Personal Best

This rarely screened coming-of-age drama follows the tempestuous relationship between Mariel Hemingway’s college hurdler Chris and Patrice Donnelly’s Olympian pentathlete Tory, as they first become lovers and then competitors during the 1980 US Olympic trials. This tender, poetic film explores the dynamics of sporting alliances, the rigours of training, sexual fluidity, and what it means to compete. A clear influence on last year’s Challengers, Personal Best is presented in conjunction with Lost Reels, an organisation dedicated to showing lost, unavailable and out-of-circulation films.