Greatest Sports Documentaries

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Greatest Sports Documentaries

We are in the golden age of sports documentaries — a time when the genre is being looked at in ways filmmakers could have never imagined before.

Since 2010, four sports documentaries have won Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature: "Undefeated" (2011), "O.J.: Made in America" (2016), "Icarus" (2017) and "Free Solo" (2018). Before 2011, sports documentaries brought home the Oscar just three times, and not since "One Day in September" in 1999.

We can credit the takeover by streaming services, as we all know it’s easier than ever to view anything we want, anytime we want. But the real credit goes to the filmmakers, the ones who toiled away in anonymity, and the ones still on the front lines, seeking out the next great story to tell us.

Here’s a look at the greatest sports documentaries of all time.

30. Muse

Year released: 2015

Director: Gotham Chopra

Producer: Martin Desmond Roe and Jake Bloch

Writer: Jacob Colman

Production company: Dirty Robber

Award highlights: None

What viewers think: "The film used a lot of archive footage showcasing Kobe during his early years as a high school phenom in Philadelphia all the way up until his several championship years with the Lakers. It was also nice to see him open up about his personal problems throughout the film. You don't usually get to see that side of athletes and I'm glad they didn't set out to make Kobe a godlike creature." — Thomas Drufke, IMDb

Bottom line: Kobe Bryant did things on a basketball court that defied the imagination, and while this documentary showcases the different stages of the career, it is his intellect and knowledge of the game that shines through.

Even the harshest critics of Bryant will have to begrudgingly give him credit for at least one thing after watching this — he is as mentally tough as they come.

29. Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team

Year released: 2005

Producer: Joe Lavine

Writers: Ouisie Shapiro

Production company: HBO Films

Award highlights: None

What viewers think: "The struggle for women in sports has never been documented more than in this documentary. From nothing a team was born and what is interesting and sad at the same time is that if they had not been successful it is possible that women's soccer would not be as big as it is today. Players like Michelle Akers, April Heinrichs paved the way for players like Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly, who then paved the way for players like Cat Whitehill and Abby Wambach who are now paving the way for future generations." — John D., Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: The greatest women’s sporting event in history was arguably the 1999 Women’s World Cup, where the U.S. won the championship on a dramatic goal by Brandi Chastain.

This documentary takes you into the heart of that team and shows you what led up to the moment where the American squad embedded itself into our collective sports memories.

28. Tyson

Year released: 2008

Director: James Toback

Producers: Carmelo Anthony, James Toback, Mike Tyson and Nicholas Jarecki

Writer: James Toback

Production company: Sony Pictures Classics

Awards highlights: Cannes Film Festival (winner/Regard Knockout Award), National Society of Film Critics Awards (nominee/Best Non-Fiction Film), New York Film Critics Circle Awards (nominee/Best Non-Fiction Film)

What viewers think: "I thought it was a fantastic effort at just letting the user take from the picture what they want — there is no attempt to create a bias for or against Tyson in any way. I never liked Tyson as a fighter/person but I realise having watched this that the person we saw tear up the heavyweight division in the 90s was a long way from the man himself. He now comes across as a humble man — though with few regrets.” -winkywoo, IMDb

Bottom line: Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who was convicted of rape in 1990, gets to sit down and tell his life story, leaving nothing out. The audience, at the end, is left to ask themselves whether or not they feel sympathy for a man like that.

And with our knowledge of the sexual harassment James Toback has been accused of in the #metoo movement, to question what his motivation may have been as director.

27. Unmatched

Year released: 2010

Director: Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern

Produces: Lisa Lax, Nancy Stern and Hannah Storm

Production companies: ESPN Films and Lookalike Productions

Award highlights: None

What viewers think: "I saw this while bored on a long flight. It was actually so engrossing I watched it back to back only interrupted by arrival :) I bought 5 copies for friends who like tennis … this is a great human story of friendship over rivalry and gives a super insight into two of the great athletes of my childhood. It is filmed with great skill in such an easy manner you feel involved in the conversation with two friends of your own." — A.F. Piedmont, Amazon

Bottom line: There aren’t a lot of frills to Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern’s look at the friendship between two of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Just Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, telling that story to each other, warts and all, interspersed with tennis footage.

The story of friendship that emerges — one that spans decades and continents — is something to behold.

