The Best Sports Movies of All Time
Competition as drama: the sports-film canon ranked by our composite score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls.
The sports film is rarely about the sport: Raging Bull is a self-destruction study that happens to occur in a ring, Chariots of Fire runs on faith and class, and Rocky — the form's populist summit — won Best Picture as a loneliness story with a training montage. Boxing dominates the canon (Scorsese, Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, The Wrestler's flip side) because it strips competition to two bodies and a reckoning; the baseball and football pictures supply its mythology of second chances.
Raging Bull (1980) leads with a composite score of 5.71.
Masters of the genre
- Martin Scorsese
2 films · Raging Bull
- Clint Eastwood
2 films · Million Dollar Baby
- David O. Russell
2 films · Silver Linings Playbook
- Bennett Miller
2 films · Moneyball
- 1Raging Bull1980 · Martin Scorsese · United States · biography, drama, action5.71
AFI 100 (2007) #4 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #22 · Siskel's annual top 10 1980 #1
- 2MASH1970 · Robert Altman · United States · comedy, drama, war4.25
Palme d'Or winner 1970 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1970 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1970 #5
- 3Rocky1976 · John G. Avildsen · United States · drama, action3.65
Oscar Best Picture winner 1976 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1977 #1 · AFI 100 (2007) #57
- 4Chariots of Fire1981 · Hugh Hudson · United Kingdom / Australia · biography, drama3.55
Oscar Best Picture winner 1981 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1982 · TIFF People's Choice winner 1981
- 5Forrest Gump1994 · Robert Zemeckis · United States · comedy, drama, romance3.45
Oscar Best Picture winner 1994 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1995 #4 · AFI 100 (2007) #76
- 6Million Dollar Baby2004 · Clint Eastwood · United States · drama3.00
Oscar Best Picture winner 2004 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2005 #1 · Ebert's annual top 10 2004 #1
- 7The Hustler1961 · Robert Rossen · United States · drama2.72
BAFTA Best Film winner 1962 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1961 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1962 #9
- 8The Wrestler2008 · Darren Aronofsky · United States / France · drama1.72
Venice Golden Lion winner 2008 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2009 #5 · Film Comment year-end poll 2008 #23
- 9Field of Dreams1989 · Phil Alden Robinson · United States · fantasy, drama1.66
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1990 #2 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1989 · National Film Registry (inducted 2017)
- 10Rocco and His Brothers1960 · Luchino Visconti · France / Italy · drama, crime1.47
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1961 #4 · Scorsese's 39 essential foreign films · Letterboxd Top 250 #129
- 11Silver Linings Playbook2012 · David O. Russell · United States · drama, comedy, romance1.44
TIFF People's Choice winner 2012 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2012 · Film Comment year-end poll 2012 #18
- 12Paranoid Park2007 · Gus Van Sant · United States / France · drama, thriller1.33
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2007 #1 · Film Comment year-end poll 2008 #7
- 13The Black Stallion1979 · Carroll Ballard · United States · adventure1.22
Ebert's annual top 10 1980 #1 · National Film Registry (inducted 2002) · Kehr's annual top 10 1980 #7
- 14The Quiet Man1952 · John Ford · United States · comedy, romance, drama1.20
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1952 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1953 #6 · National Film Registry (inducted 2013)
- 15Small, Slow But Steady2022 · Shō Miyake · Japan / France1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2022 #1
- 16Moneyball2011 · Bennett Miller · United States · biography, drama1.00
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2011 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2011 #6 · Film Comment year-end poll 2011 #38
- 17Jerry Maguire1996 · Cameron Crowe · United States · romance, comedy, drama0.97
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1996 · Kehr's annual top 10 1996 #6 · Empire 500 (2008) #420
- 18Girlfight2000 · Karyn Kusama · United States · romance, drama0.91
Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner 2000 · Criterion Collection spine #1219
- 19Ford v Ferrari2019 · James Mangold · United States / France · biography, drama, action0.78
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2019 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2020 #7
- 20Here Comes Mr. Jordan1941 · Alexander Hall · United States · comedy, romance, fantasy0.78
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1941 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #819
- 21Seabiscuit2003 · Gary Ross · United States · drama0.77
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2003 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2004 #8
- 22Killer's Kiss1955 · Stanley Kubrick · United States · film-noir, drama0.75
Locarno Golden Leopard winner 1959
- 23Strictly Ballroom1992 · Baz Luhrmann · Australia · comedy, romance0.75
TIFF People's Choice winner 1992
- 24The Freshman1925 · Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor · United States · comedy, silent0.69
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1926 #9 · National Film Registry (inducted 1990) · Criterion Collection spine #703
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- 28Invictus2009 · Clint Eastwood · South Africa / United States · biography, drama0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2010 #2
- 29This Sporting Life1963 · Lindsay Anderson · United Kingdom · drama0.59
BFI Top 100 British films #52 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #417
- 30Bull Durham1988 · Ron Shelton · United States · comedy, romance, drama0.58
Siskel's annual top 10 1988 #3 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #936
- 31The Champ1931 · King Vidor · United States · drama0.56
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1931 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 32The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner1962 · Tony Richardson · United Kingdom · drama0.53
BFI Top 100 British films #61 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 33
- 34Point Break1991 · Kathryn Bigelow · United States / Japan · crime, thriller, action0.47
