''Mighty Penguins'' is a 2023 sports documentary film about an amateur

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team Brentford Penguins, consisting of players with Down's Syndrome, established by former Brentford player

Allan Cockram Allan Charles Cockram (born 8 October 1963) is an English retired professional footballer who played in the Football League for Tottenham Hotspur, Bristol Rovers, Brentford and Reading as a midfielder or winger. He later player-managed St A ...

in London, in 2017. The film premiered at the

Tribeca Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

in 2023.

Cast

* Special K * Peanut * Captain Charlie

Production

The film is part of a wider series called ''Sports Explains the World'', executive produced by

John Skipper John Skipper is an American television executive, former executive chairman of DAZN Group, former president of ESPN, and co-founder of Meadowlark Media. Career Education and early career Skipper attended Lexington Senior High School in ...

for Meadowlark Media.

, who founded the Brentford Penguins in 2017, told ''

TalkSport Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

'' that he received a phone call from producer/director Louis Myles which he thought “was a wind-up at first” about making a documentary about the club and the players. It was co-produced and co-directed by Ahmed Twaij, and produced by All a Dream Productions and Firelight Media.

Release

The film had its premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

in June 2023.

Reception

Donald McRae in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described the film as directed “with a light touch” by Louis Myles and Ahmed Twaij. At a

BFI Southbank BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the United Kingdom, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Inst ...

screening

Mark Kermode Mark Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter, author and podcaster. He is the co-presenter (with Ellen E. Jones) of the BBC Radio 4 programme ''Screenshot'', and co-presenter ...

described the film as “utterly remarkable and utterly life-affirming”. Following the release of the film, former footballer

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

, and his son

Romeo Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lord Montague, Lord Montague and his wife, Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lady Montague, Lady Montague, he ...

, met the Mighty Penguins team in September 2023, and presented Cockram with an ''Who Cares Wins Unsung Hero Award'' from ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' newspaper.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mighty Penguins 2023 films 2020s British films 2020s sports films 2023 documentary films Documentary films about association football British sports documentary films