26. Riding Giants

Year released: 2004

Director: Stacy Peralta

Producer: Argi Orsi, Jane Kachmer and Laird Hamilton

Writers: Stacy Peralta and Sam George

Production company: StudioCanal

Award highlights: Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association (nominee/Best Documentary), American Cinema Awards (winner/Best Documentary Editing), AARP Film Awards (nominee/Best Documentary)

What viewers think: "These guys are wired differently than most of us; there's no question about that. Their slightly irreverent but still respectful tone lets them get away with comparing the discovery of Hawaii's North Shore to Columbus stumbling upon America. An exaggeration? Of course, but the genuine emotion in their voices and faces make the words fully believable, much like a football player comparing his sport to a war." — Pavel 8, IMDb

Bottom line: Stacy Peralta, who directed the seminal skateboarding documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys," struck gold again with his look at big-wave surfers that ended up being the first documentary ever screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

Laird Hamilton, who brought the technique of tow-in surfing to the masses, steals the show with his record-breaking set in Tahiti in 2000.

25. Free Solo

Year released: 2018

Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin

Producer: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Shannon Dill and Evan Hayes

Production company: National Geographic Documentary Films

Award highlights: Academy Awards (winner/Best Documentary Feature), BAFTA Awards (winner/Best Documentary), Toronto International Film Festival (winner/People’s Choice Documentary)

What viewers think: "Reading about the soloing of El Cap in the summer of 2017, I was riveted. The film is just as, if not more, powerful than the best articles at the time. Alex Honnold is, well, a bit of a weirdo, but I would not expect less from someone who has achieved something no other human being has. As he says at one point in the movie, 'No one who is comfortable and cozy has ever achieved anything great.' " — mtlott, IMDb

Bottom line: Alex Honnold wanted to become the first person to free solo climb Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan — a sport where the climber uses no ropes, harnesses or other protective equipment.

The fascinating part begins when we start to explore Honnold’s psyche. Why would he attempt a climb where one mistake results in death?

24. I Hate Christian Laettner

Year released: 2015

Director: Rory Karpf

Producers: Andrew Billman, Marquis Daisy, Deidre Fenton

Production company: ESPN

Award highlights: None

What viewers think: "There's no question that Laettner can get people's blood boiling because of his attitude and the fact that he was a pure winner. Getting to hear from those who played against him and for him was a lot of fun and there's some great footage here from various incidents where Laettner had to go into opposing team's gyms and take quite a bit of abuse. This one here is certainly not to be missed." — Michael_Elliott, IMDb

Bottom line: Christian Laettner as he carved out a career in the late 1980s, early 1990s as one of the greatest college basketball players of all time.

People who weren’t following college basketball then can watch this documentary and fully understand the vitriol directed toward Duke and him.

That Laettner is so willing to explore the same topics, particularly his perceived villainy, is what makes this documentary so much fun.

23. Dogtown and Z-Boys

Year released: 2001

Director: Stacy Peralta

Producers: Agi Orsoff, Daniel Ostroff and Stephen Nemeth

Writers: Stacy Peralta and Craid Stecyk

Production company: Sony Pictures Classics

Award highlights: Sundance Film Festival (winner/Audience Award, winner/Directing Award), Independent Spirit Awards (winner/Best Documentary)

What viewers think: "I loved the premise and tale and its one of those coming of age movies you just want to know more and more about. It is sad and triumphant at the same time. I strongly recommend viewing this gem." — Kevin R., Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: The film is narrated by Sean Penn, and you can almost smell the Pacific Ocean as our teenage heroes decide to toss aside their surfboards (for a bit) and invent a sport, make millions of dollars and change the world.

Stacy Peralta tells the tragedy and the triumph of the Zephyr skateboard team with the passion of someone who lived it, which he did.

22. Of Miracles and Men

Year released: 2015

Director: Jonathan Hock

Producer: Philip A. Aromondo

Production company: ESPN Films

Award highlights: Emmy Awards (winner/Outstanding Long Sports Documentary)

What viewers think: "Not to take anything away from the remarkable feat by the American hockey players, but showing the amazing human beings on the other side of that outcome, provides a deeper and more 3 dimensional perspective. There are lessons to be learned from the commitment and bravery of the Soviet players, and maybe there was an even bigger miracle nobody knew." — jparkinson214, IMDb

Bottom line: Americans know the "Miracle on Ice" from one perspective — the winning side of the U.S. men’s hockey team’s shocking upset of the Soviet Union on the way to gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York

This documentary looks at things from the perspective of the Russian team, where winning a hockey game also could mean winning freedom from Communist rule.

Can you say powerful?

21. Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story

Year released: 2014

Director: Alex Holmes

Producer: Quentin McDermott, Jessica Ludgrove

Writer: Alex Holmes

Production company: ABC Commercial and Passion Pictures

Award highlights: Royal Television Society (winner/Best Documentary Editing)

What viewers think: "Armstrong still isn't able to deal with all of his history, even after admitting that he cheated in all 7 wins in Tour de France, and probably in all of his once great career as the best cyclist the world had seen. It was all a hoax, and here's the whole story in a feature documentary." — eurograd, IMDb

Bottom line: This gut-wrenching documentary shines a light on the lengths to which Lance Armstrong was willing to go to further his career and hide his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

He had no hesitation to ruin the lives of people — friends or foe — who could expose his lies.

There are few greater villains in the history of sports than Armstrong.

20. The Endless Summer

Year released: 1966

Director: Bruce Brown

Producer: Bruce Brown

Writer: Bruce Brown

Production company: Cinema V and Monterey Media

Award highlights: National Film Registry (2002)

What viewers think: "No bikini-clad girls trying to understand boys. No swim-trunk clad boys trying to understand girls. No meddling chaperones and hilarious hi-jinks. No musical guest stars. What you get is one of the best films about surfing and Life. Period." — TroyAir, IMDb

Bottom line: Rejected by all the Hollywood studios, Bruce Brown took his movie about two surfers chasing endless waves across the globe to Wichita, Kansas, where it showed for two straight weeks to sold-out audiences.

He went to New York and rented a theater, where he played the film for the next year and turned surfing into a worldwide phenomenon.

The rest is history for this cult classic, still the best surfing movie ever made.

19. The Eagle Huntress

Year released: 2016

Director: Otto Bell

Producers: Otto Bell, Sharon Chang and Stacy Reiss

Production company: Kissaki Films and Stacy Reiss Productions

Award highlights: BAFTA Awards (nominee/Best Documentary), Satellite Awards (nominee/Best Documentary), PGA Awards (nominee/Best Documentary Producers)

What viewers think: "Magical, funny, moving and uplifting doc with images that will be etched into my brain for weeks." — Daniel Parsons, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: The tale of 13-year-old Kazakh girl Aisholpan’s dream to become an eagle hunter and the first woman to compete in the Golden Eagle Festival plays as good as any sports movie you’ll ever find.

The film is narrated by Star Wars star Daisy Ridley, and you’ll be cheering for Aisholpan from the jump.

Quick fact: The Eagle hunting community isn’t very welcoming to females.

18. Keepers of the Game

Year released: 2016

Director: Judd Ehrlich

Producer: Judd Ehrlich and Aidan Tumas

Production company: Flatbush Pictures and Tribeca Digital Studios

Award highlights: Cannes Film Festival (winner/Bronze Lion), Critics Choice Awards (nominee/Best Documentary), Emmy Awards (nominee/Best Sports Documentary)

What viewers think: "There are moments littered throughout the first 20 minutes where I genuinely cried as I felt as squeezed and walked over as these girls. It does an absolutely marvelous job of putting the viewer in their head-space." — Obi-Wan-22, IMDb

Bottom line: The girls' lacrosse team out of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory struggle, scrap, claw and fight for every inch of respect they can get in the face of racism, an ambivalent attitude from their tribe and a nonexistent budget for the sport that was invented by their tribe.

Despite all of these obstacles, they thrive and win.

Bring the tissues.

17. Murderball

Year released: 2005

Director: Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro

Producer: Jeffrey V. Mandel and Dana Adam Shapiro

Production company: MTV Films/Paramount Pictures and A&E IndieFilms

Award highlights: Academy Awards (nominee/Best Documentary Feature), Sundance Film Festival (winner/Best Documentary Feature), British Film Institute Awards (winner/Best Documentary)

What viewers think: "Overall, documentaries often open worlds that we never imagined existed, and what is true of those documentaries is doubly true of Murderball." — Jim Hunter, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: Wheelchair rugby, aka murderball, and the leadup to the match between the U.S. and Canadian teams at the 2004 Paralympics is the connecting thread, but the real drama comes when we introduce the players and dig into their lives.

Their exteriors are tough — like the sport they play — but when their vulnerabilities start to come through, the payoff is one of the more entertaining sports documentaries of all time.

