When you think of Sundance wheeling and dealing, you probably think of the bigger players on the indie circuit: the studio specialty divisions, the veteran boutique distributors, or the fledging mid-level newcomers driven by recent investments. But a cable sports channel? ESPN jumped into the game on Saturday by acquiring soccer doc Kicking It, according to indieWIRE.

ESPN is not getting into the theatrical distribution business, though. Instead, they will help the filmmakers to secure theatrical, DVD and other distribution while retaining, naturally enough, worldwide television rights.

Directed by Susan Koch, Kicking It focuses less on the sport and more on a group that uses soccer to help homeless people. First established in 2001, the competition for the Homeless World Cup now involves upwards of 20,000 homeless people playing street soccer. That number is winnowed down through competition to 500 players representing 48 countries. The doc profiles seven players from all over the world: Ireland, Kenya, Spain, USA, Afghanistan and Russia. I imagine we'll hear words like "inspirational' in descriptions of the film; how could it not be?

Koch is a veteran filmmaker and has directed documentaries throughout the world. (Full disclosure: One of the film's producers is Ted Leonsis, AOL executive. He also served as executive producer for Nanking, a doc that premiered at Sundance last year.) ESPN feels that Kicking It fits within their goals of reaching out to an international audience, according to the indieWIRE article. We'll keep an eye out for any forthcoming distribution deals for the film.

Early this afternoon, Tribeca and ESPN answered my prayers by announcing a multi-year collaboration, the result of which is The Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival, a "showcase for independent sports films," debuting at Tribeca in 2007. Woo hoo, sports and movies! At the same time! Could anything be better? I think not. Though no specific content details are yet available, the project will feature premieres of sports films (both narrative and documentary), online content, and a series of "community events" aimed at the huddled masses of film nerds who also dig sports.

Based on the sports content at last year's festival -- including Once in a Lifetime (aka hands-down Martha's favorite documentary of the year) and Freedom's Fury, a fascinating Cold War water polo (!) doc -- I have a lot of hope for this project. It's a great opportunity for those making sports films to be the focus at a festival for once, and hopefully will bring more quality to Tribeca as a whole. After all, it's not as if the sports films get a pass -- they have to be submitted just like everything else, and will be judged by the same standards. As long as there isn't a sports quota, the quality should be reasonably high. Fingers crossed.

• Capote - Truman Capote spent five years researching In Cold Blood - the book that would be his last - and sophomore director Bennett Miller's film is a telling and rather literate fly-on-the-wall dramatization of that time. The biggest appeal is Philip Seymour Hoffman's bravura Oscar-winning performance as the eccentric author, which he takes beyond mere affectation and into full-on obsession as Capote's research into the 1959 murders of a Kansas family consumes him in every way. It is nice to see professional seether Catherine Keener in another nice-gal role, here as Capote friend and soon-to-be To Kill A Mockingbird scribe (Nell) Harper Lee. Miller and writer Dan Futterman (adapting Gerald Clarke's book) do not quite commit to a direction for the story, and humanizing killer Perry Smith (a dependable Clifton Collins Jr.) is time unwisely spent, though Hoffman, who also produced, sees that we remember the film for other reasons.

The New York Cosmos were one of the best, most popular teams in the now-defunct North American Soccer League (NASL). Owned by Warner Brothers, the team could afford to bring in some of the world's greatest soccer players (among them Pele and German great, Franz Beckenbauer), albeit when they were generally past their prime. The story of the team - and the NASL in general - is a fascinating one to soccer dorks like myself, but the fact that a pair of major companies have actually acquired distribution rights to a Cosmos movie is sort of mind-blowing (in a very good way).

The movie, a GreenStreet Films/Passion Pictures production, is called Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos and, thanks to Miramax, it will be hitting American theaters this spring. And, as if that isn't already exciting enough (trust me, it's exciting), ESPN shares the rights with Miramax, and hopes to air the movie on its channels this summer, in concert with coverage of the World Cup.

Man. What with Green Street Hooligans, Goal!, and now this, it's starting to look like Americans might...like soccer. Could it really be?

Ok, this is just weird. In the New York Times (and, I assume, countless other papers) today, there's a full-page ad for Glory Road, which, if you believe the early, non-Dick Vitale reviews, is a pretty crappy "based-on-a-true-story" movie about the first college basketball team to start five black players. Crappy or not, advertising it is completely understandable - I've got no problem with that. What's so odd is that, between the poster image and the list of theaters in which the film will open, there appears this line: "Men's College Basketball on ESPN - Vanderbilt vs. Kentucky - Tuesday, January 10 @ 9pm/ET." Uh...what?

Ok - I know that Disney (which coproduced and is distributing the film) and ESPN share ownership, so it's in Disney's interest to push the channel. And yes, Kentucky (including starting guard Pat Riley, oddly enough) was the team of white guys that was beaten in the movie's big game - but who, having not yet seen the movie, would know that, or care? it's certainly not mentioned anywhere in the ad. Finally, and perhaps more importantly, how many people do you think are going to see the ad and actually think "Whoa, Vandy's on tonight? Sweet! I gotta watch that game!" Like, three? Maybe? I mean, what the hell is the point?