Champions

A Spanish film about a basketball team made up of players with intellectual disabilities. Marco is a professional basketball coach. After an argument he loses his job, is prosecuted for drink-driving and sent to community service. His task is to coach a team of players with intellectual disabilities. What the film avoids is plain: it does not ask you to pity the team. Each player is a distinct character with his own temperament and stubbornness, and they teach Marco far more than he manages to teach them. The important thing about the production is the casting: the team roles are played by actors who really do have intellectual disabilities. It opened in Spain in 2018 and became the most-watched Spanish film of the year, with over three million admissions. It won Best Film at the Goya Awards, and Jesús Vidal, one of the team's players, won Best New Actor. His acceptance speech was widely discussed in Spain. The film was later remade in several countries. A warm and well-made example for anyone who likes sports comedy and stories of solidarity. For a viewer expecting something harder, the film uses feeling freely and the outcome is predictable from the start.