16. The U

Years released: 2009

Director: Billy Corben

Producer: Billy Corben

Production companies: ESPN Films and Rakontur

Award highlights: None

What viewers think: "Interviews from the players and coaches tell how they transformed Miami into The U and a powerhouse that gave out beatings on the field while taunting and dancing in front of live television … but it's a rise and fall story. At the high point of their dominance, the walls start to come down." — johandallas94, IMDb

Bottom line: The University of Miami created one of the greatest college football dynasties of all time on the backs of renegade coaches and players, with the best of them pulled from Miami’s toughest neighborhoods.

Billy Corben, who also made the masterful documentaries "Cocaine Cowboys" and "Broke," directed this movie and its sequel in 2014.

For the Hurricanes, the rise is always as epic as the fall, which makes this story so compelling.

15. The Battered Bastards of Baseball

Year released: 2014

Director: Chapman Way and Maclain Way

Producer: Juliana Lembi

Production company: Netflix

Award highlights: New York Daily News (Top 10 Films of 2014)

What viewers think: "Such a well done picture that really takes you into the time and sets a beautiful scene of triumph, heartbreak and a longing for what used to be. Thank you for this amazing piece that draws you in and never lets go." — helenahandbasket, IMDb

Bottom line: Actor Bing Russell shook up every level of baseball when he bought the unaffiliated, Class-A Portland Mavericks and turned them into a winner in the mid-1970s.

Kurt Russell, Bing’s son, was one of the Mavs' stars for a few years. Oscar-Nominee director Todd Field ("Little Children") was their batboy.

Oh, and Big League Chew was invented in their dugout.

14. Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals

Year released: 2010

Director: Ezra Edelman

Producer: Ezra Edelman and Ross Greenberg

Writer: Charles Olivier

Production company: HBO Films/HBO Sports

Award highlights: Peabody Award

What viewers think: "If you're a sports fan then you already know this story but it's really amazing what this HBO documentary is able to do because it's just so excellent that it really makes you forget what you already know and it makes you feel as if you're hearing these stories for the first time." — Michael_Elliott, IMDb

Bottom line: Ezra Edelman, who went on to win an Academy Award for "O.J.: Made in America" in 2017, is deft in creating the portrait of two stars who changed the NBA.

Based mostly on Jackie McMullan’s book, "When the Game Was Ours," the lives, careers and ultimately close friendship of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are gripping from start to finish.

13. Unguarded

Year released: 2011

Director: Jonathan Hock

Producer: Jonathan Hock

Production company: ESPN Films

Award highlights: Emmy Awards (nominee/Outstanding Sports Documentary, nominee/Outstanding Editing)

What viewers think: "If there's one thing ESPN has showed me from both their documentaries The Fab Five and Unguarded it's that the famous sports company is capable and legitimately talented at compiling substantial content in order to produce a successful documentary on a specific athlete." — Steve Pulaski, IMDb

Bottom line: Chris Herren, a basketball prodigy out of tough-as-hell Fall River, Massachusetts, was a star on several of Jerry Tarkanian’s Fresno State teams and played in the NBA before his descent into drug addiction.

The raw, no-holds-barred approach of this film puts you right next to Herren and the people he hurt the most.

And it will gut you.

12. When We Were Kings

Year released: 1996

Director: Leon Gast

Producer: Leon Gast, David Sonenberg and Taylor Hackford

Production company: Polygram Filmed Entertainment

Award highlights: Academy Awards (winner/Best Documentary Feature), Sundance Film Festival (winner/Special Jury Award), New York Film Critics Awards (winner/Best Non-Fiction Film)

What viewers think: "The title itself says it all. Ali fighting Foreman was a David and Goliath kind of duel, they were like titans, god among men, two exemplary black athletes in an epic battle that shows the change of consciousness for their people in that particular time." — Pierluigi Puccini, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: "When We Were Kings" is considered the greatest boxing documentary — for good reason. Leon Gast reportedly spent 22 years editing, financing and filming before the finished product was ready.

With the “Rumble in the Jungle” fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire as the backdrop, the film focuses as much on the political and social aspects of the fight as the fight itself.

And it works.

11. Fantastic Lies

Year released: 2016

Director: Marina Zenovich

Producers: Marina Zenovich, Andrew Billman

Production company: ESPN Films and Lighthouse

Award highlights: Critics Choice Documentary Awards (nominee/Best TV Documentary, nominee/Best Sports Documentary), SXSW Film Festival (nominee/Best Director)

What viewers think: "Quite a gripping film that itself straddles the line of being fantastic aided by a definitively fantastic directing job by Marina Zenovich as well as a very shrewd title that helps any viewer straying too far from the truth, which is only revealed towards the end of the film." — Ben Koo, Awful Announcing

Bottom line: The documentary about false rape accusations leveled against members of the Duke lacrosse team premiered 10 years to the day of the incident.

