University of Galway

About

This web resource is dedicated to capturing the extraordinary story of how sport has featured across the history of European cinema – and the fascinating insights relevant productions give us today into the development of specific sports, national cultures and European society more broadly. On this platform you will find an extensive database of primarily European fiction films featuring sport dating back to the first fiction production from 1910, Rogues of the Turf (UK). We invite and encourage you to explore the database, the information available there, related links to further information and (in some cases) streaming possibilities. The database will also allow you to create visualisations of some of the information gathered there. In addition to the database, this platform hosts case studies based on the research materials gathered, a list of relevant project publications, a bibliography of relevant texts on the subject of sport in the cinema, and a blog (that we welcome new entries to).

Sincere thanks to all contributing researchers and designers on this project, including researchers Dr. Veronica Johnson and Noel Hendrick, and David Kelly (Digital Humanities Manager for the Moore Institute) for the design and delivery of the final web platform and database.

Project Leader

Dr. Seán Crosson
Senior Lecturer in Film,
Huston School of Film & Digital Media,
University of Galway
sean.crosson@universityofgalway.ie

Dr. Seán Crosson is Senior Lecturer in Film in the Huston School of Film & Digital Media at University of Galway. His main research interest over the past fifteen years is the relationship between sport, film and visual culture. He has authored, edited, or co-edited ten books and over fifty mostly single-authored peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters to date, including his monographs Gaelic Games on Film: From silent films to Hollywood hurling, horror and the emergence of Irish cinema (Cork University Press, 2019) (recipient of the Dean's Award for Research (2020)) and Sport and Film (Routledge 2013). He is co-director of the Performance and Screen Studies BA subject, and as leader of the Sport & Exercise Research Group within the Moore Institute, he has led a range of interdisciplinary sport-related research and teaching initiatives. He has served as President of the European Federation of Associations and Centres for Irish Studies (2013-2019), been Vice-Dean for Research in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies (2017-2020), and is currently a member of the Irish Classification of Films Appeal Board.

Research Assistants

  • Noel Hendrick (2022-2023) - Noel Hendrick is a PhD candidate at the Huston School of Film and Digital Media at the University of Galway. He has lectured and tutored across a range of Modules on the BA and Masters programme at the Huston School. Concurrently he teaches Media Studies/Screenwriting for the Galway/Roscommon Education and training Board. His primary research interests are emotion and the cinematic experience, In particular the emotion of ‘Awe’, ‘Wonder’, and ‘Dread.’ He is utilising a phenomenological methodology in his research, in particular the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He graduated from University of Galway with a degree in Psychology and spent a number of years as a film industry professional. Contact: noel.hendrick@universityofgalway.ie

  • Dr. Veronica Johnson (2021)

This project was supported by funding from the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies Strategic Research Development Scheme.

Design & Development

The project's web infrastructure was designed by David Kelly at the Moore Institute Digital Lab, University of Galway.

Supported by