Boxing on the big screen: Why does cinema love the sport?

This year is the 50th anniversary of the release of arguably the most famous boxing film of all time: Rocky, the movie that made a star of Sylvester Stallone, and went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. But boxing had been a cinematic staple for decades before that, and remains a frequent subject of films to this day. In the past three years, there have been cinematic biopics of George Foreman, Claressa Shields, Willie Pep, Prince Naseem Hamed and Christy Martin, while the Rocky franchise has been rebooted and revitalised by Michael B Jordan’s Creed films.

Boxing's also proved a huge draw for some of cinema's biggest names, with actors like Errol Flynn, Robert de Niro, Denzel Washington and Sydney Sweeney all donning the gloves on screen, while Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick and Ryan Coogler have all put their own spins on the sport.

Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka is an associate professor at University College London, and the curator of a new season at the British Film Institute entitled The Cinematic Life of Boxing, which features films and documentaries about boxing from the 1940s through to the present day. He tells John Bennett what it is about boxing that fascinates film-makers and why the Rocky franchise changed how boxing films were made.

Kali Reis has held world titles at both super-lightweight and middleweight since making her professional debut in 2008 - but in recent years, she's also become a highly acclaimed actor, taking the lead role in the thriller Catch The Fair One, before being nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role in HBO's True Detective: Night Country, where she starred alongside Jodie Foster. She explains the similarities between the boxing ring and performance in front of the camera.

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