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Amid the classic, flashy film and television premieres this week at SXSW, the festival also offered a forum for burgeoning creators to showcase their work in the Independent TV Pilot Program.

These seven wide-ranging pilots rely primarily on personal experiences — from mental illness to queer identity — while also taking creative risks to offer something new to the television landscape.

Screened throughout the week, the pilots debuted at the Rollins Theatre at The Long Center on March 9 to a receptive crowd, which included Woody Harrelson, who attended in support of former Champions co-star Kevin Iannucci’s project R&r.

Following the premiere screening, the creative teams from each project took the stage to discuss the unique challenges that independent filmmakers are facing in the current television environment and how those were overcome on their projects, including lack of financing and resources.

Woody Harrelson, Kevin Iannucci, JJ Herz

Per the jury results,...

Kevin Iannucci, Kaitlin Olson, James Day Keith, and Woody Harrelson in ‘Champions’ (Photo Credit: Shauna Townley / Focus Features)

There have been many inspirational basketball films, including Hoosiers, Hoop Dreams, and Above the Rim. Add to that list Champions starring Woody Harrelson as Marcus, a minor-league basketball coach in De Moines, Iowa, who has just been fired for pushing head coach Phil Perretti (Ernie Hudson) for not listening to him about strategy during a game.

To make matters worse, Marcus ends up slamming into a police car on his way home and is ordered by the court to perform 90 days of community service.

The judge notices his unique talents and orders him to coach a basketball team of young players with intellectual disabilities. Wanting to stay out of jail, Marcus reluctantly agrees.

To say he’s unimpressed with his players and their non-existent hoop skills would be a gross understatement. “It...

Chicago – “Champions” is a predictable and formulaic, but it’s ultimately a good natured trip into a world of sports comedy clichés. It’s never particularly laugh out loud funny, but its heart is in the right place, which makes it hard to root against the film.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Woody Harrelson is Marcus, a minor league assistant basketball coach who lost his shot at the big time and is now toiling in Des Moines, Iowa. After an altercation with his head coach, and a drunk driving arrest he’s fired from the team and ordered to do community service by coaching a rec center team full of players with intellectual disabilities played by real actors with intellectual disabilities, some of whom are part of the well regarded national “Best Buddies” program.

“Champions” opens everywhere on March 10th. Featuring Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olsen, Ernie Hudson, Kevin Iannucci and Cheech Marin. Screenplay adapted by Mark Rizzo.

Bobby Farelly’s been out of the feature game for almost ten years. After a lucrative 20-year career writing, directing, and producing together, brothers Bobby and Peter Farrelly split cinematic ways in 2014. They kept working together in TV, but where Bobby took a break, Peter doubled down, debuting a solo career with Green Book and amassing Oscars and jeers alike. Now it’s Bobby’s turn, and unfortunately he is not amassing Oscars.

Champions opens on a spiraling Marcus Marakovich (Woody Harrelson)––local hothead drunk and soon-to-be-canned assistant coach of the NBA G-league Iowa Stallions––in the final seconds of a nailbiter. A brash, sickeningly self-assured disagreement on strategy with the head coach (Ernie Hudson) quickly turns into a physical altercation that loses Marcus his job, leads him to a DUI, and lands him in court. In place of a harsher sentence the judge graciously offers Markus the chance to...

(L to R) Kevin Iannucci as Johnathan, Kaitlin Olson as Alex, James Day Keith as Benny, Madison Tevlin as Cosentino, Cheech Marin as Julio, and Woody Harrelson as Marcus in director Bobby Farrelly’s Champions, a Focus Features release. Credit : Shauna Townley/Focus Features

Woody Harrelson stars as a former pro basketball coach court-ordered to coach a Special Olympics team with intellectual disabilities, in director Bobby Farrelly’s Champions. With such a premise, one might worry the film could go one of two ways: offensive or cloyingly sentimental. Bobby Farrelly brings enough signature Farrelly brothers humor to Champions to make it a funny, if slightly raunchy, comedy and while it avoids the first issue, it does lean to the sentimental although it dodges the cloying part. The result is a more entertaining film than one might expect, largely due to the appealing cast of actors with disabilities, although it...

One day, Hollywood will finally realise that marginalised people deserve to be at the centre of their own stories. Until then, we’ve got Champions – the latest film in which a bigot is patiently taught not to be a bigot by the very targets of his ignorance, while we’re all expected to stand up and applaud his bravery. It’s a sports comedy, directed by Bobby Farrelly, in which Woody Harrelson’s disgraced basketball coach Marcus is charged with community service after a drunk driving incident. For the next 90 days, he’ll head up a local team of intellectually disabled adults, with an eye to helping them land a spot at the Special Olympics.

With his brother Peter, Farrelly spent the 1990s and early 2000s making occasionally funny, largely offensive comedies like There’s Something About Mary (1998) and Me, Myself & Irene (2000). Champions, Bobby’s first solo project, exists at...

