The winner of last year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary, Undefeated, tells the story of Bill Courtney and his rag tag group of footballers at Manassas High School in North Memphis, Tennessee and their struggles to come together to complete a winning season. While watching Undefeated I was reminded constantly of my personal favorite documentary, Hoop Dreams, and after finishing this, I believe that this is the best sports documentary I’ve seen since. Like Hoop Dreams, Undefeated is about so much more than just a sport. While the film deals a lot with football, the team and their games; it’s the personal stories of the young men and their struggles that really take ahold of you.

Bill Courtney is in his late 30’s and owns a company who deals with supplying hardwood. He has kids and a loving wife. Because he loves coaching football so much, he does it for free at Manassas High. The team Bill coaches is made up of all African Americans, he is white. I kept watching the film waiting for a race problem to come into play, but surprisingly it didn’t. Instead, the relationship of Bill and his players comes down to respect.

In the history of Manassas, the football program has not won a single playoff game since the late 1800’s, so their goal is to win just one. The documentary follows Bill and the team over the course of a single season through their ups and downs. Bill routinely takes time out of his busy schedule to get these kids to come together to play with each other. He misses so much of his own kids’ activities that he begins to wonder why he does what he does. When he was a kid, his father was never around for his games either. He’s starting to become like his father and that worries him.

His dedication to the team is astonishing. One scene in the film stands out as two kids start to fight with each other at a team meeting because one of them sat too close to the other. One of them walks out and goes home. Bill leaves the team meeting and follows the kid home to tell him what he did was not right and disrespectful to the others. In another scene, he gets a wealthy friend of his to take in a different player who is struggling with academics, so he can be better tutored. The player stays with the family for most of the week and then goes back to his grandma’s on the weekend.

Undefeated wisely sidesteps most of the on-field drama and shoots for more of the human element of the story. These kids are not fighting to win football games so much as there are at trying to have a chance at a better life. The best scene of the film is near the end of the film, when a very wealthy family has come to Bill and tells him that a certain player has caught their heart. They have never met the boy personally or seen him play, they only know his story, but yet they agreed to pay for his college for as long as he needs it. No questions asked.

While the film maybe could’ve concentrated a little more on the stories of some of these young men, it’s never the less an inspiring story of fighting in the face of adversity. The film never acknowledges the matter of race. So it becomes tale about the internal struggle of the human spirit and the will to help others. Undefeated is a phenomenally endearing story about struggle and sacrifice of one man’s mission to make a difference.

While Hugo started off the 84th Annual Academy Awards strong but The Artist made come back later in the night. At the beginning of the award show Hugo piled on the wins in most of the technical awards such as Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Art Direction. With the momentum it built early on, it sort of makes sense that it won the Best Cinematography award (although I thought The Tree of Life should have won).

As the night progressed and some of the bigger categories were announced is when The Artist came into the spotlight. The Artist won the top award of Best Picture as well as the prestigious Best Director award. The film received another large award when Jean Dujardin won for Best Actor. It also won for Best Score and Best Costume Design.

Thankfully, there were some upsets throughout the night to keep things interesting in what many thought to be a fairly predictable year. Arguably the biggest upset was when Meryl Streep’s name got called for Best Actress as many, myself included, expected Viola Davis to win. The people from Undefeated accepting the award for Best Documentary even sounded surprised they won that category. Most of the time Best Film Editing winner goes to win Best Picture but The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo won it instead and it was their only one of the night.

The full list of Oscar winners:
(The winners are highlighted in bold red font)

The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Alexander Payne – The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Woody Allen – Midnight In Paris
Terrence Malick – The Tree Of Life

Demian Bichir – A Better Life
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
George Clooney – The Descendants
Brad Pitt – Moneyball
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis – The Help
Rooney Mara – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn

Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Nick Nolte – Warrior
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Max Von Sydow – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer – The Help

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Kristin Wiig & Annie Mumulo – Bridesmaids
J.C. Chandor – Margin Call
Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
Asghar Farhadi – A Separation

Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne – The Descendants
John Logan – Hugo
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon – The Ides Of March
Steve Zaillian & Aaron Sorkin – Moneyball
Peter Straughan & Bridget O’Connor – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

A Separation
Bullhead
Footnote
In Darkness
Monsieur Lazhar

A Cat In Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss In Boots
Rango

Hell And Back Again
If A Tree Falls; A Story Of The Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated

Guillaume Shiffman – The Artist
Jeff Cronenweth – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Robert Richardson – Hugo
Emmanuel Lubezki – The Tree of Life
Janusz Kaminski – War Horse

Anne-Sophie Bion & Michel Hazavanicius – The Artist
Kevin Tent – The Descendants
Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Thelma Schoonmaker – Hugo
Christopher Tellefsen – Moneyball

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
War Horse

Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2
The Iron Lady

Ludovic Bource – The Artist
Alberto Iglesias – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Howard Shore – Hugo
John Williams – The Adventures Of Tintin
John Williams – War Horse

“Man Or Muppet” – The Muppets
“Real In Rio” – Rio

Drive
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon
War Horse

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: The Dark of The Moon
War Horse

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: The Dark of the Moon

The Barber Of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God Is The Bigger Elvis
Incident In New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami & The Cherry Blossom

Dimanche
The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic