Set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Friday 11th September 2026, ‘SAIL’ - directed by Academy Award winners Frank Marshall and Evan Hayes with the support of Skydance Productions and the in-house broadcast team at the America’s Cup - is the definitive real-life documentary of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, held in Barcelona in 2024.
The film is the first behind-the-scenes documentary of a contemporary America’s Cup, where the producers were afforded unfettered access to the teams and to key sailors, team principals and support teams as they raced through the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Selection Series to the 37th Match against the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand.
Utilising onboard film footage and unique angles captured by the America’s Cup broadcast team, the action on the water is brought thrillingly to life with never-seen-before scenarios that resonate the pressure that the finest sailors in the world were under to perform. Shot with IMAX-certified digital cameras from onboard the boats and in the middle of the fleet, SAIL puts audiences in the cockpit of the fastest class of sailing yacht ever built, machines engineered with Formula 1 technology on the razor’s edge, reaching speeds in excess of 100 km/h. It is racing with a visceral, in-your-face immediacy never before brought to the sport.
What the film captures beautifully is the human investment, the ambition and the obsession in winning the world’s oldest, continually contested, sporting competition. It zeroes in on the emotional toll and extreme pressure that trying to win the Cup has, not only on the competitors, but their families too. The film perfectly encapsulates the no compromising, ‘all in’ nature of the America’s Cup where there can only be one winner and famously, ‘There is no Second.’
Featuring all the main characters of the modern-day America’s Cup, it’s a deep dive into their psychology of winning and campaigning with so much on the line. The film delves into the real personalities behind the media profiles of each and captures rarely seen moments of anxiety, angst and anger that fuels these ultimate competitors in both life and sport.
Filmed over two years, SAIL is a compelling documentary, beautifully capturing on-water, off-water and behind the scenes footage filmed by a dedicated camera team that were detailed to capture the ‘real’ story of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona. It is a must-watch for fans of the tournament but equally appeals to the wider sporting fan with an interest in the most cut-throat sporting entity on the planet.
SAIL is aired at the Venice Film Festival on September 11th 2026 and will be shown at other film festivals in due course ahead of wider distribution.
