The World Cup
Marking the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the films in OVID’s World Cup collection uncover the human stories, aspirations and harsh economic realities behind the world’s most popular sport. Focusing on working class lives, Las Leonas and Sunday Ball tell poignant stories of amateur players giving their all in recreational games. The five-part animated series The Game of Three Halves is an innovative hand-drawn ode to the passionate and idiosyncratic lives of football fans around the world. The enjoyment of soccer comes in all shapes and sizes.
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Football Under Cover
Directed by Ayat Najafi and David Assmann • Documentary • 2008 • 86 minutes
The members of the Iranian women's international football (soccer) team possess a dedication to the sport rivaling that of any other group of players in the world. What they lack, however, is a team to play against. When...
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Hopefuls
Directed by Ives Rosenfeld • Drama • With Ariclenes Barroso, Sérgio Malheiros • 2015 • 74 minutes
“Hopefuls” tells the story of Junior, a young player for Bacaxa A.C, an amateur football team from the city of Saquarema, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. He has to deal with the unexpected pre...
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A Game of Three Halves - Episode 1
Directed by Matthew Bate • Animation • 2021 • 4 minutes
Sports journalist, podcaster and week-end player Max Rushden, hilariously ruminates on the frustrastions, disasters and joys of spending his weekends organising and playing amateur Sunday league football. From surviving apocalyptic microcli...
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A Game of Three Halves - Episode 2
Directed by Matthew Bate • Animation • 2021 • 5 minutes
In Iran we go undercover with soccer superfan Sara, who has never been allowed to see an actual game since the government banned women from going to stadiums in 1981. But Sara is no ordinary fan, she has been a leader in a female led activi...
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A Game of Three Halves - Episode 3
Directed by Matthew Bate • Animation • 2021 • 3 minutes
Narrated by esteem author Jonathan Wilson, Keepers tells of the existenstial plight of sport’s ultimate outsider - the football goalkeeper. In a team game - it is the goalkeeper who stands alone - balancing humiliation, disaster and glory. ...
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A Game of Three Halves - Episode 4
Directed by Matthew Bate • Animation • 2021 • 5 minutes
Author Joel Golby recounts how during World Cup 2018 he became the number 1 fan of a soccer team he’d never heard of before - The Wild Boars FC. Trapped 2 kilometres beneath the earth in a flooded cave system an entire schoolboy soccer team...
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A Game of Three Halves - Episode 5
Directed by Matthew Bate • Animation • 2021 • 4 minutes
Using the verbatim comments taken from the first video uploaded to YouTube of Zinedene Zidane’s infamous World Cup final headbutt (11 years ago and with 9 million views) this film excavates the anger, praise, damnation and forgiveness felt ...
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Las Leonas
Directed by Isabel Achaval, Chiara Bondi • Documentary • 2022 • 83 minutes
On the outskirts of Rome, six teams compete in the women’s soccer championship, the Las Leonas Trophy. All recent immigrants to Italy—the majority from South America—the participants work busy lives as caregivers and hous...
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No Place For You In Our Town
Directed by Nikolay Stefanov • Documentary • 2022 • 81 minutes
No Place for You in Our Town pulls the audience into the heads of the football hooligans from the roughest city in Bulgaria — Pernik. A once flourishing industrial center, today all that’s left is the urban legend about its citizens’...
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One Step From Glory
Directed by Fabrice Macaux • Documentary • 2020 • 53 minutes
Le Havre Athletic Club (HAC) training center is one of the best and most demanding in Europe, the oldest club in French football.
Abdel, 18, is entering a decisive year; the last in the center for this young footballer. The challenge ...
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Sunday Ball
Directed by Eryk Rocha • Documentary • 2014 • 64 minutes
In Rio de Janeiro, close to the mythical Maracanã stadium, stage of the 2014 World Cup grand final, we find the popular field in the Sampaio neighborhood. Football happens there as a genuine expression of Brazilian culture. Played on Sunda...