The real hero is team captain David Evans, who turned the case on its head once he was falsely accused.

The villain is district attorney Mike Nifong, who ignored evidence proving the players' innocence and proceeded with the case.

10. Pumping Iron

Year released: 1977

Directors: George Butler and Robert Fiore

Producers: George Butler and Jerome Gary

Writers: George Butler and Charles Gaines

Production company: White Mountain Films

Award highlights: Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards (Best Documentary)

What viewers think: "this film really shows the hard work (but not the steroids), the dedication and the egos of the bodybuilders, particularly Schwarzenegger. Arnold is the defending champion in the field and also has the biggest ego and is pictured as a man obsessed with winning." — ccthemovieman, IMDb

Bottom line: This documentary, which stayed in the can for two years because the filmmakers ran out of money, turned Arnold Schwarzenegger into the huge movie star he would become throughout the 1980s.

The battle for the 1975 Mr. Universe title is the backdrop, but the personalities of the weightlifters are the real draw, including future "Incredible Hulk" star Lou Ferrigno.

9. Undefeated

Year released: 2011

Directors: Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin

Producers: Daniel Lindsay, Glenn Zipper, Seth Gordon and Ed Cunningham

Production company: The Weinstein Company

Award highlights: Academy Awards (winner/Best Documentary Feature)

What viewers think: "It's hard to resist getting choked up when Coach Bill informs one of his players about a mysterious benefactor, and the documentary drills in concepts of character and integrity with a frequency that makes these words a happy life's song." — Jim Hunter, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: Lumber salesman-turned-football coach Bill Courtney is at the heart of this documentary, as he tries to guide perennial Memphis, Tennessee, high school football doormat Manassas High to the first playoff win in school history.

One of the Oscar-winning film’s directors, T.J. Martin, went on to helm the Emmy Award-winning documentary "LA 92" about the Los Angeles riots.

8. Touching the Void

Year released: 2003

Director: Kevin MacDonald

Producer: John Smithson

Production company: FilmFour Productions

Award highlights: BAFTA Awards (winner/Best British Film), Seattle Film Critics Awards (winner/Best Documentary), Boston Society of Film Critics Awards (nominee/Best Documentary),

What viewers think: "A viewer can understand why these adventurers do what they do, as well as recoil from it. Watching Joe Simpson narrate his tale you can see him do both at once, sometimes. It's in those fleeting moments that the viewer gets why this film was [made]." — Lorenzo von Matterhorn, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: You’ll be a cold, sweaty mess at the end of this film, which depicts the harrowing journey of two mountain climbers up the west face of previously unbeaten Siula Grande in Peru.

If you think it’s scary on the way up, you won’t believe what it’ll be like when one of the climbers makes the heartbreaking decision to abandon the other injured climber in a snowstorm on the way down.

7. Hoop Dreams

Year released: 1994

Director: Steve James

Producer: Steve James, Peter Gilbert and Frederick Marx

Writers: Steve James and Frederick Marx

Production company: Kartemquin Films

Award highlights: Academy Awards (nominee/Best Film Editing), National Society of Film Critics (winner/Best Documentary), Sundance Film Festival (winner/Best Documentary)

What viewers think: "Director Steve James has crafted a three-hour epic that blows by at a lightning speed pace, all while exploring every facet of these boys' lives." — Dan Schultz, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: Steve James and his team originally envisioned "Hoop Dreams" as a 30-minute documentary for PBS.

They emerged almost eight years later with over 250 hours of footage that traced the epic stories of two inner-city Chicago basketball hopefuls, Arthur Agee and William Gates, and their fight to rise above poverty and make it all the way to the NBA.

6. Hillsborough

Year released: 2014

Director: Daniel Gordon

Producer: Daniel Gordon

Production company: ESPN/BBC

Award highlights: None

What viewers think: "Most of the basic facts of the case are well known, especially in light of the recent court judgment. Daniel Gordon's documentary tells the story of the disaster itself, plus the twenty-seven year campaign waged by the victims' families to clear the football fans of any wrongdoing on that fateful day." — l_rawjalaurence, IMDb

Bottom line: Daniel Gordon does a masterful job of telling the story of the 1989 soccer tragedy that took the lives of 96 fans who were trampled and crushed to death.

