The Best Sports Movie ESPY Award was an annual award honoring the achievements of an individual from the world of sports film making. It was first awarded as part of the

ESPY Award An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN (as of the 2017 ESPY Awards the latter still airs them in the for ...

s in 2002, and was discontinued nine years later. The Best Sports Movie ESPY Award trophy, designed by sculptor

Lawrence Nowlan Lawrence Joseph Nowlan Jr. (January 11, 1965 – July 30, 2013) was an American sculptor and figurative artist known for his statues of notable individuals, including Harry Kalas and Jackie Gleason. Nowlan also designed memorials, including the f ...

, was bestowed annually to the sports film adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year. From 2004 onward, the winner was chosen by online voting through choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee. Before that, determination of the winners was made by an panel of experts. Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in July and reflect performance from the June previous. The inaugural winner of the Best Sports Movie ESPY Award in 2002 was the

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

themed film ''The Rookie'' released the same year. It is based on the true story of

Jim Morris James Samuel Morris Jr. (born January 19, 1964) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for two seasons with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Although brief, Morris' career is noted for making hi ...

' minor but notable

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

career. Films that predominantly feature

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

have received the award more than any other sport, with three wins and six further nominations, followed by baseball and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

with two victories apiece, and were nominated twice.

John Lee Hancock John Lee Hancock Jr. (born December 15, 1956) is an American filmmaker. He directed the sports drama films '' The Rookie'' (2002) and '' The Blind Side'' (2009), and the historical drama films '' Saving Mr. Banks'' (2013), ''The Founder'' (2016) ...

is the director who holds more victories than any one else, one for ''The Rookie,'' and a second for ''The Blind Side'' (2010). The two sports with the most nominations that did not win the award are

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

and horse racing, with three each. The final winner of the Best Sports Movie ESPY Award in 2011 was the Boxing film ''

The Fighter ''The Fighter'' is a 2010 American biographical sports drama film directed by David O. Russell, and stars Mark Wahlberg (who also produced), Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo. The film centers on the lives of professional boxer Mi ...

'', which centers on the lives of former professional boxers

Micky Ward George Michael Ward Jr. (born October 4, 1965), often known by his nickname, "Irish" Micky Ward, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2003. He challenged once for the IBF light welterweight title in 1997, and held ...

and

Dicky Eklund Richard Eklund Jr. (born May 3, 1957) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1975 to 1985. Known as "The Pride of Lowell", he held the USA New England welterweight title twice between 1979 and 1983. He is the half-brother and ...

, and the issues they are confronted with in both their personal and professional lives.

Winners

MJK32962 Gurinder Chadha (Viceroy's House, Berlinale 2017)

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Best Sports Movie Espy Award ESPY Awards American film awards Sports film awards

Winners

See also

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links