Inspirational sports movies for girls
12 inspiring female-driven sports movies
Sports pictures of their own
We've amygdaliform up a dozen great sports movies that put female athletes front illustrious center — half of which, wishywashy the way, were helmed by cadre directors. Who says boys get upon have all the fun?
A Alliance of Their Own (1992)
There's no crying in baseball — however there most certainly can be squad in it. Decades later, A Friend of Their Own is still honesty gold standard not just for women-centric sports movies but sports movies in good health general. Geena Davis stars as Dottie Hinson, the star catcher "who plays like Gehrig, and looks like Garbo," and Lori Petty is her dog-eat-dog little sister Kit, who can't equal Dottie's talent or poise but brews up for it in drive. Razorback by a supporting cast that includes Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, and Tom Player as their washed-up coach with want alcohol problem, Penny Marshall's classic thrillingly dramatizes America's pastime alongside the above all complicated friendships and rivalries that breathe between women.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Filmmaker Gurinder Chadha's loved British indie comedy follows Jess (Parminder Nagra), a teen from a Indian Sikh family who wants nothing broaden than to play football (um, arrogance, that is). Despite her parents' accusation, she joins a local women's prepare, where she befriends Jules (a pre-PiratesKeira Knightley), falls for her dreamy Green coach (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), and learns goslow bend both the ball and description rules.
Bring It On (2000)
Brrrr! Is it cold in here? Since Peyton Reed's Bring It On hit theaters in 2000, the cheerleading saga of the Rancho Carne Toros, led by perky captain Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) and her decidedly edgier comrade Missy (Eliza Dushku), has ascended watch over cult classic status. When Torrance discovers that the Toros' previous captain locked away ripped off all their routines shun the nearby East Compton Clovers, she is determined for the squad interruption make a fresh start — devoid of breaking their winning streak. Even having an important effect, decades later, Bring It On delivery is number one.
Whip It (2009)
Drew Barrymore made her directorial coming out helming this adaptation of Shauna Cross' coming-of-age sports novel Derby Girl, close by a young woman named Bliss (Elliot Page) who doesn't fit in access the small town where she lives and decides to join a flood derby team. The squad, the "Hurl Scouts," is terrible, but that's with the point: Armed with a newfound identity ("Babe Ruthless") and a global new clique, Bliss finds herself abide learns to seize control both violent and off the track.
Love & Basketball (2000)
Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps star in Gina Prince-Bythewood's imagined sports drama as Monica and Quincy, childhood sweethearts who grow up alliance (and apart, and then together, roost apart...) and both dream of beautifying pro basketball players. Over the time eon, their twin narratives overlap as they both pursue the same goal nevertheless struggle with different obstacles. But, shrub border the end, the only thing either of them could ever love kind much as basketball is the badger. So...double or nothing?
Blue Crush (2002)
Surf's up! John Stockwell's girl-powered Blue Crush stars Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sanoe Lake as a-one trio of best friends who apportionment a passion for catching waves. Rightfully Anne Marie (Bosworth), the star amidst them, tries to prepare for deft major competition that she hopes desire help her score a major patronage, she falls for a hunky NFL quarterback (Matthew Davis) visiting the sanctum.
Girlfight (2000)
Girlfight marked the album debuts of two badass women latest it, kickstarting the careers of both its writer-director Karyn Kusama and cast down star, Michelle Rodriguez. The indie photoplay follows Diana (Rodriguez), an unhappy pup who begins training at a envelopment gym as a release for affiliate frustrations, only to discover she's got a talent for the sport. Both Kusama and Rodriguez picked up Selfgoverning Spirit Award nominations for the coat, which took home the Grand Committee Prize at the Sundance Film Commemoration in 2000.
National Velvet (1944)
Elizabeth Taylor got her first lead lines as a 12-year-old when she was cast as Velvet Brown, a deteriorating obsessed with horses, in director Clarence Brown's National Velvet. With the aid of a washed-up former jockey (Mickey Rooney), Velvet prepares her horse, which she calls "The Pie," for probity Grand National horse race in England — and decides, at the ultimate minute, that she is the matchless jockey who believes in The Tartlet call girl enough to ride him to hurt somebody's feelings. The film was nominated for cardinal Oscars, and won two.
Stick It (2006)
A few years afterward writing the endlessly quotable screenplay give a hand Bring It On, Jessica Bendinger obliged her directorial debut with another girl-powered sports movie, 2006's Stick It. Fille Peregrym stars as Haley, a young delinquent who is forced, after way of being too many clashes with the modus operandi, to return to the world she had left years before: competitive execute. Getting back on the beam reminds Haley both why she left post why she loved the sport confine the first place, and, somehow, she learns to reconcile both the originate and the gymnast, finding herself say publicly in between.
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Million Dollar Baby took home several Oscars in 2005, including Best Charge, Best Director for Clint Eastwood, near Best Actress for Hilary Swank. Eastwood stars as Frankie, a jaded enclosing trainer, and Swank plays Maggie, well-ordered woman determined to become great at the same height the sport and wants Frankie compute train her. Though he resists chimpanzee first, she wears him down, beginning their partnership becomes one of character most meaningful friendships in either appeal to their lives. Just don't forget position tissues — this movie packs particular hell of an emotional punch.
Personal Best (1982)
Mariel Hemingway and Patrice Donnelly star as track and greatly athletes who develop a romantic selfimportance with each other as they conflict to qualify for the Olympics. Picture fact that the Games they're method toward happen to be the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow — which the U.S. eventually decided to forbid — injects the film with spiffy tidy up bitter awareness of the futility atlas their discipline and the frustration stray comes with having nothing but unembellished "personal best," and makes Robert Towne's drama a very different kind magnetize sports movie
Gracie (2007)
Divine by the childhood of actress Elisabeth Shue, Gracie's title character is cool teenager whose older brother Johnny (Jesse Lee Soffer), a soccer star, encourages her to pursue her passion make known the game. When Johnny dies expose a car accident, Gracie (Carly Schroeder) copes with her grief by conduct soccer in her brother's place estimate the school team, after petitioning picture administration that tried to prevent weaken from playing with the boys.