A new documentary promising an unfiltered look inside the 37th America's Cup will premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 11 September 2026.
Called SAIL, it covers the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup, held in Barcelona, and is billed as the definitive real-life account of that regatta. It's the first behind-the-scenes documentary of a contemporary America's Cup campaign, with producers granted unfettered access to the teams, key sailors, team principals and support crews right through the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Selection Series to the Match against the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand.
The on-water footage is the real drawcard. Shot with IMAX-certified digital cameras from onboard the boats and from within the fleet, the film puts viewers in the cockpit of the fastest class of sailing yacht ever built, AC75s engineered with Formula 1 technology and capable of speeds beyond 100 km/h. Never-seen-before angles captured by the America's Cup broadcast team add to the sense of pressure the sailors were racing under.
But it's not just a highlights reel of boat speed.
The film leans into the human cost. It examines the ambition and obsession that drive competitors chasing the world's oldest, continually contested sporting trophy, and the emotional toll that pursuit takes on both sailors and their families. The America's Cup's all-in, no-compromise nature, where there is famously "no second," runs through the whole piece.
Rivalries, in-house funding battles, disappointing form and the endless chase for more speed in the AC75s are all covered. So too are the personal relationships built and broken over years of campaigning.
Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand and Defender of the Cup, features prominently. The build-up to the battle with Sir Ben Ainslie and INEOS Group chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who backed INEOS Britannia's campaign, is one of the more compelling threads. The film gets past the media profiles of each man to capture rarely seen moments of anxiety, angst and anger.
Max Sirena, CEO of Luna Rossa, is heavily profiled too, as the beaten Louis Vuitton Cup finalist, along with the devastation and desolation he personally felt once the event concluded.
Terry Hutchinson, CEO of American Magic, gets similar treatment. He poured everything into the campaign, often to the detriment of his family, only to be eliminated by Luna Rossa in the semi-finals.
Ernesto Bertarelli, a two-time America's Cup winner in 2003 and 2007, offers sage words throughout on what it takes to win the Cup, and how it feels to lose it.
Filmed over two years, SAIL was shot by a dedicated camera team tasked with capturing the real story behind the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup in Barcelona, on the water, off it, and behind the scenes. It's shaping up as essential viewing for Cup followers, but the human drama at its centre should carry it beyond the sailing audience too.
SAIL screens at the Venice Film Festival on 11 September 2026, with further film festival appearances to follow ahead of wider distribution.
