his loyalty to Marty. Marty, seeing only one way to free Tommy to take his shot, takes his own life.
The Fighter is a 2010 American biographical sports drama film directed by David O. Russell, and stars Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo. The film centers on the lives of professional boxer Micky Ward (Wahlberg) and his older half-brother and former boxer Dicky Eklund (Bale). The film was inspired by the 1995 documentary that features the Eklund-Ward family, titled High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell.
Captain Conan is a 1996 French drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It is based on the 1934 Prix Goncourt-winning novel Captain Conan by Roger Vercel.
Shadow Boxers is a 1999 American documentary film about women's boxing, by director Katya Bankowsky, that focuses on the pioneering fighter Lucia Rijker. It also features an original soundtrack by Argentine singer and songwriter Zoel. Shadow Boxers had its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1999.
White God is a 2014 Hungarian drama film directed by Kornél Mundruczó and starring Zsófia Psotta. The film premiered on 17 May 2014, as part of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
Bleed for This is a 2016 American biographical sports film written and directed by Ben Younger and based on the life of former world champion boxer Vinny Pazienza. The film stars Miles Teller as Pazienza, with Aaron Eckhart, Katey Sagal, Ciarán Hinds, and Ted Levine in supporting roles.
Bilal: A New Breed of Hero is a fictional 2015 English-language Arabic 3D computer-animated action-adventure film about the birth of Islam, produced by Barajoun Entertainment and co-directed by Khurram H. Alavi and Ayman Jamal. With a story by Jamal, the screenplay was written by Alavi, Alex Kronemer, Michael Wolfe and Yassin Kamel. With this film, Jamal aimed to depict heroes from the history of the Arabian Peninsula.
Uaine Fa Junior is a New Zealand professional boxer. As an amateur he represented Tonga at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, winning a bronze medal in the super-heavyweight division; he also represented Tonga at the Oceania Championships, winning gold and multiple silver medals. His knockout-to-win percentage stands at 53%.
Lady Macbeth is a 2016 British drama film directed by William Oldroyd, produced by Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly and written by Alice Birch, based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov, though the film's ending deviates significantly from the source text. It stars Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie and Christopher Fairbank. The plot follows a young woman who is stifled by her loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age.
