Champions (2018 film)

Champions (Spanish: Campeones) is a 2018 Spanish sports comedy-drama film directed by Javier Fesser and written by Fesser and David Marqués.[4][5] It was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

Not to be confused with Champion (2018 film).
Champions
Theatrical release poster
SpanishCampeones
Directed byJavier Fesser
Screenplay by
  • David Marqués
  • Javier Fesser
Story byDavid Marqués
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyChechu Graf
Edited by
  • Roberto Bolado
  • Javier Fesser
Music byRafael Arnau
Production
companies
  • Películas Pendelton
  • Rey de Babia AIE
  • Morena Films
  • Telefónica Studios
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • 6 April 2018 (2018-04-06) (Spain)
Running time
124 minutes
CountrySpain
LanguageSpanish
Budget€4.5 million[1]
Box office$23.8 million[2][3]

Plot

This movie is inspired by Aderes team in Burjassot (Valencia), a team created with people with intellectual disabilities that won twelve Spanish championships between 1999 and 2014.[6]

Marco Montes is the assistant coach of the basketball team CB Estudiantes. He is an arrogant man with bad manners and is fired from his job after pushing the head coach during a game over a disagreement over team strategy. After driving drunk into the back of a police car, Marco is ordered to either spend two years in prison or ninety days of community service, in the form of coaching Los Amigos, a team of basketball players with disabilities. At first, Montes complains about coaching the disabled players calling them subnormales (below normal). However, as he continues to coach the team, he realizes that each of the players has a unique background and they are extremely persistent in working together and playing well.[7]

Meanwhile, Marco and his wife Sonia are fighting with each other because Sonia wants a child and Marco is not ready yet. In particular, Iván, one of Marco's friends, meets Sonia at a bar and tells her that he is meeting with Marco over the weekend and that she can come to confront Marco then. Iván then proceeds to tell Marco that he is not going to go out with him in an attempt to get some alone time with Sonia because he finds her attractive. However, Marco still shows up and discusses with Sonia, they leave the bar still upset with each other. After Los Amigos's first away game, Marco realizes that it is incredibly difficult to travel with the team given their abrupt and often annoying interactions with the other people on public transportation. Marco tells Sonia about these difficulties, and she helps loan a camper van from her coworker at a sports gear shop. She then joins Marco and his team over several games and their relationship improves.

In the end, Los Amigos place second in the National Series, and Marco agrees to have a child with Sonia. As Marco leaves the Los Amigos team to go back to coaching professionally, he is thanked by all the team members for changing their lives.

Cast

Production

The film is a Películas Pendelton, Rey de Babia AIE, Morena Films, and Telefónica Studios production.[8]

Release

Distributed by Universal Pictures International Spain,[9] the film was theatrically released in Spain on 6 April 2018.[10]

Reception

Box office

The film is the highest-grossing Spanish language film of 2018 in Spain, with a box-office taking of €19.1 million from 3.3 million admissions.[11]

Critical response

Champions has an approval rating of 75% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 12 reviews, and an average rating of 6.4/10.[12]

Accolades

It was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[13][14] The film won three Goya Awards, including Best Film,[15] Best New Actor (Jesús Vidal),[16] and Best Original Song ("Este es el momento", by Coque Malla).[17]
The film received five nominations for the 6th Platino Awards, including Best Ibero-American Film and Best Director.[18]

Year Award CategoryNominee(s) ResultRef.
2019 24th Forqué AwardsBest FilmWon[19][20]
Best ActorJavier GutiérrezNominated
6th Feroz AwardsBest Comedy FilmWon[21]
Best DirectorJavier FesserNominated
Best Actor in a FilmJavier GutiérrezNominated
Best TrailerNominated
33rd Goya AwardsBest FilmWon[22]
Best DirectorJavier FesserNominated
Best Original ScreenplayJavier Fesser, David MarquésNominated
Best ActorJavier GutiérrezNominated
Best Supporting ActorJuan MargalloNominated
Best New ActressGloria RamosNominated
Best New ActorJesús VidalWon
Best EditingJavier FesserNominated
Best Production SupervisionLuis Fernández LagoNominated
Best Original Song"Este es el momento" by Coque MallaWon
Best SoundArman Ciudad, Charly Schmukler, Alfonso RaposoNominated
28th Actors and Actresses Union AwardsBest Film Actor in a Secondary RoleJuan MargalloWon[23]
6th Platino AwardsBest Ibero-American FilmNominated[24]
Best DirectorJavier FesserNominated
Best ScreenplayDavid Marqués, Javier FesserNominated
Best ActorJavier GutiérrezNominated
Cinema and Education in ValuesWon

Future

Documentary

A documentary called Ni distintos ni diferentes: Campeones, which tells the true stories of the protagonists of the film, premiered on November 16, 2018 in Spanish theaters.[25]

Sequel

A sequel called Championext is scheduled to be released on August 18, 2023 in Spanish cinemas.[26]

Remakes

In 2020, shooting began for an Arabic-language remake under the same name which was released commercially on March 10, 2022 in theaters in Saudi Arabia.[27][28] On April 5, 2022, a German-language remake titled Weil wir Champions sind directed by Christoph Schnee was released.[29] On March 10, 2023, an English-language remake of the same name directed by Bobby Farrelly was released.[30][31] Aamir Khan announced an Indian cinema remake of this film, and shooting will commence in January 2024. It would be entitled "Sitaare Zameen Par". It would be similar to his 2007 film Taare Zameen Par[32]

See also

References
  1. "'Campeones', 'Handia' y 'Todos los saben' pelearán por ser la candidata española en los 91º Premios Oscar". Redacción AV451. audiovisual451.com. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  2. "Campeones (2018)". The Numbers. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  3. "Campeones (Champions)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  4. Zurro, Javier (5 April 2018). "Los campeones que enseñaron a Fesser que no se dice "subnormales"". El Español. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  5. "Fesser atribuye el éxito de "Campeones" a que "hace felices" a los espectadores". EFE. eldiario.es. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  6. Herrero, Nacho (18 April 2018). "Bienvenidos al Aderes, el club que ha inspirado la película 'Campeones'". El Periódico (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  7. Holland, Jonathan (23 April 2018). "'Champions' ('Campeones'): Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  8. Cabeza, Elisabet (3 February 2019). "'The Realm' and 'Champions' share top honours at Spain's Goya awards". ScreenDaily.
  9. "'Campeones' – estreno en cines 6 de abril". Audiovisual451. 2 April 2018.
  10. "'Campeones' se estrena con éxito en la taquilla española". Cext. 23 April 2018.
  11. Hopewell, John (2 January 2019). "Spain's Box Office Dips Slightly in 2018". Variety.
  12. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/champions_2018
  13. Academia de Cine [@Academiadecine] (6 September 2018). "El actor @DanielGrao7 anuncia en la Academia que Campeones, de Javier Fesser es la película que representará a España en la 91 edición de los Oscar en la categoría de Mejor Película de Habla No Inglesa" (Tweet) (in Spanish) – via Twitter.
  14. Hopewell, John (6 September 2018). "Javier Fesser's 'Champions' Chosen as Spain's Oscar Submission". Variety. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  15. "'Campeones, gana el Goya a la mejor película". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 2 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  16. "Jesús Vidal pone al público en pie con un discurso emocionante como mejor actor revelación". Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (in Spanish). 2 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  17. "'Este es el momento', de Coque Malla, Mejor Canción Original en los Goya". Levante - El Mercantil Valenciano (in Spanish). 2 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  18. Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Roma’ Nabs Nine Nominations for 6th Premios Platino
  19. "'Campeones', Carmen y Lola', 'Entre dos aguas' y 'El Reino' optan a la mejor película de ficción de los 24ª Premios Forqué, los primeros del año". Audiovisual451. 30 November 2018.
  20. Alcaraz, María (14 January 2019). ""Campeones" triunfa en los premios Forqué y comienza el camino hacia los Goya". abcplay. ABC.
  21. Prats, Marina (19 January 2019). "La lista completa de ganadores de los Premios Feroz 2019". HuffPost.
  22. "Campeones". premiosgoya.com. Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  23. Silvestre, Juan (12 March 2019). "'Arde Madrid' arrasa en los Premios de la Unión de Actores". Fotogramas.
  24. "Premios Platino 2019: todos los ganadores". Infobae. 12 May 2019.
  25. RTVE, PRENSA (2018-11-13). "Llega a los cines el documental 'Ni distintos ni diferentes: Campeones'". RTVE.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  26. "'Campeonex' el regreso de los Campeones de Javier Fesser ya tiene fecha de estreno". okdiario.com (in Spanish). 2023-01-17. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  27. "'CHAMPIONS' - The Movie Starts Filming in Saudi Arabia - Destination KSA". 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  28. "Saudi film 'Champions' to be released in March". Arab News. 2022-02-26. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  29. Riedmeier, Glenn. ""Weil wir Champions sind" mit Wotan Wilke Möhring: RTL+-Sportfilm über Inklusion erhält Starttermin". fernsehserien.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  30. O'Rourke, Ryan (5 December 2022). "'Champions' Trailer: Woody Harrelson Coaches Special Olympics Basketball Team to Glory". collider.com.
  31. "Tráiler de 'Champions', el remake de 'Campeones' con Woody Harrelson". Cinemanía. 5 December 2022 – via 20minutos.es.
  32. "Aamir Khan to star in Hindi remake of Spanish film 'Campeones'? Actor says planning is on". The Economic Times. 2022-03-14. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.