12 Mighty Orphans

During the Great Depression, a First World War veteran named Rusty Russell returns to the Texas orphanage where his mother left him as a child, hoping to find purpose by coaching its football team. The boys he takes on are small, barefoot and overlooked, and Russell channels their sense of abandonment into a determination to compete. His work with the squad, known as the Mighty Mites, carries them from obscurity toward the Texas state championships.

Ty Roberts directed the film, his first feature, ahead of You Gotta Believe in 2024, and wrote the screenplay with Lane Garrison and Kevin Meyer. Luke Wilson plays Russell, with Vinessa Shaw as his wife Juanita, Wayne Knight as Frank Wynn, Martin Sheen as Doc Hall, Jake Austin Walker as Hardy Brown and Scott Haze as Rodney Kidd, among a credited cast of 67. The picture runs 118 minutes and was released in June 2021.

Audience response has been warmer than critical response. On IMDb the film holds 6.9 out of 10 from around 9,900 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 7.2 from 258 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 5.9 from 85 reviews. It is an American production from Sony Pictures Classics, Greenbelt Films and Santa Rita Film Co., and it took about 4 million dollars worldwide.