Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steve James
Written by	Frederick Marx Steve James
Produced by	Frederick Marx Steve James Peter Gilbert
Starring	William Gates Arthur Agee
Cinematography	Peter Gilbert
Edited by	Frederick Marx Steve James William Haugse
Music by	Ben Sidran
Production company	Kartemquin Films
Distributed by	Fine Line Features
Release date	October 14, 1994 (1994-10-14) (United States)
Running time	171 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$700,000[2]
Box office	$11.8 million

Hoop Dreams is a 1994 American documentary film directed by Steve James, and produced by Frederick Marx, James, and Peter Gilbert, with Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of two African-American high school students, William Gates and Arthur Agee, in Chicago and their dream of becoming professional basketball players.

Hoop Dreams was originally intended to be a 30-minute short film produced for PBS; the filming of the special led to five years of filming and 250 hours of footage. Hoop Dreams premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. It won numerous other awards in the 1994 season, although it was not nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, which led to a massive public outcry. Despite its length (171 minutes) and unlikely commercial genre, it received high critical and popular acclaim, and grossed over $11 million worldwide.

Hoop Dreams was ranked #1 on the Current TV special 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".