ESPN Films’ Award-winning documentary O.J.: Made in America to make its TV debut.
Orenthal James Simpson had the juice in 2016. American Crime Story focused an all-star cast on their intense premiere season. Ezra Edelman directed the year’s “most acclaimed and honored documentary,” O.J.: Made in America. ESPN Films and VICE Media announced that Viceland will air the film on January 1, 2017, from 4 pm ET to midnight. The showing will have two intermissions.
O.J.: Made in America will return to theaters at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills starting on December 23rd and Cinema Village in New York City starting on December 30th.
“The ambitious documentary revisits and redefines the story of O.J. Simpson through the perspective of race, domestic violence, celebrity culture, police brutality and the racial history of Los Angeles,” reads the official synopsis.
Simpson was the first player in the NFL to rush for more than 2,000 yards in one season. After the last great trial of the century, Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. In 1997, Simpson paid $33.5 million in a wrongful death suit brought in civil court.
O.J.: Made in America compiles footage and interviews with longtime friends and colleagues of the infamous former running back.
The documentary originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and Hot Docs before opening theatrically last May. The film returned to theaters in the fall selling out shows at New York’s Metrograph and Los Angeles’ The Cinefamily, while also screening at several Alamo Drafthouses around the country and Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center.
ESPN Films has put together over 100 documentaries on some of the most fascinating stories in the wide world of sports. O.J.: Made in America won one of its many Peabody and Emmy Awards. O.J.: Made in America also won Best Documentary from the IDA Documentary Awards, Gotham Awards, New York Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review, Boston Society of Film Critics, Chicago Film Critics, Phoenix Critics Circle and the Las Vegas Film Critics.
Simpson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. O.J.: Made in America was nominated for Best Documentary from the PGA Awards and Film Independent Spirit Awards.
O.J.: Made in America is available on DVD.