Best Competition Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of competition cinema — measured across 1,107 indexed frames from 13 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Competition films over-index on mirror, table lamp and microphone — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
The Hustle (2019)
Chris AddisonDP Michael CoulterIMDb 5.5TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
In this remake of 1988's "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," 2 con-women hustle in a small French Riviera town - one for small amounts from average men, and one for higher amounts wealthier men. They bet on what looks like an easy target. Winner gets $500K from him, and the loser leaves town forever.
- 2
No Reservations (2007)
Scott HicksDP Stuart DryburghIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →
A master chef, Kate, lives her life like she runs the kitchen at upscale 22 Bleecker Restaurant in Manhattan--with a no-nonsense intensity that both captivates and intimidates everyone around her. With breathtaking precision, she powers through each hectic shift, coordinating hundreds of meals, preparing delicate sauces, seasoning and simmering each dish to absolute perfection.
- 3
Pitch Perfect (2012)
Jason MooreDP Julio MacatIMDb 7.1TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →
The Barden Bellas are a collegiate, all-girls a cappella singing group thriving on female pop songs and their perfect looks. After a disastrous failing at last year's finals, they are forced to regroup. Among the new recruits is freshman Beca, an independent, aspiring DJ with no interest in the college life. But after she meets Jesse, from the rival all-male a cappella group, Beca has a new outlook and takes it upon herself to help the Bellas find their new look and sound and get back into the competition.
- 4
I, Tonya (2017)
Craig GillespieDP Nicolas KarakatsanisIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →
From the proverbial wrong side of the tracks in Portland, Oregon, former competitive figure skater Tonya Harding was never fully accepted in the figure skating community for not inherently being the image of grace, breeding and privilege that the community wanted to portray, despite she being naturally gifted in the sport athletically. Despite ultimately garnering some success in figure skating being national champion, a world championship medalist, an Olympian, and being the first American woman to complete a Triple Axel in competition, she is arguably best known for her association to "the incident": the leg bashing on January 6, 1994 of her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, who, unlike Tonya, was everything that the figure-skating community wanted in their representatives. Her association to that incident led to Tonya being banned from competitive figure skating for life. Tonya's story from the beginning of her figure-skating life at age four to the aftermath of the incident is presented. Besides Tonya herself, key people in her life give their perspective of their role in her life. Although they may agree on the broad issues at hand, such as that the incident did occur, they may vary widely in their recollection of the details. These people are: her waitress mother Lavona Golden, who despite having paid for her expensive figure-skating lessons, was abusive toward her physically and emotionally, never believing she being good enough in any aspect of the word, and who pulled her from school to focus solely on the figure skating; Diane Rawlinson, her first and longest serving coach, who, for good or bad, largely let Tonya be Tonya in the way she presented herself to the figure skating world; Jeff Gillooly, her first husband, the two who also had a turbulent relationship on a need to be loved perhaps without truly loving the other; Jeff's friend and Tonya's bodyguard Shawn Eckardt, a dim bulb who believed himself to be a bigger player in the big scheme of life than he actually was; and sports journalist Martin Maddox, a fictional character who provides general commentary of what the sports media as a collective wanted out of Tonya and the incident.
- 5
Zhang YimouDP Lun YangIMDb 8.1TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →
China in the 1920's. After her father's death, nineteen year old Songlian is forced to marry Chen Zuoqian, the lord of a powerful family. Fifty year old Chen has already three wives, each of them living in separate houses within the great castle. The competition between the wives is tough, as their master's attention carries power, status and privilege. Each night Chen must decide with which wife to spend the night and a red lantern is lit in front of the house of his choice. And each wife schemes and plots to make sure it's hers. However, things get out of hand...
- 6
Black Swan (2010)
Darren AronofskyDP Matthew LibatiqueIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →
Natalie Portmanas Nina Sayers / The Swan Queen
Mila Kunisas Lily / The Black Swan
Vincent Casselas Thomas Leroy / The Gentleman
Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica (Hershey) who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.
- 7
The Internship (2013)
Shawn LevyDP Jonathan BrownIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are salesmen whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital world. Trying to prove they are not obsolete, they defy the odds by talking their way into a coveted internship at Google, along with a battalion of brilliant college students. But, gaining entrance to this utopia is only half the battle. Now they must compete with a group of the nation's most elite, tech-savvy geniuses to prove that necessity really is the mother of re-invention.
- 8
The Prestige (2006)
Christopher NolanDP Wally PfisterIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.2See in full on FrameThrower →
Set in London in the 1800s, two rival magicians read each others diary containing the secrets of their magic tricks and personal life. As we go back in time when the diaries were written, both magicians become obsessed with their rival's best trick. The tricks, as shown to the audience, look the same, but neither magician can figure out how his opponent does it.
What competition films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a competition frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — mirror is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- mirror2.2×
- table lamp2.2×
- microphone2.0×
- blazer1.7×
- girl1.6×
- bed1.6×
How competition films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate competition from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 28%high keyvs 12% baseline
- 11%interior indeterminatevs 7% baseline
- 30%low keyvs 39% baseline
- 16%closeupvs 21% baseline
- 89%eye levelvs 69% baseline
What breaks the pattern
The Big Blue (1988) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,107 frames from 13 films carrying the competition label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/competition
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