Stephen Curry attends the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, for the premiere of “Stephen Curry: Underrated” at Eccles Center Theater.
Scrawny. Skinny. Short … and weak. These are not the first terms that come to mind for a champion basketball player. And yet these are some of the words recruiters and commentators used to describe a young Stephen Curry, years before he became the best 3-point shooter in the history of basketball and helped transform the Golden State Warriors into an NBA dynasty.
Stephen Curry: Underrated, which chronicles the point guard’s dogged pursuit of shooting hoops professionally, opened the 66th annual San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) on Thursday. The documentary follows Curry’s journey from unlikely college basketball star to an NBA champion and most valuable player. The filmmakers, friends of Curry and fans of No. 30 gathered at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre for the screening, which premieres globally on Apple TV+ on Friday, July 21, and will screen at select theaters this summer.
Grand Lake Theatre’s marquee honors the Oakland premiere of the Stephen Curry documentary, “Underrated.”
The star of the documentary was unable to attend the event, as he was training for the Warriors’ upcoming playoff chase, but Curry did share a prerecorded message taped at the Warriors’ practice facility and shared with screening attendees.
“I hope that you enjoy this film about my journey,” Curry said. “Thanks for the love and thanks for showing up.”
Even with Curry absent, friends and fans were still ecstatic to celebrate the basketball player’s legacy—the screening was punctuated with cheers, clapping and roars of approval from the audience. Several were excited to see that the SFFILM opener was kicking off the longest-running film festival in the Americas in Oakland.
Erick Peyton, Ryan Coogler, Peter Nicks and Sean Havey attend the SFFILM festival screening of Apple Original Films and A24’s “Stephen Curry: Underrated” at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland.
“I’m so excited for Steph that this movie exists. I’m so excited for everybody to see his story,” said Jilchristina Vest, the visionary and curator of the Women of the Black Panther Party mural painted on her West Oakland home.
“It’s just all the accolades that are due,” said Vest, who is also a Golden State Warriors fan. “It’s accolades for Oakland that are due. It’s accolades for Steph Curry that are due.”
The SFFILM Festival continues through April 23.
