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“Give Me The Ball!,” an upcoming ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, will open the third annual Croatia International Film Festival on July 24 in the coastal city of Sibenik.
Oscar nominee and Primetime Emmy winner Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff directed the doc about American tennis player Billie Jean King. The film, which includes interviews with King, her wife Ilana Kloss, tennis luminaries including Chris Evert, and King’s friend Elton John, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
The opening night screening of “Give Me The Ball!” at Sibenik’s Main City Square marks the film’s international debut.
“We are thrilled to bring Billie Jean King’s story to a global audience,” Garbus and Wolff told Variety in a joint statement. “We hope that the attendees watching the film are as wowed by us at Billie Jean’s story of being a selfless warrior who put everything on the line for her community.”
Created by Croatian American actress and producer Ella Mische, the inaugural CIFF took place in August 2024 and attracted 5,000 in-person visitors. Mische, who was part of the casting department on the 2022 Adam Sandler film “Hustle,” has worked in the entertainment industry for the last two decades, casting, directing, acting, and producing. She decided to launch CIFF during the writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023.
“During that time, I saw a lot of my friends become depressed,” Mische said. “With friends in New York and L.A., the topic of conversation was about how there was no work. I thought to myself, ‘Now is the time to create.’ I needed to figure something out.”
Alonso Ruizpalacios “La Cocina,” starring Rooney Mara opened the inaugural festival, while Bleecker Street’s “The Friend,” starring Bill Murray and Naomi Watts launched the second annual CIFF.
This year, Mische, along with 10 CIFF team members, received over 1,200 film submissions from around the world, representing the fest’s largest and most competitive selection pool to date. They narrowed the submissions down to 15 features, 16 shorts, and 14 student films.
Eight narrative features and seven documentary features, including John Alexander’s “Little Satchmo” and Diana Madison’s “No Place Like Home,” will screen during CIFF.
ESPN will send an introduction video from Billie Jean King for the opening of “Give Me The Ball!”
In his Sundance review of the film, Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman said, “What “Give Me the Ball!” shows you is that Billie Jean King turned what she wanted into a mission. That’s how she became so much more than a tennis superstar; she became a culture hero as important as Muhammad Ali. Almost singlehandedly, she planted the idea on the map that women, like men, should be paid for playing tennis (when she started, they were not), and also — radical notion! — that they should make the same amount of money that men did.”
Garbus and Wolff spent two years making the doc, which features never-before-seen personal archival from King and tennis fans around the world.
“We need people who have fought the hard fights and who have come through the other side, who have made sacrifices but feel enormous pride in that sacrifice,” the directors said. “We need people who are going to put the needs of their community before themselves. We are excited for those that know about Billie Jean King to see her through a new prism and for others to discover her incredible story for the first time.”
Pablo Aragues’s “Copeland,” a doc about the life and career of “The Police” drummer Stewart Copeland, will close the festival after a screening at the historic Fortress Barone, one of Šibenik’s most iconic cultural landmarks.
“It makes me happy that the need I saw in the market was recognized quicker than I ever could have dreamt of, my ‘trial festival’ has worked,” said Mische.
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