Empire 500 (2008) #197 · Kehr's annual top 10 1991 #7 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 35The Color of Money1986 · Martin Scorsese · United States · drama, action, thriller0.46
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1987 #10 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 36Heaven Can Wait1978 · Warren Beatty, Buck Henry · United States · comedy, romance, fantasy0.45
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1978
- 37The Blind Side2009 · John Lee Hancock · United States · comedy, drama, biography0.45
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2009
- 38The Fighter2010 · David O. Russell · United States · biography, drama0.45
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2010
- 39King Richard2021 · Reinaldo Marcus Green · United States · drama, biography0.45
Oscar Best Picture nominee 2021
- 40
- 41Genevieve1953 · Henry Cornelius · United Kingdom · comedy0.40
BFI Top 100 British films #86 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 42Love & Basketball2000 · Gina Prince-Bythewood · United States · romance, drama, comedy0.39
National Film Registry (inducted 2023) · Criterion Collection spine #1097
- 43When We Were Kings1996 · Leon Gast · United States · documentary0.38
Sarris's annual top 10 1996 #4 · Criterion Collection spine #998
- 44
- 45Golden Boy1939 · Rouben Mamoulian · United States · drama, romance0.32
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1940 #8
- 46
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- 48Downhill Racer1969 · Michael Ritchie · United States · drama0.31
Criterion Collection spine #494 · Ebert's annual top 10 1969 #9
- 49Champion1949 · Mark Robson · United States · drama, film-noir, romance0.30
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1951 #9
- 50
- 51
- 52The Great White Hope1970 · Martin Ritt · United States · romance, biography, drama0.29
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1971 #10
- 53Tokyo Fist1995 · Shinya Tsukamoto · Japan · horror, drama0.29
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1995 #10
- 54Rush2013 · Ron Howard · Germany / United States / United Kingdom · action, biography, drama0.29
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2014 #10
- 55Fat City1972 · John Huston · United States · film-noir, drama0.28
NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 56The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight1897 · Enoch J. Rector · United States · documentary, silent0.23
National Film Registry (inducted 2012)
- 57Jeffries-Johnson World's Championship Boxing Contest1910 · · United States · silent, documentary0.23
National Film Registry (inducted 2005)
- 58The Battle of the Century1927 · Clyde Bruckman · United States · comedy, silent0.23
National Film Registry (inducted 2020)
- 59
- 60Knute Rockne, All American1940 · Lloyd Bacon, William K. Howard · United States · biography, drama0.23
National Film Registry (inducted 1997)
- 61Endless Summer1966 · Bruce Brown · United States · documentary0.23
National Film Registry (inducted 2002)
- 62
- 63Foxcatcher2014 · Bennett Miller · United States · biography, drama0.20
Film Comment year-end poll 2014 #29
- 64The Triplets of Belleville2003 · Sylvain Chomet · Canada / France / United Kingdom · comedy, drama, adventure0.20
Film Comment year-end poll 2003 #30
- 65
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- 70
- 71One Night in Miami...2020 · Regina King · United States · biography, drama0.16
Criterion Collection spine #1106
- 72
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- 74North Dallas Forty1979 · Ted Kotcheff · United States · comedy, drama0.14
Sarris's annual top 10 1979 #10
- 75The Ring1927 · Alfred Hitchcock · United Kingdom · drama, silent, romance0.11
Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 76
- 7799 River Street1953 · Phil Karlson · United States · drama, crime, film-noir0.11
Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 78It's Always Fair Weather1955 · Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen · United States · comedy, romance, musical0.11
Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 79
- 80Virile Games1988 · Jan Švankmajer · Czechoslovakia · animation, comedy0.11
Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 81The Last Boy Scout1991 · Tony Scott · United States · crime, action, comedy0.11
Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
The scoreboard's verdict
Reputation would crown Raging Bull; this time the composite score agrees. Our highest-ranked sports film is Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980) at #13 in the whole library, scoring 5.71 — a clear stretch above Chariots of Fire (1981), which lands at #89 with 3.55. Trophies still tell part of the story: Chariots of Fire, Rocky (1976) and Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (2004) each took Best Picture, and that pedigree recurs across the polls and awards our number sums. Yet the crowd's favorite lags the critics' — Rocky, directed by John G. Avildsen, sits only at #77 (3.65), well behind the flintier films that lists keep rather than quote.
A genre that is rarely about its sport
The sport, the Wikipedia entry on the form argues, is seldom the real subject — it works allegorically, a frame for something else (accessed 21 July 2026). Our ranking bears that out. Raging Bull is a study in self-ruin that happens inside a ring; The Hustler (1961), Robert Rossen's pool drama at #201 (2.72), cares about character more than the felt; Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler (2008), #490 (1.72), is an elegy for a used-up body. The films that endure here treat the game as a pressure chamber, not a highlight reel — which is why MASH (1970) and Forrest Gump (1994) surface among the leaders while dozens of earnest underdog pictures do not.
How the list is built
Membership is not our editorial pick. Each film carries a Wikidata genre tag that maps into the sports bucket — boxing, baseball, American football, basketball and the broader "sports film" label — and everything so tagged is then re-ranked by composite score, never by any outside chart. That mechanical net explains the company: boxing dominates the upper reaches (Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, The Wrestler, later The Fighter and Girlfight), but the tag also sweeps in films rarely shelved as "sports" — Rossen's pool halls, John Ford's boxing-flecked The Quiet Man (1952), Kathryn Bigelow's surf thriller Point Break (1991), even Baz Luhrmann's ballroom Strictly Ballroom (1992). Read the ranking as a measurement, then, not a canon handed down: the score decides who leads, and it keeps choosing the reckonings over the montages.