''Most Valuable Players'' is a 2010 documentary film about The Freddy Awards, an annual awards ceremony recognizing outstanding high school

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

and

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

theatrical productions in the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

region of eastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. The film focuses primarily on three

schools:

Emmaus High School Emmaus High School is a large public high school located in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The school serves grades 9–12 in Pennsylvania's East Penn School District in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Emmaus High School is located im ...

Emmaus Emmaus ( ; ; ; ) is a town mentioned in the Gospel of Luke of the New Testament. Luke reports that Jesus appeared, after his death and resurrection, before two of his disciples while they were walking on the road to Emmaus. Although its geograp ...

, Parkland High School in

Allentown Allentown may refer to: Places * Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California * Allentown, Georgia, a city in four counties in Georgia * Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Tazewell County * Allentown, New Jersey, a boroug ...

, and Freedom High School in

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

. By coincidence, both Emmaus and Parkland were presenting the musical ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

'' the year ''Most Valuable Players'' was filmed, and the intense competition between the two school emerges as a central theme to the film. The film appeared in the

International Documentary Association International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Film ...

's DocuWeeks showcase in August 2010 and at the

Mill Valley Film Festival The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) is an annual film festival organized by the California Film Institute. It takes place each October in Mill Valley, California, and welcomes more than 200 filmmakers, representing more than 50 countries, each ...

in California. In 2010, the

Oprah Winfrey Network The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN, also known as the OWN Network) is an American multinational basic cable television network which launched on January 1, 2011, effectively replacing the Discovery Health Channel, which one month later merged with ...

acquired the broadcast and video rights to the film. The documentary is directed and co-produced by Matthew D. Kallis and written and co-produced by Christopher Lockhart. Lockhart was inspired to make the film after watching clips of a Freddy Awards production on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Background

The film documents the 2008 ceremony for the Freddy Awards, an annual award program for

-based high school theatrical productions, which is held annually at State Theatre in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in and the county seat of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River and the Delawa ...

Production

''Most Valuable Players'' is directed and produced by Matthew D. Kallis and written/produced by Christopher Lockhart. It was Lockhart's first documentary and, although Kallis had directed documentaries in the past, he had never done one to this scale. The film was conceived when Lockhart found a clip of the 2006 ceremony on

while searching for something unrelated. Lockhart was impressed with the production values and performance caliber, and took the idea to Kallis, who agreed to partner with him for a documentary. Kallis and Lockhart acquired over 300 hours of source material over four months, starting with 2008 high school rehearsals all the way up to the State Theatre ceremony on May 22, 2008. In addition to the event itself, the footage includes filming behind-the-scenes at production meetings, interviews with students and teachers, rehearsals at participating high schools, and the announcement of Freddy Award nominations. Cinematographer

Curt Apduhan Curt Apduhan is a director of photography known for his work in feature documentaries. Apduhan's contributions to director Todd Robinson's documentary film ''Amargosa'', a study of artist Marta Becket earned the cinematographer the '' NATAS'' '' ...

, who won an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

for the 2003 documentary ''Amargosa'', served as director of photography. Ken King, winner of two Emmy Awards and nominated for a BAFTA for his work on the film ''

Pulp Fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence ...

'', served as production sound mixer. Forty minutes of an original score was composed by Randy Miller. ''Most Valuable Players'' runs 95 minutes long. The original working title was ''Freddy Fever.'' Lockhart said the new title demonstrates an analogy between sports and arts, adding, "In a way this plays like a sports documentary." The film focuses primarily on three

high schools:

, Parkland High School in

, and Freedom High School in Bethlehem Township. By coincidence, both Emmaus and Parkland were presenting the musical ''

'' the year ''Most Valuable Players'' was filmed, and the competition that arose made for one of the film's main conflicts. The documentary originally included a ghost hunting sequence dealing with the urban legend of J. "Fred" Osterstock, for whom the Freddy Awards are named; Osterstock died in 1957, and the legend claims he still haunts the theater.

