Sport and Cinema.com

Sports movies scored well for the 2012 Academy Awards earning nominations in multiple categories

“Moneyball”, the business of baseball story, garnered a half-dozen nominations including Best Picture.

From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment comes “Moneyball” onto DVD, a film using the business of baseball as a backdrop to examine what drives people to take risks. Based on Michael Lewis’s non-fiction book of the same name, this is the story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire players.

The stats are impressive – 8,000 filmmaking professionals from 70 nations involving over 400 films with more than $800 million in deals to be sealed over the next eight days. And they are all converging right in my backyard – Santa Monica, California. That averages out to about 30 new films every two hours – the majority of them world or U.S. premieres. It is the American Film Market, one of the biggest annual business gatherings of the independent motion picture production and distribution industry.

After gaining some exposure at a few film festivals, “Berlin 36”, a small-budget movie from a major historic event — the Olympic Games held in Nazi-controlled Germany – is now in general release in the U.S.

Over four weeks into its theatrical release, “Warrior”, the mixed martial arts movie is still packing a punch. The Lionsgate picture remains in the Top 25 draw ahead of “Cowboys &Aliens” and “Midnight in Paris”.

One of the featured documentary films on the program at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival is one about hockey. No surprise Eh?

ESPN Films, creators of the Emmy-nominated and Peabody award-winning 30 for 30 film series, has announced the schedule for a slate of new films. The film series will begin airing Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN HD, and subsequent Tuesday nights throughout the fall. Films include Catching Hell, Renée, The Dotted Line, Unguarded, The Real Rocky, Charismatic and Roll Tide/War Eagle.

The cable sports giant, ESPN, is reportedly going to become the subject of a new film.

In addition to Cars2 currently running strong in theaters across the country, the studio also has available for post-BBQ home entertainment a Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging of the original that also features Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt and Larry the Cable Guy

In my book I stated for the record it is the best sports film of all-time, now in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of “The Hustler”, 20th Century Fox has produced a DVD worthy of its excellence. The story of Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) and his exploits with fellow pool hall gamblers is given special treatment on blu-ray.