Where Gordon is really skilled is explaining the police ineptitude before, during and after the tragedy, but wait and feel your blood boil as we’re walked through the ensuing, decades-long cover-up.

5. One Day in September

Year released: 1999

Director: Kevin MacDonald

Producers: John Battsek, Arthur Cohn and Andrew Ruhemann

Production company: BBC Films and Passion Pictures

Award highlights: Academy Awards (winner/Best Documentary Feature),

What viewers think: "An exciting, moving, very entertaining documentary that leaves you speechless about this unbelievable tragedy. One of the best movies of its kind. But be warned, some scenes are rather graphic and afterwards the world isn't as beautiful as it once was." — Jens S., Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: Kevin MacDonald’s first full-length documentary was about the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, and it immediately entered the conversation as one of the greatest documentaries of all time.

MacDonald came under criticism for his use of graphic photos of the victims. He also managed to land an interview with the last known surviving terrorist, Jamal al-Gashey.

4. Beyond the Mat

Year released: 1999

Director: Barry W. Blaustein

Producer: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Michael Rosenberg

Writer: Barry W. Blaustein

Production companies: Imagine Entertainment, Lions Gate Films

Award highlights: Cinequest Film Festival (winner/Best Documentary), Director’s Guild Association (winner/Best Documentary, winner/Best Director)

What viewers think: "The best documentary that I have ever seen on professional wrestling. Those who were fans of the sport in the 80s will be appalled at the current state of the wrestlers of that era." — John Ballantine, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: Barry W. Blaustein doesn’t offer insight. He just lets the tape roll.

None of the stories are more compelling (and heartbreaking) than Jake "The Snake" Roberts, one of the most popular pro wrestlers from the 1980s, plying his trade in small-town venues and battling a nasty crack cocaine addiction.

WWE owner Vince McMahon, who participated in filming early on, unsuccessfully fought the release of the movie.

3. The Heart of the Game

Year released: 2005

Director: Ward Serrill

Producer: Ward Serrill

Writer: Ward Serrill

Production company: Miramax Films

Award highlights: WGA Awards (nominee/Best Documentary), St. Louis Film Critics Association (nominee/Best Documentary), Black Reel Awards (nominee/Best Documentary)

What viewers think: "I'm not a sports fan at all. I dislike in many ways the tribal mentality of the commercial sporting event. But this film is way beyond a film for sports fans. It ought to be required viewing for any teacher, and for that matter, any high school class." — tjackson, IMDb

Bottom line: Ward Serrill’s ambitious undertaking included spending six seasons with the Roosevelt High girls basketball team in Seattle, with most of the focus on the team’s coach, Bill Resler, and star player Darnellia Russell.

Serrill pulls all the heartstrings here and makes it almost impossible to not root for Roosevelt.

But that’s OK. Just means you still have a pulse.

2. Icarus

Year released: 2017

Director: Bryan Fogel

Producer: Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan

Writers: Brian Fogel and Mark Monroe

Production company: Netflix

Award highlights: Academy Awards (winner/Best Documentary Feature), Sundance Film Festival (winner/Special Jury Award for Documentary)

What viewers think: "This mind-blowing, tense and extremely well-made documentary exposes an uncomfortable truth that should call into question the whole purpose of watching the games anymore, when this awful disregard for ethics can find such an easy way in and become endemic to the whole thing." — Carlos Magalhaes, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: The premise seems innocent enough — show the world that the banned drugs athletes take are making it too easy to evade drug tests.

The final product ended up being an international thriller, which blew the roof off state-run Russian doping in the Olympics, put a Russian doctor into a witness protection program and sent two of his associates to their graves.

1. O.J.: Made in America

Year released: 2016

Director: Ezra Edelman

Producers: Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow

Production company: ESPN Films

Awards highlights: Academy Award (winner/Best Documentary Feature), Independent Spirit Awards (winner/Best Documentary Feature), MTV Movie & TV Awards (winner/Best Documentary)

What viewers think: "This is a monumental artistic achievement that seamlessly blends many different story threads to present a psychological, relevant, and compelling case as to how this notable flashpoint in race relations was inevitable." — Nate Zoebel, Rotten Tomatoes

Bottom line: The longest film to ever win an Academy Award (sorry, "War and Peace"), Ezra Edelman’s 467-minute epic look into O.J. Simpson’s life and one of the most notorious crimes in American history is told in five parts.

Edelman doesn’t just tell the story of the 1994 double murder of Simpson’s wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman. He tells the story of Los Angeles and its long, troubled relationship with African Americans.