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Doha, Nov 21 (Ians) Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal has sounded a battle cry ahead of his side’s debut in the 2022 World Cup finals later on Monday, saying he believes his team can lift the title that has always eluded them.

The Dutch were runners-up to Germany in 1974 and to Argentina in 1978. They were beaten by Andres Iniesta’s injury time goal for Spain in South Africa in 2010.

Van Gaal led the Dutch to third place in the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, with a team that included players such as Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie and Wesley Sneijder, but in his press conference ahead of Monday’s game against Senegal, the coach insisted his current side is better, reports Xinhua.

This Netherlands team is led by Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk and also includes Fc Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong and Bayern Munich’s Matthijs de Ligt.

“Van Dijk...

With the next world cup in Qatar fast approaching, Sony Pictures Television is distributing a landmark examination of the tournament that has been running for nearly 100 years, titled The Moment of Truth.

Sony label Whisper and Final Replay are producing in association with new sports streamer FIFA+ and the pair said the series will “examine the world’s favorite sport through the lens of human endeavor,” interviewing the likes of Andres Iniesta, Lothar Matthäus, Michael Owen and Japanese women’s captain Aya Miyama.

With access to the FIFA World Cup archives dating back to the first tournament in 1930 and behind-the-scenes contributions from superstars, fans, commentators and the world’s leading psychologists, each episode will examine the big headlines.

Sony is distributing worldwide and FIFA+ is providing archive rather than taking any rights.

“Sport generates and ignites emotion like no other – especially football. In Moment of Truth, we speak to those...

Ahead of this year’s FIFA World Cup, set to take place in Qatar in November, Whisper, Final Replay and Sony Pictures Television, in association with soccer-themed streaming platform FIFA+, are producing a 10-part docuseries about the history of the tournament titled “Moment Of Truth.”

The series will “examine the world’s favourite sport through the lens of human endeavour,” according to the official logline. “Why do we care so much about the game? What makes exceptional footballers tick? What lifts teams to greatness? What does it tell us about ourselves?”

The answer to those questions – and the themes around which the docuseries is built – are located in the words “absolution, cunning, genius, courage, inspiration, joy, art, passion, hope and wisdom.”

The series, which will look at both the men’s and women’s tournaments, will offer never-before-seen access to the FIFA World Cup archives dating back to the 1930s...

Antonio Banderas is set to host the 2021 Spanish Academy Goya Awards on Feb. 27 in Banderas’ hometown of Malaga. It is the actor’s first time hosting the awards, and he will share duties with María Casado, one of Spain’s most respected television journalists and president of the Television Academy.

Banderas, among Spain’s best-known cinematic exports for decades, has five Spanish Academy nominations and an Honorary Goya of his own. But it was only this year that the actor finally took home a trophy for his work in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory,” a performance which also won him best actor at Cannes and an Oscar nomination.

According to the Academy, there are plans to limit audience capacity and impose strict health and safety measures based on expert recommendations at the time the ceremony is held. Banderas’ production company Teatro Soho TV will help produce the ceremony which...

U.K.-based Red Arrow Studios International has finalized a pay-tv rights deal with HBO Nordic for Invercine & Wood and Story House Productions’ Canneseries selection “Dignity,” a political thriller originally broadcast by commissioning partners Mega in Chile and German digital platform Joyn, a streaming service run jointly by Discovery and German media giant ProSiebenSat.

The HBO deal sees the broadcaster take pay-tv and SVOD rights for much of Central and Eastern Europe, Iberia and the Nordics where the series will launch in markets including Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

Based on true events, half of “Dignity” unspools at the Chilean camp of post-wwii German cult Colonia Dignidad, headed by the harrowing Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi soldier who fled to rural Chile after the war. Decades later, under a new federal government, fictional Spanish-German bi-lingual prosecutor Leo Ramírez is sent to the colony, tasked...

Madrid — Spain’s premier soccer organization, La Liga, held a high-profile presentation in Madrid on Tuesday evening for a new anthem as part of its “Latidos del futuro” (Heartbeats of the Future) program, which will be used for years to come as a soundtrack at each of its fixtures and during league TV programming, similar to UEFA’s now-iconic Champions League anthem.