Champions Review — Champions (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Bobby Farrelly, written by Mark Rizzo, Javier Fesser and David Marques and starring Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Matt Cook, Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin, Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, James Day Keith, Alex Hintz, Casey [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Champions (2023): Woody Harrelson is Fun to Watch in Bobby Farrelly’s Winning Basketball Comedy...

Based on the 2018 Spanish film of the same name, the American version of Champions is less powerful because it doesn’t take its cues from the real-life team that inspired the original film. Still, Champions manages to have just enough feel-good moments and good character dynamics to be enjoyable. Directed by Bobby Farrelly from a screenplay by Mark Rizzo, the film gets off to a slow start but picks up steam at the halfway point, landing at a sweet and heartwarming end. Champions is fairly predictable, and though there’s little tension, the cast is charming together, and the story has a lot of heart and warmth.

Marcus (Woody Harrelson) is a G-league assistant basketball coach with dreams to work with the NBA, but whose bad temper and past actions have tarnished his reputation. After a drunk-driving accident lands him in legal trouble, Marcus is given court-ordered community service...

Does “Champions” have its heart in the right place? That question, with regards to Bobby Farrelly’s latest starring Woody Harrelson, is honestly harder to answer than one might think. The film, directed by Farrelly and written by Mark Rizzo (who adapted it from the 2018 Spanish feature “Campeones”), casts Harrelson as a troublemaking basketball coach who, after a DUI gets sentenced to 90 days of community service helping a team of young adults with intellectual disabilities.

On one hand, Farrelly has made an earnest attempt at a feel-good comedy, complete with its share of moments meant to tear-jerk about an underdog team subverting prejudice. On the other, it operates from a place of ignorance that assumes its audience will laugh at that ignorance and recognize it in themselves. “Champions” makes jokes about the r-word being a “no no word,” but it also seems a little too eager to use that word itself,...

While Peter Farrelly was off winning Oscars for “Green Book,” younger brother Bobby has been largely absent from feature directing. It’s been nearly a decade since the siblings shared credit — the last time being 2014’s “Dumb and Dumber To.” Now, rather than competing with Peter at the respectability game, Bobby sticks to what he knows with “Champions,” in which Woody Harrelson plays a minor-league basketball coach court-ordered to assist a Special Olympics team for 90 days — just long enough to take the team from bumbling incompetents to national finalists.

There are zero surprises in “Champions,” unless you count the not-inconsiderable shock that such a movie exists at all. A remake of 2018 Spanish box office sensation “Campeones,” this awkward (if presumably well-intentioned) comedy might have felt enlightened 25 years ago — back when “Forrest Gump” was an Oscar favorite — but today makes for a patronizing portrayal of people with intellectual disabilities. That’s...

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. An irascible, down-on-his-luck coach is reluctantly put in charge of a ragtag team of misfits who can barely play the game. Although he can hardly disguise his initial disgust, the players’ enthusiastic attitudes and general lovability soften him up until he becomes not just their coach but also their most ardent cheerleader. In the process, he becomes a better person.

That’s the Bad News Bears-style template for the latest cinematic variation on the subject, starring Woody Harrelson in a role he was seemingly born to play. You don’t need to have seen the 2018 Spanish hit comedy Campeones, which won multiple Goya Awards including Best Film, to think that its American remake, Champions, feels overly familiar. But that doesn’t make this sure-to-be crowd-pleaser any less winning, especially with the endlessly likable Harrelson at its center.

In this case, the...

Woody Harrelson steps onto the court once again in the heartfelt sports comedy “Champions.” Directed by Bobby Farrelly, the remake of the 2018 Spanish film “Campeones” sees Harrelson as Marcus, a former minor-league basketball coach who leads a team of intellectually disabled players called the Friends.

“It’s really hard to make an authentically funny and emotionally vulnerable film, and I thought they did such a wonderful job,” Kaitlin Olson, who plays Alex in the movie, told Variety Monday night at the New York premiere of “Champions.” “I met all the Friends and they’re such an incredible cast. They all showed up ready to play, and we just had the most amazing time.”

After watching hundreds of auditions during an open casting call across the U.S. and Canada, the production team found the ideal Friends: Kevin Iannucci, Joshua Felder, Madison Tevlin, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair,...

Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin, and Matt Cook star in the upcoming comedy Champions.

Woody Harrelson stars in the hilarious and heartwarming story of a former minor-league basketball coach who, after a series of missteps, is ordered by the court to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities. He soon realizes that despite his doubts, together, this team can go further than they ever imagined.

Directed by Bobby Farrelly, Focus Features will release Champions in theaters nationwide on Friday, March 10th.

https://www.focusfeatures.com/champions/

Advance Screening is Wed, March 8, 7pm at Marcus Ronnie’s 20 Cine.

The screening will be filled on a first come first served basis, so we encourage you to arrive early. Seats will not be guaranteed. Rated PG-13.

Enter at the link below.

Sweepstakes Link:

http://focusfeaturesscreenings.com/main/sweepstakes/Jlrnh52172

(L to R) Kevin Iannucci as Johnathan, Kaitlin Olson as Alex,...

