Thinking Football Film Festival 2025 to open with screening of Saipan

Athletic Club is delighted to announce that the 2025 Thinking Football Film Festival will take place at the Sala BBK with daily screenings from October 6 to 12.

The opening ceremony is scheduled for October 6 at 19:00 CEST. During the presentation, the 2024 Audience Award, sponsored by EiTB, will be given to James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay, directors of Copa 71.

Following the presentation, we will screen Saipan, a feature film directed by Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn that depicts the infamous confrontation between Roy Keane (played by Éanna Hardwicke) and manager Mick McCarthy (played by Steve Coogan) during the Irish national team's preparations for the 2002 World Cup.

Selected for the Centrepiece programme at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Athletic Club's Thinking Football Film Festival is the setting for Saipan's European premiere.

The film powerfully captures the personal and collective tensions in the build-up to a moment that shocked the world of football.

The official poster for this year's edition of the festival is inspired by Anna Huix's renowned photograph. The image shows Nabila, a young footballer from Pakistan, and has become a symbol of the union between culture and football which the Athletic Club Foundation and this festival seeks to promote. A union that, through cinema, aims to improve the world.

The full programme, guest speakers and other details about the 2025 Thinking Football Film Festival will be available soon on its official website.
 

What is the Thinking Football Film Festival?

Since its inception in 2013, the Thinking Football Film Festival has established itself as one of the world's most prestigious festivals combining cinema and football. The 2025 edition, organised by the Athletic Club Foundation and Sala BBK, will feature sixteen films to be announced shortly.

Community, inclusion and culture are the Athletic Club Foundation's three key pillars of action, with the Thinking Football Film Festival being one the flagship cultural projects.

These projects champion a different concept of football, using culture as an element of social transformation and football as an ally in the educational process of young people.