Race

In January 2014 Variety announced John Boyega as Jesse Owens. Boyega left once he was cast in the seventh Star Wars film, and the part passed to Stephan James that May. Stephen Hopkins began shooting on 24 July 2014 in Montreal, and the Berlin scenes at the Olympic Stadium itself, where Owens won his four gold medals. It had backing from the Owens family and the Jesse Owens Foundation. At the 5th Canadian Screen Awards it took eight nominations and won four: Stephan James for best actor, plus overall sound, sound editing and visual effects. It lost best picture, art direction, costume design and make-up. James was also nominated for a NAACP Image Award. Carice van Houten plays Leni Riefenstahl, who asks Owens to repeat his medal winning long jump so she can get more shots for Olympia. A good fit if it matters that the races were shot in the actual Berlin stadium, and if you want Riefenstahl’s camera treated as a party to the story rather than scenery. Not for viewers who came for four medals in sequence; much of the running time goes to the Ohio State years, to Larry Snyder and to segregation at home, and the last scene sends Owens to a banquet in his own honour by the service entrance.