Sport and Cinema.com

In time for the holiday shopping rush comes the entire set of thirty films now combined into one DVD package (and available on Blu-ray) from ESPN’s acclaimed 30 for 30 series, a compelling “television film festival”. The 30 for 30 Limited Edition Collector Set is packaged in a collectible box & contains 30 for 30 Gift Sets Volume 1 & Volume 2 as well as an exclusive retro ESPN hat featuring the company’s original logo.

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

According to an Associated Press report, NBC, bidding against ESPN/ABC and Fox, has retained the U.S. Olympic television rights in a four-games deal through 2020 worth more than $4 billion.

Now in play and running through May 1st, Tribeca, with partner ESPN, present a compelling and diverse slate of sports documentary films in its 10th annual gathering throughout New York City.

ESPN is now offering on DVD the remaining 15 of the 30 films from its original slate in the highly acclaimed “30 for 30″ series.

Coinciding with the annual tip off into March Madness, ESPN will air a new film next weekend about one of college basketball’s more memorable teams.

The curtain has fallen on a new and compelling “television film festival”. ESPN has just concluded its opening run of thirty engaging and provocative movies, premiering 14 months ago. Meticulous and sharply observed, this “30 for 30” project has been as ambitious an undertaking as anything the network has done.

How was it that a pudgy 20-year-old, Mexican, left-handed pitcher from a remote village in the Sonoran desert, unable to speak a word of English, could sell out stadiums across America and become a rock star overnight?

The first time Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova stepped onto a tennis court together, the world scarcely noticed. Only a few hundred spectators saw the pert 18-year-old beat the scrappy 16-year-old Czech in 1973.

“I remember that she was fat,” Evert recalled. “She was very emotional on the court, whining if she didn’t feel she was playing well. But I remember thinking, if she loses weight, we’re all in trouble.”

On the evening of September 7, 1996, Mike Tyson, the WBC heavyweight champion, attempted to take Bruce Seldon’s WBA title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

At this point in his career, Tyson’s fights had become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, where the ever present hype of the professional boxing scene would come face to face with the worlds of big business, Hollywood, and hip hop.