Champions Trailer — Bobby Farrelly‘s Champions (2023) movie trailer has been released by Focus Features. The Champions trailer stars Woody Harrelson, Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin, Matt Cook, Kaitlin Olson, Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, and Matthew Von Der Ahe. Crew Mark Rizzo wrote the screenplay for Champions. “Produced by Paul Brooks, Scott Niemeyer, [...]

Continue reading: Champions (2023) Movie Trailer: Coach Woody Harrelson is court-ordered to Mentor a Unique Team of Players...

"You don't have to turn them into the Lakers. They just need to feel like a team." Hey, another cheesy feel good movie for everyone to enjoy! Focus Features has revealed an official trailer for an indie comedy called Champions, an English-language US remake of the Spanish comedy also called Champions (from 2018). A former minor-league basketball coach receives a court order to take over a team of players with intellectual disabilities. Despite his doubts, he soon realizes that together they can go further than ever imagined. This sounds like the plot of Mighty Ducks, but with an extra twist with his young players. Woody Harrelson stars in this as Coach Marcus, along with Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin, Matt Cook, Kaitlin Olson, Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, and Matthew Von Der Ahe. This looks like something fun and uplifting, though also seems easy to forget as soon as it's over.

Exclusive: Peter Gadiot (Queen of the South) and Kim Matula (LA to Vegas) are set as series regulars opposite Ben Rappaport and Alexandra Chando in NBC’s untitled drama pilot based on the award-winning Dutch series Adam & Eva. The pilot is written by The Village creator Mike Daniels and will be directed by Stephanie Laing.

The project, described as a funny and heartfelt drama, chronicles the epic love and lives of two complete strangers, Adam (Rappaport) and Eva (Chando), whose multiple run-ins begin to defy coincidence, leading both to believe in fate. The show breaks the mold by pairing a serialized, stand-up-and-cheer romantic comedy with the wildly diverse and often unexpected human stories of anyone who finds themselves six degrees from Adam and Eva.

Gadiot will play Felix, an ambitious fine art and fashion photographer whose depth and talent are an irresistible draw for Eva. Matula portrays Monica, a Midwestern...

Exclusive: Kevin Iannucci (The Best Of Enemies) and Bethany Brown (Charmed) are set as series regulars opposite Ben Rappaport and Alexandra Chando in NBC’s untitled drama pilot based on the award-winning Dutch series Adam & Eva. The pilot is written by The Village creator Mike Daniels and will be directed by Stephanie Laing.

The project, described as a funny and heartfelt drama, chronicles the epic love and lives of two complete strangers, Adam (Rappaport) and Eva (Chando), whose multiple run-ins begin to defy coincidence, leading both to believe in fate. The show breaks the mold by pairing a serialized, stand-up-and-cheer romantic comedy with the wildly diverse and often unexpected human stories of anyone who finds themselves six degrees from Adam and Eva.

Iannucci will play Derek, Adam’s new co-worker, a damn-the-torpedoes truth-teller on a quest to find love.

Brown will portray Neela, Eva’s former art school buddy, current roommate and ride-or-die best friend.

Exclusive: Ernie Hudson is the final addition to the cast of Champions, the recently-wrapped Special Olympics film that Bobby Farrelly directed for Focus Features and Gold Circle Entertainment.

He’ll star alongside the previously announced Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Cheech Marin and Matt Cook. Actors with intellectual disabilities rounding out the cast to ensure authenticity in the storytelling include Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, James Day Keith, Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens and Champ Pederson.

Champions is based on the Goya Award winning Spanish film Campeones, which Universal Pictures International released in 2018. It centers on a stubborn and hotheaded minor league basketball coach who is forced to coach a Special Olympics team when he is sentenced to community service.

Mark Rizzo wrote the script. Paul Brooks, Scott Niemeyer and Jeremy Plager produced,...

Focus Features and Gold Circle have partnered on Bobby Farrelly’s next feature “Champions,” both companies announced on Monday. Production of the film recently wrapped.

“Champions” is centered around a stubborn and hotheaded minor league basketball coach who is sentenced to community service and forced to coach a Special Olympics team. The film is based on the Goya Award winning Spanish film “Campeones” from 2018, which was released by Universal Pictures International.

The film stars Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Cheech Marin and Matt Cook. Also of note, the film is rounded out by a cast of more than 10 actors with intellectual disabilities who authentically tell the story, including Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, James Day Keith, Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens, and Champ Pederson.

“Champions” was directed by Farrelly and written by Mark Rizzo. The film’s producers are Paul Brooks,...

Exclusive: Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Woody Harrelson, Emmy nominee Kaitlin Olson, Grammy nominee Cheech Marin and Matt Cook will lead Champions, a recently-wrapped film that Bobby Farrelly directed for Focus Features and Gold Circle Entertainment.

Champions is based on the Goya Award winning Spanish film Campeones, which Universal Pictures International released in 2018. It centers on a stubborn and hotheaded minor league basketball coach who is forced to coach a Special Olympics team when he is sentenced to community service. Actors with intellectual disabilities rounding out the cast to ensure authenticity in the storytelling include Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, James Day Keith, Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens and Champ Pederson.