Tuesday evening’s event was held at the Fundación Francisco Giner de los Ríos in downtown Madrid, where stars from the world of Spanish soccer, TV and music braved 100 degree plus temperatures and an exceedingly-rare daytime-rainstorm to mingle with club representatives from across the country and international press. Popular Spanish TV presenter Roberto Leal Mc’d the day’s festivities.

Most of the league’s high-profile teams are in the middle of their offseason tours outside of Spain, but videos were played of Spanish national team and Barcelona...

To mark the release of Take the Ball, Pass the Ball , out now, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD.

Take the Ball, Pass the Ball is the definitive story of the greatest football team ever assembled. For four explosive years Pep Guardiola‘s Barça produced the greatest football in history, seducing fans around the world. In this exclusive, first-hand account of events between 2008 and 2012, the players themselves reveal the tension of the bitter Guardiola-Mourinho rivalry, the emotion of Abidal’s fight back from cancer to lift the European Cup and how Messi, the best footballer the world’s ever seen, was almost rejected by Barça as a 13-year-old.

Inspired by the book Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World by Graham Hunter, Take the Ball, Pass the Ball features exclusive interviews with Barça’s stellar cast of current and ex-players, including Lionel Messi,...

Rob Leane Jul 15, 2016

British crowdfunded films that sound brilliant, including a Ghostbusters documentary and loads of horror...

It's not easy to get an indie film made these days. Especially not through studios and traditional financial methods. That's why, all around the globe, crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter are becoming more and more popular among first-time/early career filmmakers.

We perused crowdfunding websites, and found loads of in-development British films that sound really interesting. Aiming to shed some light on these films that don't have the might of a major studio's marketing team behind them, here's our list of 25 upcoming British movies that have been crowdfunded, and could turn out to be brilliant...

Black Wolf

Harvey Eaton has been working in the advertising sector of filmmaking for years, and even directed legendary Spanish footballer Andrés Iniesta for a Powerade commercial once.

Black Wolf - a "short film about a woman terrorised by...

An Alternative Reality: The Football Manager Documentary - which saw its first screening in cinemas nationwide this week - is an hour and a half of anecdotes and musings on the long-running simulation series. It might not appeal so much to non-Football Manager fans - there are a fair few references non-players won't get - but those who've been playing the series for decades will find a lot to love in it.

After watching the film and listening to series director Miles Jacobson do a Q&A, we managed to pick up on seven nuggets you likely didn't know about Football Manager.

1. Football Manager nearly bagged Alex McLeish a superstar

Alex and his son Jon talk about one thing we did know before: the younger McLeish recommended a player he'd discovered on Football Manager to his dad, back when he was managing Glasgow Rangers. This dismissed recommendation of a teenager...

"Thank God that (Lionel) Messi exists", says legendary Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff at the end of the first trailer for Messi, Álex de la Iglesia's documentary/dramatization dedicated to the current Argentina national football squad and Fc Barcelona leader. The Spanish filmmaker behind The Day of the Beast, Perdita Durango and Witching and Bitching has gathered former and current football players, journalists, and people close to Lionel Messi, in order to discuss the career of one of the all-time greatest footballers. Aside of Cruyff, in the trailer we get to see César Luis Menotti, Andrés Iniesta, Gerard Piqué, Jorge Valdano (who also wrote the film), and Javier Mascherano, as well as some other people I don't recognize but that are closely-related to Messi.De la Iglesia also filmed...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Get ready to yell "Gooooooal." The FIFA World Cup is near. After four years of waiting, the global soccer competition returns, kicking off on June 12 in the host country of Brazil. By July 13, one nation will be able to call itself home to the best footballers in the world. There is still time to acquaint yourself with the finer points of the sport (helmets and touchdowns are so American football) before the World Cup's final match. Fans can use the official hashtags #WorldCup and #Brazil2014 to get updates on all the on-field action, and follow their home country's team -...

