List of Summer Olympic documentary films

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.^[1][2][3]

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.^[4][5] A collection of many Official films was restored,^[6] and released as a 2017 home video box set under the title 100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912–2012.^[7] “Official” films are those which have been arranged by the host city organizing committee and produced in compliance with the charter.^[8] Listed Olympiad numbers have discontinuities due to cancelled games.

Other than still photography, no Olympic competitions were filmed prior to 1906.^[9]

Summer Olympic documentary films

#	Games	Film Title	Released	Director	Notes
-	Athens 1906	Jeux olympiques d'Athènes	1906	Pathé Frères	[10][11]
4	London 1908	Olympic Games In London	1908	British Pathé	[12][13] Film ID:1824.12
5	Stockholm 1912	The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912	1912	Adrian Wood	[14]
7	Antwerp 1920	Olympiade in Antwerpen	1920		[15]
8	Paris 1924	The Olympic Games in Paris, 1924	1924	Jean de Rovéra	[14]
9	Amsterdam 1928	The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928	1928	Wilhelm Prager, Jules Perel	[14]
		The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam	1928	Istituto Luce
10	Los Angeles 1932	1932 Olympic Games	1932	Pathé News	[16]
		Fox Movietone News #92-95	1932	Edmund Reek	[17]
		Hearst Metrotone News #290-293	1932	Hearst Metrotone News
		Paramount News #1-4	1932	Paramount News	[18]
		Universal Newspaper Newsreel #64-67	1932	Universal Newsreel
11	Berlin 1936	Olympia	1938	Leni Riefenstahl	[19]
14	London 1948	XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport	1948	Castleton Knight	[14] joint film also covering the 1948 Winter Olympics
15	Helsinki 1952	Olympia 52	1952	Chris Marker	[20]
		Where the World Meets	1952	Hannu Leminen	Official
		Gold and Glory	1953	Hannu Leminen	Official
16	Melbourne 1956	Olympic Games 1956	1956	Peter Whitchurch	[14]
		Freedom's Fury	2006	Colin Keith Gray, Megan Raney Aarons	[21]
17	Rome 1960	The Grand Olympics	1961	Romolo Marcellini	[22]
18	Tokyo 1964	Tokyo Olympiad	1965	Kon Ichikawa	[14]
19	Mexico 1968	The Olympics in Mexico	1969	Alberto Isaac	[14]
		Salute	2008	Matt Norman	[23]
20	Munich 1972	Visions of Eight	1973	Miloš Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Yuri Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, Mai Zetterling	[14]
		One Day in September	1999	Kevin Macdonald	[24]
21	Montreal 1976	Games of the XXI Olympiad	1977	Jean Beaudin, Marcel Carrière, Georges Dufaux	[14]
		The Last Gold	2016	Brian Brown	[14]
22	Moscow 1980	O Sport, You Are Peace!	1981	Yuri Ozerov	[14]
23	Los Angeles 1984	16 Days of Glory	1986	Bud Greenspan	[14]
24	Seoul 1988	Seoul 1988	1988	Lee Kwang-Soo	[14]
25	Barcelona 1992	Marathon	1993	Carlos Saura	[14]
26	Atlanta 1996	Atlanta's Olympic Glory	1997	Bud Greenspan	[14]
27	Sydney 2000	Sydney 2000, Stories of Olympic Glory	2001	Bud Greenspan	[14]
28	Athens 2004	Bud Greenspan's Athens 2004: Stories of Olympic Glory	2005	Bud Greenspan	[14]
29	Beijing 2008	The Everlasting Flame	2010	Gu Jun	[14]
30	London 2012	First	2012	Caroline Rowland	[14]
		Gun to Tape	2012	David Forbes	[25]
31	Rio 2016	Days of Truce	2017	Breno Silveira	[14]
32	Tokyo 2020	Side A, Side B	2022	Naomi Kawase	[26]
33	Paris 2024	TBA	2024	Jules and Gédéon Naudet	[27]

See also

• List of Winter Olympic documentary films
• Olympics on television
• List of FIFA World Cup official films

References

1. 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
2. Wallechinsky, David (2020) “Olympic Films 1988-1996: New Political Realities, New Cinematic Styles” Journal of Olympic History #28 International Society of Olympic Historians
3. Findling, John E.; Pelle, Kimberly D. (2004) Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement Greenwood Press Appendix C: Olympic Films
4. Official films at Olympics.com
5. sportsheritage.org
6. 2019 Award from Association of Moving Image Archivists
7. Fristoe, Roger (2021) "100 YEARS of OLYMPIC FILMS" at Turner Classic Movies
8. Introduction of the Olympic Official Films at beijing2022.cn
9. Downing, Taylor (2012) The Olympics on Film History Today Volume 62 Issue 8 August 2012
10. The Olympic Games at Athens, Greece (1906) IMDb
11. "'Olympische Spiele in Athen' 1906". The German Early Cinema Database 1895-1920. Data Center for the Humanities, University of Cologne. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
12. Sugden, John Peter and Tomlinson, Alan (2012) Watching the Olympics: Politics, Power and Representation Routledge ISBN 9780415578332 p109
13. Olympic Games In London (1908) British Pathé
14. "Official Films". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
15. Olympiade in Antwerpen (1920) Musea Stad Antwerpen
16. 1932 Olympic Games Pathé News
17. Motion Picture Herald p46
18. Motion Picture Herald p48
19. 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
20. "Olympia 52". Harvard Film Archive. 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
21. Krastev, Nikola (2012-02-02). "Hungary: New Film Revisits 1956 Water-Polo Showdown". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
22. Mallon, Bill (1984). The Olympics: A Bibliography. Garland Pub. ISBN 978-0-8240-8926-9.
23. Bradshaw, Peter (2012-07-12). "Salute – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
24. Bradshaw, Peter (2000-05-19). "One Day in September". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
25. "Top 10 Olympic movies to watch when you're stuck at home". International Olympic Committee. 2020-04-20. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
26. IOC (2022) Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 premieres at the Festival de Cannes
27. "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.