Nike funded a feature-length sports documentary, seven years in the making, about three young French athletes training for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Paris. The film, “Crois Pas Qu’on Dort” (“Don’t Think We’re Sleeping” in English), will debut in theaters in France in January.
Pi Studios, part of Amsterdam-based agency We Are Pi, developed the film. The ambitious project involved shooting across 12 countries with a production team of more than 250 people.
A 90-second trailer introduces Charles-Antoine Kouakou, a runner with an intellectual disability who won a gold medal at the Tokyo Games and will compete in the 2024 Paralympics, and twin taekwondo athletes Maysane and Leyna Kamkasoumphou. It shows them training but also relaxing with family and friends over the course of five years.
“What’s beautiful is that over the seven years, we never had a wobble about the shared vision for what we set out to achieve with this project—a cinematic touchstone for a generation,” We Are Pi founder Alex Bennett-Grant told ADWEEK.
“The challenge was capturing athletes’ real life. The level of storytelling intimacy we aspired to capture doesn’t come easily. It requires deep levels of trust from families and coaches that takes years to build.”
Pi Studios began planning the project in 2017, when Paris was awarded the 2024 Games, and pitched it to Nike as a way to tell athlete stories over time rather than just in the moment of the competition. They began with extensive casting and test shoots to find their subjects from among 500 athletes.
“’Crois Pas Qu’on Dort’ was created with the aim of inviting a new generation of athletes in France into sport by inspiring them with the stories of our protagonists and the transformative power that sport had on their lives,” Bennett-Grant added.
Branded entertainment renaissance
This is not Nike’s first foray into feature filmmaking. In 2021, after launching internal content studio Waffle Iron Entertainment, it released documentary The Day Sports Stood Still, exploring the sports industry’s reaction to Covid-19 lockdowns, and docuseries Promiseland, about NBA star Ja Morant.
Other brands have since entered the entertainment game. Xbox won two Cannes Lions Grand Prix this year for its sports docuseries, “The Everyday Tactician.” And in July, Beats broke out of the traditional advertising mold with a seven-minute film borrowing from Hollywood blockbusters.
Nike, meanwhile, is in the midst of its largest Olympics campaign as it fights to reverse its brand decline. Its “Winning Isn’t for Everyone” ad celebrates the competitive spirit of elite athletes with a villainous monologue from Willem Dafoe.
