THE BLIND SIDE DOMINATES 2010 GOLDEN SPORTIES

For the first time since Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby in 2004, a sport movie is making headlines as an Academy Award nominee in the coveted category of best picture.

Naysayers would suggest the only reason The Blind Side is a best picture nominee is because this marked the year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – looking for ways to attract new viewers and prop up flagging television ratings in recent years -- decided to expand the field to 10 finalists, double the five which have made it to Oscar night every year since 1944.

That could be true but it misses the bigger point for sports fans: after years of mediocrity and in many cases, sheer dirt, the sport movie genre is in a definite upswing, thanks to The Wrestler in 2008 and this year’s line-up of sport films.

Headlined by The Blind Side, it is the best crop of sport movies since Million Dollar Baby, Miracle and Friday Night Lights in 2004. The year 2009 is arguably among the top five years in the history of the genre, behind only 1979’s Heaven Can Wait, Rocky II, The Champ, North Dallas Forty and Black Stallion, 2002’s The Rookie, Bend it Like Beckham, Blue Crush and Dogtown and Z-Boys and Rocky, Breaking Away and Bad News Bears in 1976.

The calibre of candidates released in 2009 will be under the industry’s biggest spotlight at tomorrow night’s 82nd Academy Awards, with The Blind Side nominated as best picture and its heralded star, Sandra Bullock, nominated as best actress for her role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in the true-life story of Baltimore Ravens’ offensive linesman Michael Oher. The rugby political drama Invictus is also in the running with nominations for Morgan Freeman as best actor for his role as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as best supporting actor for playing South African Springboks’ national team captain Francois Pienaar.

Yet it doesn’t stop there. In addition to The Blind Side and Invictus, the class of 2009 includes Big Fan, a football drama and another solid entry from writer and director Robert D. Siegel, who brought us last year’s comeback performance of Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. The past year also delivered Damn United, the soccer movie starring Michael Sheen as mercurial British football coach Brian Clough, Whip It, the coming of age roller derby film from producer Drew Barrymore featuring Canadian Ellen Page and the boxing documentaries Tyson (first released at Cannes in 2008) and Facing Ali (2009 Vancouver International Film Festival) .

It also featured ESPN’s 30th anniversary documentaries such as Kings Ransom on Wayne Gretzky and Into the Wind on Steve Nash, along with More Than a Game (basketball), Sugar (baseball), Freestyle (motocross), the foreign entry Rudo y Cursi (soccer) and lesser entries such as Looking for Eric (soccer) and Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach.

The good news for sport movie fans is that success breeds success, in Hollywood as in most sectors.

The critical acclaim of The Wrestler in 2008 and this year’s strong class – particularly around The Blind Side and Bullock – should do much to drive more and better scripts for sport movies in the coming years. Bullock has already done her part by winning the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards for best actress and tying the legendary Meryl Streep in the Critic’s Choice Awards. An Academy Award nod would be huge for Bullock in particular and for sport movies in general; it would be the first actor award at the Oscars since Hilary Swank won for her role as Maggie Fitzgerald for Million Dollar Baby in 2004.

It’s against this backdrop, on the eve of the Oscars, that The Sport Market Movie Awards – the 2010 Golden Sporties – are being announced today. It’s no surprise that Bullock was a lock as best actress in a sport movie, nor that The Blind Side was the leading film with four awards. It also wins for best adapted screenplay and best song, with country star Tim McGraw – who plays Bullock’s husband in the film -- breaking Bruce Springsteen’s two-year reign for his musical contributions to the Elisabeth Shue soccer movie Gracie (2007) and The Wrestler (2008).

There is also little suspense around Freeman as best actor and Damon as best supporting actor, although Patton Oswalt is terrific as obsessed New York Giants fan Paul Aufiero and Kevin Corrigan is solid albeit underused in a supporting role as his friend Sal.

Oswalt and Corrigan fall short of the honours in The Sport Market Movie Awards but Big Fan checks in with the Golden Sportie for best supporting actress on the strength of Marcia Jean Kurtz’s turn as Aufiero’s mother.

The Blind Side and Invictus have received the mainstream accolades but Big Fan is another winner from Siegel and, along with Damn United and Whip It, makes this a special – and unusual -- year to celebrate for movie-going sports fans.

Sport business commentator and marketing executive Tom Mayenknecht hosts The Sport Market on TEAM 1040, Saturdays, 9 am-12 noon.

 The Sport Market Movie Awards

The 2010 Golden Sporties

Best picture: The Blind Side (football)

Best actor: Morgan Freeman (Invictus/rugby)

Best actress: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side/football)

Best supporting actor: Matt Damon (Invictus/rugby)

Best supporting actress: Marcia Jean Kurtz (Big Fan/football) 

Best director: Robert D. Siegel (Big Fan/football)

Best screenplay (original): Robert D. Siegel (Big Fan/football)

Best screenplay (adapted): John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side/football), from the book by Michael Lewis.

Best song in a sport movie: Tim McGraw for Southern Voice on Curb Records (The Blind Side/football).

Best soundtrack in a sport movie: Whip It: The Soundtrack (Whip It/roller derby), Rhino Records.

Best sport documentary: Facing Ali (boxing).

Best Canadian sport movie: Facing Ali (boxing).