Release

Debuts

The film's first public screening was on April 16, 2010, at State Theatre in

. The film made its two theatrical debuts from August 6 to August 19, 2010 at

IFC Center IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

and

ArcLight Hollywood ArcLight Cinemas was an American movie theater chain that operated from 2002 to 2021. It was owned by The Decurion Corporation, which was also the parent company of Pacific Theatres. The ArcLight chain opened in 2002 as a single theater, the ArcL ...

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

, as part of the DocuWeeks showcase sponsored by the

. ''Most Valuable Players'' made its festival debut at the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in October 2010. Other festivals in 2011 included the St. Louis International Film Festival,

Chicago International Children's Film Festival In 1983, Facets Multi-Media founded the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF), the first competitive festival of films for children in the U.S. The impetus for the Festival came from a need to introduce new, culturally diverse fi ...

Dallas International Film Festival The Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Dallas, Texas. The 2025 edition will be held April 25-May 1, 2025. DIFF 2024 was held April 25-May 1, 2024. DIFF 2023 was held April 28-May 5, 2023. Th ...

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

, and the

Nashville Film Festival The Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm), held annually in Nashville, Tennessee, is the oldest running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. In 2016, Nashville Film Festival received more than 6,700 submissions from ...

, where it won the Documentary Channel Audience award.

Television airing

In November 2010, the

announced it had acquired the rights for ''Most Valuable Players''. On September 8, 2011, the network premiered the documentary.

DVD

The DVD was released by Virgil Films as part of the Ophrah Winfrey Network documentary club collection, and includes extras such as deleted scenes and filmmaker commentary. The movie streamed on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

for four years and currently streams on

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...

Reception

The documentary was met with generally positive reviews. ''Edge New York'' called it, "...high-spirited, yet topical and poignant." Variety, the Hollywood trade paper, referred to it as a "happy film." ''Hollywood Soapbox'' wrote the film "is an often moving account of talented teenagers striving for excellence." ''

The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

'' was less enthused, calling the film "relentlessly peppy" and, while noting its "worthwhile intentions," criticized it for stoking "dreams of adulation too often at the expense of showing a creative end pursued for its own good." Upon its premiere on the Oprah Winfrey Network, ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' declared it "the Sleeper of the Week," calling the documentary "charming and disarming." Roush further wrote, "The camaraderie among the theater kids is touching and funny, and the emotion is palpable...I can't remember when I last enjoyed a Tony broadcast this much. A genuine treat." ''

Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

'' magazine rated it 3.5/4 stars. In a prologue recorded for the OWN broadcast,

Rosie O'Donnell Roseann O'Donnell (born March 21, 1962) is an American talk show host, comedian, and actress. She began her comedy career as a teenager and received her breakthrough on the television series ''Star Search'' in 1984. After a series of television ...

called the documentary "amazing," adding "it made me cry...." ''

Screen Rant ''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and comic books. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publications including Comic Book Resources, Collider, MovieWeb and XDA Developers. ...

'' ranked it number one on its "List of 10 Must-See Documentaries for Musical Theater Buffs".

Cast

* Ali Mosser * Jennifer Wescoe * Katie Wexler * Zachary Gibson * Frank Anonia * Amanda Kostalis * John Andreadis * Jill Kuebler * Rita Cortez * Vic Kumma * Shelley Brown * Mark Stutz

References

External links

* *
''Most Valuable Players''
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Most Valuable Players 2010 films 2010 documentary films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American documentary films Documentary films about children Documentary films about high school in the United States Documentary films about competitions Documentary films about theatre English-language documentary films Films set in 2008 Films set in Pennsylvania Films shot in Allentown, Pennsylvania Films shot in Pennsylvania Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Northampton County, Pennsylvania Documentary films about Pennsylvania Films scored by Randy Miller (composer)