As the World Cup nears this summer, advertisers are taking full advantage of the hype by releasing ads months in advance. Nike is one of those companies, and they’ve recently unveiled their “Winner Stays” ad for Nike Football’s “Risk Everything” campaign. The epic four-minute video includes Football’s elite with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Gerard Piqué, Gonzalo Higuaín, Mario Götze, Eden Hazard, Thiago Silva, Andrea Pirlo, David Luiz, Andrés Iniesta, Thibaut Courtois, and U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard. But that’s not all: Other celebrities making cameos include Kobe Bryant, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Irina Shayk and even the Incredible Hulk. Created in the same spirit and their 2010 campaign “Write the Future,” the ad features stunning ball movement and some much welcomed comic relief. Watch the video below. Enjoy!

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The post Video of the Day: Nike Ad Featuring Cristiano Ronaldo,...

"In this game of winner stays, every touch of the ball proves that football will always belong to those who Risk Everything, even when it matters the most. Featuring: Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Gerard Piqué, Gonzalo Higuaín, Mario Götze, Eden Hazard, Thiago Silva, Andrea Pirlo, David Luiz, Andrés Iniesta, Thibaut Courtois, and Tim Howard." - Nike Football "Avengers: Age of Ultron" will bring the Marvel Universe's biggest heroes together again to face one of their biggest villains, with "Marvel's The Avengers" director Joss Whedon returning to write and direct the sequel."Marvel's The Avengers" was released in 2012 and went on to earn $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the third-largest grossing movie of all time. "Avengers: Age of Ultron" arrives in theaters May 1, 2015. Cast includes: Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, James...

Every four years we get a world cup and every four years Nike will go head to head with Adidas to see who can create the best advert ahead of one of the biggest commercial events in the world. Adidas have some catching up to do with this Nike advert which features multiple famous football players and one very famous Avengers. Wonder what the licence deal with Disney was to get Hulk in there?!

Anyway, enjoy the four minutes of this little beauty. Kudos Nike! (p.s. yes this post has pretty much nothing to do with movies but it’s darn cool!)

Featuring: Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Gerard Piqué, Gonzalo Higuaín, Mario Götze, Eden Hazard, Thiago Silva, Andrea Pirlo, David Luiz, Andrés Iniesta, Thibaut Courtois, and Tim Howard.

If you can’t remember what the 2010 commercial looked like, click here (Be warned, contains Rooney with epic beard!

The Sony Brand Ambassador Andrés Iniesta presented today in the Mobile World Congress 2014 a new The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cross-marketing TV spot, where he is joined by his Fc Barcelona Victor Valdés and their Real Madrid rival players Diego López and Alvaro Arbeloa in a super powered soccer battle to promote a new Sony cellphone and the upcoming blockbuster film. Check it out: The translated press release says: "We feel immense satisfaction to have been able to incorporate four national sporting heroes next to Spider-Man in the presentation of his new movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2. There is a natural association of qualities such as commitment, responsibility, generosity and sense of humor that could not go unnoticed and this point appears to reflect the partnership between the four football heroes with our friendly neighbor Spider-Man. The audience in Spain have shown over the years that Spider-Man is the country's most...

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is stepping up his chase for Derby’s highly-rated midfielder Will Hughes, according to the Mirror.

Rodgers sent his chief scout to watch the England U-21 international this week, and views him as the long-term successor to the legendary Steven Gerrard.

Hughes, 18, limped out of Tuesday night’s Championship encounter at Bolton due to a hip injury, but had already impressed in front of watching scouts by providing an assist in the 2-2 draw.

Liverpool have been tracking the teenager for some time now but will not make a formal offer until they feel the time – and price – is right.

However, they may have to fend off interest from Merseyside rivals Everton, who also sent a two-man delegation to watch the starlet in action this week.

Hughes is considered one of the game’s most promising up-and-coming stars and recently said he models his game on...

Nike is well-known for doing beautiful commercials directed by some of the biggest filmmakers of yesterday, today and tomorrow. (See examples one, two, three.) The company’s latest spot is right up there with the great ones. Directed by talented filmmaker Patrick Boivin, it stars Spanish soccer star Andrés Iniesta as a marionette. The whole thing is done in stop-motion and [...]...