The Summer Olympic Games have been filmed and competition highlights released starting in 1906. Documentary films for individual Summer Olympic Games which feature actual competition footage are listed in the following table.
Background
An Olympic Film Collection of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage (OFCH) includes fifty feature-length films providing a chronicle of the modern Olympic Games. A collection of many Official films was restored, and released as a 2017 home video box set under the title 100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912–2012. “Official” films are those which have been arranged by the host city organizing committee and produced in compliance with the charter. Listed Olympiad numbers have discontinuities due to cancelled games.
Other than still photography, no Olympic competitions were filmed prior to 1906.
Summer Olympic documentary films
| # | Games | Film Title | Released | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Athens 1906 | Jeux olympiques d'Athènes | 1906 | Pathé Frères | |
| 4 | London 1908 | Olympic Games In London | 1908 | British Pathé | Film ID:1824.12 |
| 5 | Stockholm 1912 | The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912 | 1912 | Adrian Wood | |
| 7 | Antwerp 1920 | Olympiade in Antwerpen | 1920 | ||
| 8 | Paris 1924 | The Olympic Games in Paris, 1924 | 1924 | Jean de Rovéra | |
| 9 | Amsterdam 1928 | The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928 | 1928 | Wilhelm Prager, Jules Perel | |
| The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam | 1928 | Istituto Luce | |||
| 10 | Los Angeles 1932 | 1932 Olympic Games | 1932 | Pathé News | |
| Fox Movietone News #92-95 | 1932 | Edmund Reek | |||
| Hearst Metrotone News #290-293 | 1932 | Hearst Metrotone News | |||
| Paramount News #1-4 | 1932 | Paramount News | |||
| Universal Newspaper Newsreel #64-67 | 1932 | Universal Newsreel | |||
| 11 | Berlin 1936 | Olympia | 1938 | Leni Riefenstahl | |
| 14 | London 1948 | XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport | 1948 | Castleton Knight | joint film also covering the 1948 Winter Olympics |
| 15 | Helsinki 1952 | Olympia 52 | 1952 | Chris Marker | |
| Where the World Meets | 1952 | Hannu Leminen | Official | ||
| Gold and Glory | 1953 | Hannu Leminen | Official | ||
| 16 | Melbourne 1956 | Olympic Games 1956 | 1956 | Peter Whitchurch | |
| Freedom's Fury | 2006 | Colin Keith Gray, Megan Raney Aarons | |||
| 17 | Rome 1960 | The Grand Olympics | 1961 | Romolo Marcellini | |
| 18 | Tokyo 1964 | Tokyo Olympiad | 1965 | Kon Ichikawa | |
| 19 | Mexico 1968 | The Olympics in Mexico | 1969 | Alberto Isaac | |
| Salute | 2008 | Matt Norman | |||
| 20 | Munich 1972 | Visions of Eight | 1973 | Miloš Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Yuri Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, Mai Zetterling | |
| One Day in September | 1999 | Kevin Macdonald | |||
| 21 | Montreal 1976 | Games of the XXI Olympiad | 1977 | Jean Beaudin, Marcel Carrière, Georges Dufaux | |
| The Last Gold | 2016 | Brian Brown | |||
| 22 | Moscow 1980 | O Sport, You Are Peace! | 1981 | Yuri Ozerov | |
| 23 | Los Angeles 1984 | 16 Days of Glory | 1986 | Bud Greenspan | |
| 24 | Seoul 1988 | Seoul 1988 | 1988 | Lee Kwang-Soo | |
| 25 | Barcelona 1992 | Marathon | 1993 | Carlos Saura | |
| 26 | Atlanta 1996 | Atlanta's Olympic Glory | 1997 | Bud Greenspan | |
| 27 | Sydney 2000 | Sydney 2000, Stories of Olympic Glory | 2001 | Bud Greenspan | |
| 28 | Athens 2004 | Bud Greenspan's Athens 2004: Stories of Olympic Glory | 2005 | Bud Greenspan | |
| 29 | Beijing 2008 | The Everlasting Flame | 2010 | Gu Jun | |
| 30 | London 2012 | First | 2012 | Caroline Rowland | |
| Gun to Tape | 2012 | David Forbes | |||
| 31 | Rio 2016 | Days of Truce | 2017 | Breno Silveira | |
| 32 | Tokyo 2020 | Side A, Side B | 2022 | Naomi Kawase | |
| 33 | Paris 2024 | TBA | 2024 | Jules and Gédéon Naudet |
See also
- List of Winter Olympic documentary films
- Olympics on television
- List of FIFA World Cup official films
References
- Wallechinsky, David (2019) "Olympic Films: From the Beginning to Riefenstahl's Berlin Docudrama"; "Olympic Films 1948-1960: Serious Event Coverage with Touches of Sexism and Racism"; "Olympic Films 1964-1984: Troubled Times and Troubled Films Mixed with Excellent Exceptions" Journal of Olympic History #27 International Society of Olympic Historians
- Wallechinsky, David (2020) “Olympic Films 1988-1996: New Political Realities, New Cinematic Styles” Journal of Olympic History #28 International Society of Olympic Historians
- Findling, John E.; Pelle, Kimberly D. (2004) Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement Greenwood Press Appendix C: Olympic Films
- Official films at Olympics.com
- sportsheritage.org
- 2019 Award from Association of Moving Image Archivists
- Fristoe, Roger (2021) "100 YEARS of OLYMPIC FILMS" at Turner Classic Movies
- Introduction of the Olympic Official Films at beijing2022.cn
- Downing, Taylor (2012) The Olympics on Film History Today Volume 62 Issue 8 August 2012
- The Olympic Games at Athens, Greece (1906) IMDb
- "'Olympische Spiele in Athen' 1906". The German Early Cinema Database 1895-1920. Data Center for the Humanities, University of Cologne. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
- Sugden, John Peter and Tomlinson, Alan (2012) Watching the Olympics: Politics, Power and Representation Routledge ISBN 9780415578332 p109
- Olympic Games In London (1908) British Pathé
- ^ "Official Films". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- Olympiade in Antwerpen (1920) Musea Stad Antwerpen
- 1932 Olympic Games Pathé News
- Motion Picture Herald p46
- Motion Picture Herald p48
- Otto, Elizabeth (2021-09-30), "Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi Neoclassicism: Olympia (1938)", A Modernist Cinema, Oxford University Press, pp. 260–279, doi:10.1093/oso/9780199379453.003.0015, ISBN 978-0-19-937945-3, retrieved 2024-04-23
- "Olympia 52". Harvard Film Archive. 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- Krastev, Nikola (2012-02-02). "Hungary: New Film Revisits 1956 Water-Polo Showdown". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- Mallon, Bill (1984). The Olympics: A Bibliography. Garland Pub. ISBN 978-0-8240-8926-9.
- Bradshaw, Peter (2012-07-12). "Salute – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- Bradshaw, Peter (2000-05-19). "One Day in September". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- "Top 10 Olympic movies to watch when you're stuck at home". International Olympic Committee. 2020-04-20. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- IOC (2022) Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 premieres at the Festival de Cannes
- "In association with France Télévisions, Paris 2024 and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have chosen Jules and Gédéon Naudet to direct the Official film of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 and the related documentary series". Paris 2024. 22 May 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
