The incredible story of the first forgotten women’s World Cup wins top award at the 12th edition of the Athletic Club’s film festival
The British film ‘Copa 71’, directed by James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay and produced by sisters Venus and Serena Williams and Alex Morgan, has won the 2024 Audience Award at the Thinking Football Film Festival, sponsored by EITB. ‘Copa 71’ is a documentary that rescues a forgotten World Cup, the one played in 1971 by the women’s national teams of England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark and Italy in Mexico City. Even though the championship brought together hundreds of thousands of people and was an unprecedented success, it has been inexplicably forgotten.
James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay give the documentary a truly captivating pace, capturing the viewer’s attention through a compelling combination of spectacular historical footage of the event – the full fields, the cheering crowds, the bewildered yet excited players – and present-day testimonies from the players.
Beyond its great cinematographic quality, the film is a revindication in the face of forgetfulness. In this sense, the film poses a question that should prompt reflection: why has an event of such sporting and social magnitude remained hidden in the history of football? The interests of a structurally sexist and discriminatory industry hover over any of the possible answers.
The Thinking Football Audience Award, sponsored by EITB, awards €3,000 to the winning film, an amount that must be donated in its entirety to a social project chosen by the film’s crew.
Likewise, the trophy awarded to the winning film recreates the figure of a woman footballer holding a ball with one arm and a set of books with the other. Football and culture, together. Athletic Club.
Cinema
