Taika Waititi Scores Again At TIFF With ‘Next Goal Wins’ Premiere

Taika Waititi returned to TIFF tonight with his underdog soccer story about the American Samoa team, Next Goal Wins, which received great cheers and a heartfelt response.

Waititi took the stage with the pic’s real-life characters, Thomas Rogen, the Dutch coach played by Michael Fassbender in the film, and Jaiyah Saelua, the first openly non-binary and trans-woman to compete in a FIFA World Cup qualifier.

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The pic, directed and co-written by the Oscar winner, is inspired by 2014 documentary which follows the American Samoa soccer team, infamous for their brutal 31-0 loss to Australia in a 2001 World Cup qualifying match. With more qualifiers approaching, the ragtag squad hires down-on-his-luck, maverick Dutch-American coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) in the hope he will turn the world’s worst soccer team around.

“Normally you don’t see a sports film about winners who keep winning,” Waititi joked, “I couldn’t believe this was a true story.” More than that, it was an opportunity for the New Zealand Waititi to showcase Pacific Islanders on screen.

“As a kid growing up, there weren’t many opportunities to see yourself on screen,” he said.

“I never thought I’d make a sports film, especially about a sport I knew nothing about,” he added during the world premiere’s post Q&A at the Princess of Wales Theatre here in Toronto.

“I came away knowing less of the sport.”

Rongen vouched for his portrayal by Fassbender on-screen: Like the character, the coach’s daughter died shortly before his taking the job to oversee the American Samoa team, and he had “lost some jobs.”

Saelua talked about the life-changing event the win brought in 2011; how soon after “a platform” was created for her to launch a diversity program. Saelua now coaches the American Samoan Boys football team.

Next Goal Wins is a much different movie, an old fashioned, heartful sports movie, much like the ones from the 1980s and 1990s. Waititi also makes a cameo in the film as a Christian preacher.

The last time Waititi was here at TIFF in 2019 with the world premiere Jojo Rabbit, he earned a standing ovation, and the highly coveted Grolsch Audience Award, and went on to win an Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the Adolf Hitler satire. It would not be shocking if Next Goal Wins takes home the Audience Award once again for Waititi.

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